Archive for Market News

BIG CHANGES!

Florida Farmers Market has changed its name to Dave’s Cafe & Gifts!

Some of you might have noticed that over the last year or so we have been using FFM Cafe & Gifts on Facebook as our main communication to our customers. It happened as a result of Facebook choking back business pages mostly at first. Our Facebook group FFM Cafe & Gift Shop became the best way to reach customers directly. We did what we had to do to stay in touch with you.

Farmers in this area really don’t seem to sell to the public at market here in Paxton like in other areas. Though we are grateful for those farmers and gardeners who tried, we had to shift our focus to other sellers to utilize our outdoor market more regularly. Craft shows became the better service to offer to the public. So we’ve rolled with it, and embraced crafts as the main focus in our outdoor market.

As we soon turn 6 years old, we’ve decided to change our name to better match what we do here everyday, which is serve our area with freshly prepared food and offer a place to shop for high quality gifts. There’s nothing like us for miles, and we want everyone to know without a doubt what we have to offer at first glance. We’ve decided to embrace the name we are known by locally already: “Dave’s Cafe & Gifts” is now our official name! Over the next month or so all things Florida Farmers Market will be transitioned to Dave’s Cafe & Gifts. The menu, product offering, staff, and the phone number will remain the same!

Shave Dave at Cancer Freeze 2016

Noah Leonard wants to shave Dave Palmer of Florida Farmers Market. Dave has agreed to shave his head IF we raise $10,000 by Cancer Freeze 2016! Make checks payable to Cancer Freeze and be sure to put “Shave Dave” in the memo line.

Mail payments to:
Cancer Freeze
POB 92
Florala, Al 36442





You may also make payments via PayPal, and put “Shave Dave” in the comments.

Big Hero 6 is the Free Movie Friday This Week!

1512423_836990663061160_734102654694444442_n

Annie is the Free Movie Friday This Week!

1512423_836990663061160_734102654694444442_n 11253229_834349153325311_8307207049251662697_n

Paddington is the Free Movie Friday This Week!

1512423_836990663061160_734102654694444442_n 11540923_834347509992142_343729031881528796_n

The Free Movie Friday This Week is Penguins of Madagascar!

10403430_834345246659035_7542103710211872264_n 1512423_836990663061160_734102654694444442_n

Join our new FFM Cafe Facebook Group to be alerted on specials.

Want to keep up with the day-to-day offers, specials, and seasonal offerings at FFM Cafe? Join the FFM Cafe Facebook group to stay informed as things happen. Many of our customers have asked us for something like this, so here ya go! Anyone can join or be invited to join!

 

Want to keep up with the day-to-day offers, specials, and seasonal offerings at FFM Cafe? Join the FFM Cafe Facebook…

Posted by Florida Farmers Market on Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Turbo is the Free Movie Friday This Week!

11412170_834345029992390_1034272871561600505_n

1512423_836990663061160_734102654694444442_n

Free Movie Friday is Back!

Come join us for free outdoor movies on the big screen at Florida Farmers Market. Our cafe will be open late as well.

11248332_833961753364051_2936027402064638354_n

1512423_836990663061160_734102654694444442_n

FFM Seeks $100,000 Grant from Chase Mission Mainstreet

Chase’s Mission Main Street Grants program is offering small businesses the opportunity to compete for a $100,000 grant to improve their business. Florida Farmers Market & Cafe would benefit greatly from this opportunity, and we need your help! Businesses must get at least 250 votes to move on to the next round for consideration, so we need for you to show your support in the form of a vote. Voting is free and can only be done once, so we need at least 250 of you to cast your vote for FFM to move on in the competition. Just so you know exactly what you are voting for, I have published a copy of the grant application questionnaire and my answers. Please support us in our efforts to expand and continue our community efforts in Paxton!

Thank you,
Dave

Mission Main Street Grants Questionnaire:

1. Tell us about your business and what makes it unique. Please provide a general description of your product, customers, competitive landscape, and overall performance.

