Recognizing the enormous popularity and growth of farmers markets across Canada, a major Canadian supermarket chain is endeavouring to emulate their success.
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. is announcing this week that it is “bringing the farmers market to Canadian neighbourhood grocery stores–all in one convenient location with bushels of variety.”
The retailer adds in a news release that a “farmers market doesn’t always fit with the realities of Canadians’ hectic lifestyles.”
But Robert Chorney, president of Farmers’ Markets Canada which represents 550 farmers markets across the country, said Loblaw is just trying to capitalize on the markets’ success.
“Farmers markets are a sleeping giant and people love them and they are good for farmers,” he said in an interview.
Chorney said recent research conducted by his organization shows that farmers receive just 10% to 21% of the retail price of their produce at supermarkets, “not enough for a small family farm to survive on, while at farmers markets they get to keep an average 84%.”
Frank Pagliaro, vice-president of produce for Loblaw, admits that the chain plans to “replicate the farmers market experience where we can to a certain extent.
“We plan to introduce demonstrations in many of our stores where at least the shopper will have someone to talk to,” he says. “Our staff will hopefully provide insight into where the product comes from and who the grower is.”
In the past, Loblaw has been criticized in some quarters for selling imported produce rather than stocking fresh local produce when it is in season.
Chorney said that his organization’s research has shown that shopping at a farmers market involves seven times more social interaction than supermarket shopping.
On Loblaw’s suggestion that shopping at farmers markets doesn’t always fit into Canadians’ hectic lifestyles, Chorney countered that many consumers desire to return to a simpler way of life.
“They want to become more conscious consumers, reconnecting with the earth, the environment and with local farmers,” he said.
Chorney points out that a 2009 survey, conducted across the country for Farmers’ Markets Canada by Experience Renewal Solutions, found the burgeoning success is due to a number of factors.
It found that consumers want healthier, fresher, locally produced products. They believe in supporting the local economy, their community and local farmers.
“And 92% of farmers market shoppers said it was important to them to be able to buy food directly from a local farmer,” he says. “And 62% said it was extremely important.”
(Marketing‘s Aug. 30 features an in-depth look at the burgeoning “local” movement including the impact on news, shopping habits and tastes in food.)
