While visiting an aunt out in California a couple of years ago, Kristy LeVasseur was taken by the night markets where people could buy produce and other goods until 9 o'clock at night, and where shopkeepers did brisk business well after regular closing hours.
Then, when she got back home, LeVasseur thought: Why not try the same thing in Downtown Midland?
Now, in its second year, the
Monday Night Farmers Market on Main Street will run from 3:30 to 6 p.m. every Monday until September 27, says LeVasseur, director of communication for the Midland Area Chamber of Commerce. The Monday night market -- the only one in the Great Lakes Bay region -- is in addition to the regular morning markets held at the end of Ashman Street near the Tridge on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
But unlike other days, the night market on Mondays is held right on Main Street in the heart of the downtown. Vendors told her last year that they often were selling out and generally doing better business on Monday nights than on any other. Shop owners stay open past normal business hours, and some have experienced a 20 percent uptick in their business on Monday nights.
"It's a stellar, stellar success," LeVasseur says. "It gets people down there walking around."
And when people are walking around the downtown, many are venturing into stores they've never visited before.
One local downtown business -- Peel 'N Pare -- does cooking demonstrations on Monday nights using produce from the farmers market. And during the summer months,
Molly's Bistro uses only farmers market produce in all its menu items.
Adding to the usual array of produce, baked goods, meat, local coffee roaster, homemade cheese, and other items, LeVasseur says they soon may be serving up some entertainment too.
"This Monday market has really found its little niche," says LeVasseur. "It's really been a nice, festival kind of atmosphere."
Writer: Jenny Cromie
Source: Midland Area Chamber of Commerce, Kristy LeVasseur
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