We did 2 Farmers markets for 42 years that all ended in 2020 when they wanted to put up all the crazy rules of no one can touch the produce and they had to point at the items they wanted thru plexiglass. We weren't some small-time thing either, over the last 5 years, our average day at our Wednesday market was $11, 260. So there was just no way we were going to be selling 4,000# of tomatoes by people pointing at stuff from 6 feet away. But anyway, that is all gone and now we are solely a Garden center.
But, I would say a few key things are consistency, no customer likes coming and their favorite vendor isn't there because it rained or was cold, etc We missed 0 markets in 42 years and that's through births, funerals, weddings, etc. Having good products at good prices. You don't have to be cheap, but you can't be selling crap as then there isn't a reason for them to ever come back. I don't have any statistics other than knowing almost all the customers, but I would say it was around 80% that are people that are there at least 2-3 weeks of the month. They kept coming back for the product, I would source tomatoes from Kentucky and other areas that had the product ready before ours and was very good and actually grown by the Amish as an added bonus. The most important, in my opinion, is to be friendly, nothing says to keep walking past my booth as someone sitting in a lounge chair watching youtube or taking a cat nap. Engage with them, start off easy with simple hi, how are you, you been here, etc to see how much they want engagment.
