Our First Day at the Old Town Farmers' Market!
Wow. What a day it was on Saturday!
Both Ronda and I woke up much earlier than we care to admit in order to be at the Old Town Alexandria Farmers’ Market by 6:00 am (that’s Oh-Six-Hundred hours for you military friends!). We had the SUV loaded to the gills Friday evening and were out the door by 5:45!
Upon arrival, we needed to figure out where our stand would be, so we linked up with the market operations manager right away. Needless to say, we were thrilled with the spot he’d picked out for us. It was at the main entrance by a super busy farm stand.
Setting up for the first time proved to be more of a challenge than either of us had expected. But, we managed to pull everything together in time to kick off the market at 7:00. And, if I do say so myself, our display looked pretty good!
The weather was a bit cool, but super humid. It was supposed to be a bit on the rainy side as well, so early on, there wasn’t much traffic. But around 7:30 or so, we got our first sale! I did a quick video right afterward and posted it to FaceBook – that was exciting!
After that first customer broke the ice, we were on a roll! By the end of the market, we had many dozens of sales and, most importantly, we learned a lot! Several of our assumptions were validated, and a few are still in question, but we are pretty sure we’ve got a handle on what we need to do to be even more successful in the coming weeks.
One of the things about starting a new business is just getting the validation that people want our product. Crucible has been a passionate undertaking for the past 14 months – and in many ways, we have been waiting for an event like the Old Town Farmers’ Market to let us know what customers think. Talking to so many people and watching their eyes light up when they smelled Tomahawk and Wiseguy or tasted Essential and got that crazy scent of the Szechuan in The Mystic… it was so fulfilling and so much fun!
While it’s an early morning and a heckuva lot of work, attending the Farmers’ market was an absolutely fantastic experience. We can’t wait to do it again this coming weekend! Hope to see you there!