Sidewalk Sale Could Include New Items: Produce

Chamber of Commerce Director Tucker Murphy floated a proposal to move the Saturday farmers market over to Morse Court for this year's Sidewalk Sale at a special Parking Commission meeting Thursday; and with support from representatives of the market vendors and downtown merchants the proposal will be on the Board of Selectmen's agenda for approval at their next meeting.

An emotional debate arose earlier this spring over whether to relocate the market from the Center School Lot closer to downtown this season. Some merchants hoped a move would draw more traffic to their struggling shops, but farmers worried about the negative effect that might have on their bottom line.

An ad hoc group has been meeting to discuss how the merchants and farmers might come together for mutual benefit ever since the pause button was hit on the relocation plans. The idea to integrate the market with the Sidewalk Sale came up during a brainstorming session Tuesday.

Flower farmer Randy Brown told the group that that Saturday is usually dismal for the market.

"Sales are down 40 percent... because of lack of parking, and regular customers stay away."

"My jaw started to drop when I heard that," said selectman Sally Hines, who's been leading the ad hoc group. "The farmers have big motivation on that weekend to move... I think it's a low-risk way to try something."

Hines said everyone around the table Tuesday—Murphy, Brown, market master Alexis Gazy, Jean Cortes who campaigned to bring the market to New Canaan in the first place, and resident patron George McEvoy—were all nodding in agreement.

As it stands, moving the market will be a one-time deal for Sidewalk Sale Day only. But all the stakeholders are hoping the experiment will give them more information about potential for synergy between the market and the shops downtown.

"It'll be interesting to see empirically if there's less foot traffic, more traffic," Hines said. "The farmers will certainly know by the end of the day what their tills are."

And Murphy was excited by the idea that the lemonade, tomato and mozzarella sandwiches, and fresh pies at the farmers market in Morse Court could help supplement the restaurant fare perennially offered to Sidewalk Sale shoppers.

"I don't want to compete with the restaurants on Elm Street, but quite frankly they can't keep up," Murphy said of the demand for food created by the 10,000 who usually show up for the sale. She suggested the farmers may be asked to stay past the normal 2 p.m. end of market and bring extra goodies to sell.

Last year, a food court set up in Morse Court was a flop, because it was hidden and not enough food vendors were there to satisfy a crowd. Murphy said the plan had thus been to return that lot to parking this year to avoid the frustrations of last year when shoppers saw the space nearly empty and yet had to circle downtown for a place to leave their cars. The thinking now is, if the market is in Morse Court, that would free up the Center School Lot for Sidewalk Sale shoppers. Murphy said she would reach out to the Getabout to see if they could provide shuttle service from there.

Discussion of those ideas will be picked up at the Board of Selectmen meeting June 15. The discussion of where to put the farmers market long term is continuing.