By Dylan Sciacca | Reporter
The Waco Downtown Farmers Market has been serving the community since November of 2011. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Saturday, a variety of people go to enjoy live music and fresh produce, and vendors travel up to 150 miles to sell their product at 200 E. Bridge Street.
This farmers market has the potential to appeal to the larger community of Baylor students just about a mile and a half away. However, some are concerned the farmers market is not advertised enough to many students.
For a long time, vendor Donley Gandee was working at a booth called Southern Sisters Soap, which is handcrafted goat milk soap. Gandee said he sees Baylor students come by and enjoy their soap.
“I think in some ways students are looking for ways that might remind them of home,” Gandee said. “They start looking for comforts and things that might make them feel better in the transition from home to school … most of the time you don’t have a whole lot of time to think in college, so you are hoping you get something in the dorm to help you feel good.”
Marketing to Baylor students is critical for the growing success in the farmers market. Gandee said that about 55-60% of his customers are college-aged students. He thinks that many students are looking for that homey feeling, and the farmers market can offer that.
However, many students might not be aware of it.
“As far as any aggressive marketing campaign, it really focuses more on word of mouth and availability,” Gandee said.
Palmdale, California, freshman Elle Eggleston is a Baylor student that attended the market on Saturday. She attended for the lemonade and chocolate croissants that she and her roommate enjoy. But Eggleston did not hear about the farmers market by advertisement.
“When I was touring Baylor, I would stay in this hotel with my parents, and we just happened to come across it,” Eggleston said.
This experience is what some market goers are concerned about when trying to attract Baylor students. While the farmers market is less than 2 miles from campus, students are mainly learning about it through word of mouth, their friends or stumbling upon it by accident.
Placentia sophomore Luke Coulter enjoyed the on-campus market last year but was unaware of the off-campus one. Coulter reinforces that the problem is not about interest but more about the awareness the Baylor students have about the event.
“I liked the one last year that Baylor had at Fountain Mall, I didn’t know that it was an actual event that was happening outside of campus,” Coulter said. “If it was something that I knew existed, then I think I definitely would have checked it out by now. Doing more campus farmers markets is something they should keep doing.”
