The Boise Farmers Market is a food-centric and agriculturally based market, meaning that 95% of the vendors sell food and agricultural products. They are focused on local food, cultivating new farmers, incubating new food ideas, and creating a community space to learn about food and sustainability. When COVID-19 shutdowns hit Boise, the market had to pivot to a drive-thru system with Local Food Marketplace. We spoke to Tamara Cameron, the market manager, about what that was like and their plans for the future.

LFM: Hi Tamara! Thank you so much for agreeing to be interviewed today! So for those of us that are unfamiliar with your market, could you give us a little background?

Tamara: We are in our seventh year, and we are an ag-focused farmers market. That means that at least 95% of our vendors are farmers or ranchers or producers of food/agricultural products…and all vendors are all required to use local ingredients or make it locally. One of our vendors even weaves her own kitchen towels! Pre-COVID we operated an outdoor walk-around market with 60-100 vendors, depending on the season. We also had an inside winter market that was a bit more holiday focused with arts and crafts.

LFM: When did you start using LFM?

Tamara: We just started using LFM as a result of COVID, this spring. We were getting ready to do our big spring fundraiser, Tree Fort (which is a Boise music festival), and we were putting on the final touches. I heard a rumor that local officials might cancel it because of COVID, so I knew that if they could cancel an outdoor music festival, then they can cancel an outdoor market.

We scrambled around looking at options – we looked at the National Registry of Farmers Markets Listserv, and we saw that some people were doing a walk through market, or some sort of drive-thru. At first, we were going to do a walk-through market and then local officials changed requirements from allowing 100 people in one place to 10 and we quickly pivoted to a drive-thru market and I started searching for online software.

LFM: Things shifted quickly. How did LFM come up in your search?

Tamara: Well, there are a lot of different ones out there.  Our decision came down to a few main factors. First, many of my vendors were familiar with it because a local food hub used it.   I also love that the market pays a flat fee, and we get to keep the rest of the profit.

The other great thing that attracted us to LFM was the setup – I didn’t want my customers to have to pay each farmer individually. I knew it would never fly with our clientele. It had to be easy. It had to be one purchase for everything they were going to buy. And it had to have a storefront where they could literally see what they were going to purchase. It had to be really user-friendly.

LFM: Walk me through what your drive-thru market looks like now!

Tamara: Customers are assigned a pickup time, or they reserve a time. That means if you’re coming at 8:30, we have your order ready at 8:30. And our customers were really ready for that – they’re so eager! I finally had to tell some people; “Don’t come early, because you’re messing up the works!”

LFM: Have you noticed a change in your customer base?

Tamara: Our revenue is about the same as pre-COVID. You have to consider that we used to have 4,200 people coming every Saturday and now our market is entirely pre-order drive through.  We have found a new customer base that really wants to buy local food but hasn’t or doesn’t want to walk around a farmer’s market to get it. And of course we still have our old standbys, our staunch supporters…but we have found a new group of customers that really prefer it this way.

LFM: Have you guys thought about how to retain that new customer base, going forward?

Tamara: We have to keep the drive-thru. We have a large parking lot, so we’ll keep the drive-thru in the future, even if we end up going back to a walk-around market. These customers want to eat local and they want to buy directly from the farmers if they can. They love purchasing from our farmers market online with LFM.

LFM: How has using LFM impacted your administrative process?

Tamara: It’s been great. LFM is great because we are able to report on market sales. In the past we needed to know this for grants and other reporting, but it was always difficult (or impossible) to get that data from our vendors.

LFM: Has that saved you time?

Tamara: Most definitely. Now we don’t have to mess with collecting the sales through surveys and then figuring out how to put them into a spreadsheet and all that. With LFM I just run the report and know that the information is accurate.

LFM: What would you say to a market manager who was looking at online shopping platforms?

Tamara: Well, I point a lot of markets to LFM. I tell them that the reporting on the backend is super easy. You don’t have to send out tickets to the farmers, they get them automatically. They have their own access, and update their own inventory. And, you know, if they don’t like the picture of their onions that I pick out, they can add their own!

But, to the point, the backend is fabulous.

Plus, the customer support is great.

LFM: Thanks for speaking with us!

Curious to see what a drive-thru farmers market looks like? Check out this video of the Boise Farmers Market!

The Boise Farmers Market Reinvents Itself from Guy Hand on Vimeo.