The Weblog

The local foods movement is alive and well in Champaign County! Here are some updates on other projects while we finalize our virtual market:

Local Producers Map:
Our local producers map is ready for publication and you will soon be able to find it on gochampaign.com. Copies will be distributed around the community, in the local telephone book, and other “hangouts”. The guide lists the location and contact information for nearly 50 local producers within our county. The map was a project of the Local Food Council and printed with the help of some local sponsors including the Monument Square District, Champaign Bank, the Community Improvement Corporation, the Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau and others. It is a great start to finding a local source for Champaign County’s finest!



 
View the Complete Weblog

Your 2018 Love In-Be In!


Hello, little local market of love customers, vendors, staff of the YMCA!!

We war well into this new year, and well into amazing market weeks of sales, thanks to our customers who keep us strong, and the staff of the YMCA, who keeps our finances all in shape, and gives us free housing of our market!!

Without this winning combination, we would be toast!!

Our market held it’s yearly meeting, this past Monday evening, to access the market, it’s vendors, it’s amazing success story, and to plan our plan into the future.

One of the things that I wanted to touch on, but got sidetracked, was how we have made the physical side of the market, AKA the pickup night at the YMCA, become more green!!

In the past 3-4 months, your market managers have been using the new features of the market site to go paperless at pick up!! We used to line the shelves with a print out for each customer, a basket, and a whole lot of time, money, and wastefulness in paper.

We now can check in vendors, check in customers, and check off the exit of each customer, all on our smart phones!! We no longer have a huge paper trail, a whole lot of ink usage for all of the print outs, and a whole lot of wasted paper that customers left behind.

Also, going into season 6, we no longer need individual baskets, papers, and stuff. We can breeze through our cyber reports, grab each item for each customer, and send them on their way with no paperwork!!

What does this mean for you? The environment? The market?

As a customer, we are adamant that we never charge you a table fee!! Most online markets charge a table fee to the customer. With going totally green, and paperless, we cut or costs WAY THE HECK DOWN!!! No more replacing printing paper and ink cartridges. Keeping things on the inexpensive side for you!!

No more large amounts of waste and trash with paper, ink cartridges…we love our environment, and want to treat it with healthy respect!!

The market runs so much more efficiently as we check each customer out with our phones!! The front desk keeps your names in the computer, with your totals!! They do a simple check out, and send you on your way. If you need a receipt, they can provide one!! If you need a detailed list of your order, you can print your own list off of your order, on the market site!!

We thank you in your support of this market, and all that we do to keep the cost down for you, the customer!!

Mark and I are totally volunteers, again, keeping your cost down, and we love that we can keep it green, in our new way to check you out!!

Now, go…order…love the love of this market…

XOXO,
Cosmic Pam