• Swanee Edwards: No. Thursdays will give people another choice for attending the market. It may take a while to catch on with it getting dark so very early now, but the farmers market is very popular, and it will work just fine for both days.
• Gabriel Madrigal: No!! We have several gas stations, several good-sized grocery stores and many types of restaurants. Everyone in this still in business! In my profession, it would be nice if I was the only one in town but there is competition and I’m ok with that. What a great opportunity to exercise kindness and interest in my clients! Treat the people right and they will come back. Let both farmers market practice “the golden rule” and they will see the results. Don’t worry about competition get out of the comfort zone and business will flourish.
• David Cohen: No. The Thursday Night Farmers Market is a great addition to the downtown. It adds another dimension to our community and will attract a different audience than the traditional Saturday market. There’s enough business for both.
• Jonathan Brusco: No, I’m a big fan of free market capitalism and the way I see it, if there’s enough business to support both markets, then vendors will attend both, if not, they will likely only attend Saturday’s, which is usually the busiest of the two. I attended the Saturday market this week and of the several vendors I spoke to, most weren’t aware of the Thursday market and the others didn’t seem to care. If there is enough demand to support two weekly markets as well as the year round one on Tennant, then everyone wins and we as a community are getting greater access to healthier local produce.
• Matt Wendt: No. As long as they provide a good product, the CFMA should not have any reason to be concerned with a Thursday evening farmers market downtown.
• Heather Crossen: No, I doubt the addition of a Thursday farmers market will significantly impact the one on Saturday. Adding a farmers market on Thursday might increase attendance overall, because a Thursday market will be more convenient for some members of our community.
• Hank Miller: No. If that kind of thinking were applied to restaurants, we would have only one restaurant in Morgan Hill and that would probably be a fast-food one. Competition is the thing that makes American business great. Don’t think so? How many Russian cars do you see on the free world’s roads.
• Martha Artiles: No – in fact it may help by providing Morgan Hill residents with now more options to buy from local farmers and growers. The farmers markets are also a great venue to get to meet fellow residents and create more relationships. I only see upside and enjoy the farmers markets myself.
• Julian Mancias: No. Most people, like myself, that regularly purchase fresh produce from farmers markets don’t mind going to a farmers market two times a week. In fact, if time permitted, I could see myself attending a farmers market several times a week, especially during the summer months.
• Karen Anderson: No. The crowd will be entirely different. If anything, it may take some time to build up the new one. The Saturday market is not only a place to buy fresh foods, but it has become an greatly anticipated social event for the city. That will not change.
• Rene Spring: I don’t have a Yes or No answer to this question. I simply don’t know. I would hope though that there’s limited or no impact. The Thursday evening market likely will attract somewhat different crowds than the Saturday market. I hope that they will nicely complement each other and will bring more people to our downtown area and into our city. It’s great to have these kinds of markets!
• Kathy Sullivan: No. I believe the Thursday farmers market will draw enough different clients than the Saturday farmers market. The paper did a good job of pointing out this issue has more to do with one group trying to hold onto a monopoly in Morgan Hill than a fear of harm to farmers and vendors’ business.
