Longleaf Farmers’ Market Guidelines and Application

2009-2010 Season

Market Philosophy:

The Longleaf Farmers’s Market intends to be a food focused, community happening. We consider vendors part of that community and our obligation is to help grow your business as well as providing a strong community event. We’re big fans of food, especially fruits & vegetables, and sharing that with friends.

Schedule:

The Longleaf Farmers’ Market is every Thursday afternoon from 3-6 p.m, from October 23 through the end of May. Sometimes we may have additional market days to support and take advantage of other community events. Saturday, November 1^st, will be one such day. That additional market day will have no charge for vendors pre-paid for the next market. No markets are scheduled for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

Location:

We’re located on the corner of Starkey Blvd. and Town Ave. in Longleaf, one block north of SR 54 and 6 miles west of the Suncoast Parkway.

Market Management:

The market managers have sole discretion about vendor selection and have the authority to remove vendors from the market.

Once a vendor has been approved, any additional products must be submitted in writing to the market manager. We’ll be reasonable and we ask that you are, too. For instance, a produce vendor cannot just start displaying macramé plant holders without telling market management in writing.

Market Managers – Rose, Market on Main, (727)808-2440, longleafmarket@gmail.com

Vendor Requirements:

All vendors are required to maintain and display appropriate licenses and pay applicable sales taxes. If you have a question about what licenses and taxes you may be subject to, ask market management. Note: vendors that only sell fruits and vegetables in their natural state with no processing do not require a license and do not pay sales taxes.

Vendors must have pre-approved tents (with weights) and tables. A limited number of tents and tables are available for rent if reserved ahead of time. Not all tents are appropriate for market use and market management retains the right to require vendors to provide or rent appropriate tents.

Vendors are expected to arrive by 2:30 and stay until the close of market at 6 pm, even if they sell out of their items.

Vendors are expected to treat the market community with respect.

Fees:

Market spaces are $25 for new vendors, paid one week in advance. Four weeks paid in advance are $85 and the weeks need not be used consecutively. Returning vendors from previous seasons may be eligible for discounts.

A limited number of tents and tables are available for rent. We strongly suggest that you make a reservation since these may already be allocated by market day.

All fees are non-refundable but may be applied to future dates if market management is notified four days before the market of any changes, ie: Monday before a Thursday market.

Space Assignments and Reservations:

The market managers make space assignments based on product type, seniority and consistency. If you have a specific request (ie: we’re allergic to peanuts, can we be next to the juice guys instead?), we’ll try to accommodate that within reason, as conditions permit.

Vendor Benefits:

Helping our vendors be more successful builds a strong market community. To that end we highlight our vendors as aggressively as is reasonable on our website, promotional literature and press releases.

Vendors providing a selection of their goods or any specials will be included in the markets’ email every Tuesday. We encourage our patrons to “order ahead” for specials and limited quantity items.

After four paid weeks, vendors are eligible to participate in our website hosting, where their website can be hosted as a sub-domain of the market website, ie: tastystuff.longleafmarket.com. After an additional four paid weeks we will register a private domain in the vendor’s name, ie: tastystuff.com, at no additional charge. The domains are the vendor’s to use or transfer even if they stop participating in the market.

Application Process:

Simply submit a note according to the guidelines at the end of this document. The market manager will try to notify you within three days. The application is “open-ended” so you can provide some unique input on why you would be a nice addition to the market community.

Trial days and wait lists:

It might be necessary to see how products fit in the market by giving conditional approval for sale on only one market day. Alternatively, we may have too many products of a particular type and a vendor may need to be on a “wait list” until a spot becomes available.

Product & Service Types:

Since the Longleaf Farmer’s Market’s focus is food & community, we want to promote vendors along those lines. The general areas are listed below with some specifics.

Produce

• We’re always interested in locally grown produce and farmer’s have the highest priority.
  
• The Tampa Bay area has some of the most vibrant produce distribution and production in the country and we welcome resellers of a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, and other fresh items. Please contact the market manager with the product mix you would like
• Even from the smallest gardens and the smallest gardeners, we’re interested. Market managers will do what we can to match up someone with out of control basil to someone else with overabundant tomatoes. This can be especially helpful with surplus citrus, avocados, cut flowers, etc… We encourage small gardeners to share a tent space.

Food Products

• Breaking bread together offers a great sense of community and we want to give people of choice of items to eat at the market and take home. We intend to have some picnic facilities available for those who want to grab a bite and enjoy the market atmosphere. Depending on whether food is prepared on site or ahead of time, vendors will need to follow the guidelines and be licensed by either the Florida Dept. of Agriculture or the Dept. of Business and Professional Regulation, Hotel & Restaurant Division. If you have questions, contact the market managers and we’ll try to point you in the right direction.

Plants & Landscaping

• Even if you can’t eat all of them, we’re still fans of plants. Local growers are preferred but we also welcome resellers of landscaping and cut flowers.

Crafts

• Craft vendors are accepted on a space available basis, with preference given to relevance and residence.

Environment & Community Friendly products

• With a limited availability of spaces, we encourage applications from vendors that may line up with market values. If you’re not sure, ask us:)

Sponsorships

• Sponsorships are available for organizations or companies that wish to help the market community. These may be in kind contributions, or for negotiated amounts. Sponsors will be invited to provide materials for either the market tent or to have a space at the market. Please contact market management to discuss sponsorship opportunities.

Community Groups

• We reserve free spaces every week for community groups to use, such as parks promotion, gardening, schools, etc… Please contact us for more information on how you might be able to use one of these free spaces.

Applications:

Applications may be submitted as a short note by email, longleafmarket@gmail.com or in person on market days.

They should include a description of what you would like to sell, how it will be displayed, and pictures if possible.

Additionally, it must include an acknowledgment that you have read this package and agree to work within the guidelines set by market management.

Your contact information should include:

Company name, Primary Contact Name, Additional names of personnel in your booth, email, instant message, website, phone, fax, mailing address, coconut telegraph, or other contact methods you would like to use. We work primarily via phone and email since the coconuts fetch a couple bucks at the market.

Please indicate what days you would be available for markets, either for special days at our market or other local markets. We will always contact you before sharing your application with another market manager.

Finally, we’re not above considering samples, especially if you want to sell chocolate chip cookies.
Thank you for your interest and we look forward to seeing you at the market,
Rose

Market Manager.

(727)808-2440

longleafmarket@gmail.com