A few states began letting outdoor markets and roadside stands reopen this month, some with a simple spacing requirement and some with a longer checklist covering hand-washing stations, single-direction foot traffic, and a cap on how many shoppers can be at a booth at once. If your stall has been dark since March, or running as a pickup-only table in a parking lot, getting back to something that looks like a real market this summer is going to mean relearning a layout you thought you already knew.
This is exactly the gap our Direct-to-Consumer & Farmers' Markets course was built to close, and this spring's cohort has been unusually well attended, which tells us we're not the only ones thinking about it.
What changes at the booth
The biggest shift members are reporting isn't the product, it's the flow. A stall that used to invite browsing, where a shopper could linger over three wedges before deciding, now works better as a faster transaction: pre-portioned cuts, a visible price list, and a single point of contact so you're not passing a knife or a sample tray back and forth across the table. If you cut to order, that's still possible, but plan for a dedicated cutting surface that isn't also your point-of-sale table, and think through where the sanitizer and gloves live so a helper isn't hunting for them mid-line.
Sampling is the harder question, and it's one we don't have a single answer for, because the rules vary by state and sometimes by county. Some markets are allowing pre-packaged single-bite samples handed out by a masked staffer; others have suspended sampling entirely for the season. Check with your market organizer before you build a summer plan around tastings, and don't assume this year's rules will hold into fall — several members told us their county's guidance changed twice between April and May.
The course also spends real time on signage, because a stall that used to rely on a shopper stopping to ask a question now has to answer that question from six feet away. Members who've reopened already say a clear, large-print card next to each cheese, listing milk type, age, and one sentence of flavor description, has done more for sales than any amount of chatting used to. It's a small adjustment, but it changes how you think about your table setup weeks before market day, not the morning of.
Pricing and inventory for a different summer
The course also covers a piece that's easy to skip when you're focused on layout: how to plan inventory for a market season where foot traffic is likely to be lower but average order size might be higher, as shoppers consolidate trips instead of browsing weekly. A few members who've reopened already told us their per-transaction total is up even as headcount is down, which changes how you think about how much to bring and how you price a bundle versus a single cut. Bringing your usual Saturday volume to a market running at half its normal foot traffic just means hauling cheese back home at the end of the day, and cheese that's been sitting out in a cooler bag all afternoon isn't cheese you want to bring back out again next week.
There's also a cash-flow angle worth planning for: several members switched to contactless payment this spring and found it sped up the line more than they expected, which matters when you're also trying to keep a queue from bunching up at the booth.
If you're weighing whether this summer is the right time to bring your stall back, the course runs in a short cohort format and the next session has open seats. Reach out through the Education Committee if you want a syllabus before you commit, and if your state's rules have changed since you last checked, ask your market organizer for the current written guidance rather than relying on what a neighboring vendor tells you at setup.
The International Cheese Federation (ICF) and More Cheese are entirely fictional. This post is demonstration content created for MemberJunction. All people, organizations, events, courses, certifications, figures, and quotations in it are invented, and nothing here represents a real association, a real business, a real person, or real professional advice.