A: We are an oasis to our local community because we offer products and services no one else offers to our rural area. Farmers needed a place to sell produce locally, we built it. There was no restaurant in our town, Paxton, FL; so we created one. (Laurel Hill is actually 10 miles away, but they deliver our mail, so we have Laurel Hill mailing addresses in Paxton.) Locals had to drive 30+ miles to buy someone a decent gift or an educational book or toy for a kid, so we set up a gift shop. Local organizations needed a place to get t-shirts and uniforms printed, so we set up a print shop in the back office. We don’t have any local competitors aside from one gas station in our town, so our customers have to drive quite some distance for competitive products and services. We take advantage of the situation by offering such a wide array under one roof, but we still remain competitively priced for our area. We want to be helpful to our community and our local economy rather than be a drain on it by price gouging as businesses with little to no competition often do.

2. What inspired you to become an entrepreneur? Describe both your greatest achievements and biggest challenges.

A: I have been an entrepreneur since I was first able to buy and sell; it’s in my blood. My wife and I saw a need for farmers to have a place to sell produce. We have farms all around us, but there is nowhere within 30 miles for them to sell their produce. The cafe and gift shop were added to the idea as a way to keep the business more steady due to the seasonal nature of produce. It turns out that those parts of the business are more important to our community than produce selling. We have really positively impacted our community with the cafe and gift shop by becoming a place where people can meet, eat, and shop. It’s a serious achievement to even survive as a business in a small town, so we are proud that we are thriving. Our biggest challenge has been organizing farmers to sell produce to the public. They work hard in the fields all the time, so they have little time to spare for selling produce while the fields await their return. We are working on ways to take the burden of selling away for them. The public wants local produce.

3. How is your business involved with the community you serve? Examples include: giving back to the community, sourcing locally, and/or contributing to economic development via hiring.

A: You can see that any effort in a small rural town is needed and appreciated, so we do what we can every day to serve our community. We are a major supporter and facilitator of a local 501(c)3 non-profit organization called, Cancer Freeze. We help them throughout the year hosting events, selling goods in our store that benefit them 100%, and volunteering our time, supplies, and equipment to help their truly charitable cause. We give locals a free place to gather and have club meetings, play bridge, or just hang out with friends and family. Monthly we host a craft show for local artisans to sell their wares. We also host many free events throughout the year for children like outdoor movie showings, a huge Halloween party, kid craft days, and visits from Santa to name a few. Economically we impact by buying local produce and products when possible, and hiring local people to help us operate day to day. Local artisans can consign their wares in our gift shop keeping money spent in our store here in our community. Our #1 focus is the local economy and our community.

4. What would a $100,000 grant mean to your business and how will you utilize the funds? Please be as specific as possible.

A: A $100,000 grant would allow us to make an even bigger impact in our community. It would allow us to expand our operation by giving us the means to improve our facility, hire more staff, and provide more outreach in getting produce from local farms to local tables. Specifically we are in need of more restrooms which we would add on outdoors to the side of our building to handle all of the extra traffic generated by our events. We also need to run electricity to each stall in our outdoor market. We currently have to run extension cords and discourage the use of electricity unless it is absolutely necessary. A lack of cooler space has always been a problem for us, and we would like to offer betters ways to keep produce cool to reduce spoilage to better serve our farmers as well as customers with the freshest produce possible. An additional employee would also help us tremendously because we are doing so much with so few people. Adding even one employee would increase our productivity and give us the ability to do more with our time spent building our community through our business.

5. What are your short-term (1-2 years) and long-term growth plans for the business? How will this grant contribute to your plan?

A: As business has increased over the last 2 years, we are starting to see a little profit which will help us to reduce our business debt. Getting this grant would allow us to expand our business and community outreach efforts without incurring more business debt. We are in a position where we are holding steady and recovering from the initial investment involved in opening and developing the business. Being able to do the things specified in question #4 without adding debt would be so helpful to accomplishing our goals faster and more efficiently. In a small town, $100,000 is a lot of money, and we would make the most of it by using it to expand and improve our business, which will improve our community. We’ve already made a major impact in our community just by opening our doors, but a grant like this will help us greatly to continue community support efforts for our town. In a year, we can do all that we have discussed. However, we want to be here for many years to come and not fizzle like so many other businesses around us have done due to poor business support, practices, and/or lack of funds.

Mission Main Street Grants