Grocery shopping continues to become more and more specialized. For the majority of the population, they want a one-stop shop to buy all their groceries for the week, and the conventional neighborhood supermarket serves that need just fine. Others look for a more specific item, like all-natural beef or GMO-free sausages, and they have specialty grocery stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Sometimes, that’s still not enough. A small but rising segment of the population wants to support local farmers and buy the product directly from the person who raised it or grew it. Farmers markets meet that particular need.
While some may think of a farmers market as a home for fruits and vegetables, meat vendors are a popular draw as well. Midan Marketing surveyed 200 people who purchased meat or poultry products at farmers markets within the last year. Twenty-five percent of those respondents said that they are purchasing their meats at a farmers market instead of a grocery store, rather than in addition to what they buy at the store.