A 5th birthday…
The City Market (Sundays at Chaffers) is turning 5.
So this Sunday they’re running a little longer than usual (til 2pm) and adding more entertainment and stalls (quite a long list actually if you check out their Facebook page).
The market still has some good old favourites like Le Marche French cheeses, Rachel’s Yellow Brick Road seafood, Marty’s bacon butties, Emporio coffee, Brezelmania etc, but also many new and interesting purveyors.
Some have became regulars over time like the House of Dumplings, Gellisimo, Jam It, Dough Mama and The Canteen (Mack and Mabels sauces) and some are brand new – Chunk marshmallow (the best I’ve ever eaten, not to mention their warm melt-in-the-mouth cookies from the pie warmer – sugar attack!) and Waffle De Liege savoury Belgian waffles (virtually no sugar to balance that marshmallow you accidentally inhaled) with toppings like vegemite cream, salmon, bacon, pear and blue cheese… Mmmm, yes please.
I do think we should all support new stallholders to encourage people with wonderful ideas and products in taking the next steps, and reward their courage for putting it all out there.
And once you’ve finished imbibing on Sunday you can wander around the new Clyde Quay development and see where the Mojo coffee shop is going, the new Whitehouse and Satchi and Satchi.
See you Sunday.
Nice post – on the topic of encouraging new stalls and ideas- it’s a pity many market organizers place a quota on selection, ultimately blocking out people or young entrepreneurs seeking to enter and develop their ideas. Take Waffle de Liege (and my own, The Hot Wafel), organizers do not allow the customer (the most important factor) to be the final decision maker for their demand. Certain stalls are barred or their offerings limited at markets because organizers in so called ‘protection’ of stall holders (because they were first movers) bar what they would deem ‘similar’ products. Ultimately, it’s the consumer who should be dictating the macrocosm of the marketplace and not organizers who through their control are actually developing a ‘pseudo – monopoly’ for older stalls. How then do young entrepreneurs develop or even enter a market? A low risk/decent reward ratio for their efforts? The answer is, they cannot, which is a shame
Hi Rick some Great points, but have you also considered that market organisers created City Market out of Nothing. City Market was a dream of two people and they made it happen, and in doing so they provided a modern food outlet that had never existed before in wellington.
5 years is a really long time for a weekly event to be still running and to be still delivering exceptional quality to it’s customers. So they must be doing something right otherwise there would not be such a demand to sell there and the place wouldn’t be packed every Sunday – this also indicates they know what their Market (not a single stalls) customers want and like.
I would think if you see a gap in the market – then go out and Fill it. Set up next door at the open markets, or sell at the underground markets, open a waffle cart, open a waffle shop.
Of course Sue! 🙂
City market has done wonderful things and I think they have developed into a wonderful little boutique market – I must also give them credit for helping small stalls become great enterprises (The Dumpling House for example)…
My comment was just an observation I see in the ‘wider’ market scene in Wellington – not just City Market…
I have talked to many stall holders and this little waffle stall was just another one on this long line so I wasnt perse talking about Waffle de Liege – rather stallholders (where-ever) who feel blocked out
@Graham – you miss my point. I understand there needs to be variety – and in terms of ratio of say, sweet to savoury – City Market (and others) – are justified to limit offerings. But I still feel the issue rears its ugly head when there CLEARLY IS ROOM or space for a stallholder to have a chance to show their wares.
Consider an art & craft stall…shall we only have people who make blue earrings? What if someone wants to make green?
In response to Rick’s comments above; the goal of any market organiser is to create a vibrant group of diverse and interesting vendors that provide an incentive for many people to make the effort to visit knowing that there is a variety of things for them to explore.
With any market, there are often some unavoidable constraints on space, resources and infrastructure. In order to provide a market which is attractive and ultimately draws a crowd to make it successful, the variety and balance of stall types needs to be managed to fit within the constraints. As I understand it, one of the City Market’s primary goals to to bring together some of the providores of Wellington food, hence the aim is to have a constant balance and variety of different food vendors. The less variety, the narrower the audience, the less the number of visitors.
Yes, as you say, the customer is the most important factor but what you fail to understand is that most customers that visit markets primarily seek a ‘variety of stalls’, not a variety of a ‘specific type of stall’. There is a major difference between ‘entrepreneural idea and risk’ and ‘me-too-ism’.
That said, we do have that whole flourishing Hammock District. I like Maryanne’s Hammocks the best, cos Maryanne gets in the Hammock with you.
Also I would visit a Waffle Market on like, a daily basis.
Joanna, where is this Hammock District of which you speak? Imagine the possibilities – to lie in a pillowy hammock, and to eat waffles while doing so.…
It’s in Cypress Creek