The goal of this project is

To form a conclusion and make a recommendation regarding the viability of an indoor winter market by:

Exploring consumer interest in an indoor winter market.
Measuring the ability of vendors to participate in an indoor winter market.

Methods and Skills:

Dot Survey
Online Survey
Unstructured Interviews
Data Analysis

Collaborators:

Kathleen French
Claire Jolie
Museb Alkhomshi
Hamza Malik
Monica Truax

Time Frame:

Two Weeks

A Divide Between Vendors and Customers

Overall, are there going to be enough vendors to support the customer demand for an indoor market?

The majority of vendors are interested in the idea of a winter market, but they are unsure or unlikely to participate.
Almost all of the customers surveyed in our dot survey would attend an indoor market. Only 15% of respondents would attend less frequently than in the summer market.

Research Process

We started the research process of this project with an exploratory research to observe and to build an understanding of the organization. We followed that with a dot survey to explore consumer interest in an indoor winter market. Then we used an online survey to measure the ability of members to participate in an indoor winter market.

Dot Survey

We conducted a dot survey as a rapid market assessment to roughly identify consumer attendance frequencies, purchase preferences and interest in a winter market. We conducted the dot survey with the following three questions:

Would you be interested in an indoor winter market?
How frequently would you come to an indoor winter market?
What would you be most likely to buy at an indoor winter market?

96.2% of customers surveyed would attend an indoor market, and 63% would go for agricultural products. Only 15% of respondents would attend less frequently than in the summer market.

Online Survey

We created a survey to send out to the member list. Our outgo was to 100 percent of members and our goal was to get a 50 percent response rate. These responses were used to determine member ability and desire to participate in a winter market. Our survey consisted of 23 questions for the vendors currently participating in the market.

The majority of vendors (58%) are interested in the idea of a winter market, but they are unsure (23%) or unlikely (23%) to participate.

Recomendation

Do not go forward with a winter market:

Vendors interest is good but participation is insufficient
There is a lot of skepticism about the location of the new place

Indoor-Winter-Market

The Salem Saturday Market is a not-for-profit, outdoor farmers market.

The city recently offered the market an indoor location for use during winter months.