PUBLIC MARKET

Vendor exodus continues

By Noah Bruce

Another blow, perhaps more symbolic than substantial, has been dealt to the Portland Public Market (PPM). The last of the day tables, the stalls occupied by agricultural vendors who set up in the morning and pack up at night, has left.

In a letter addressed to Owen Wells — the president of the Libra Foundation, the non-profit that bankrolls the Market — Caitlin Hunter, an owner of Appleton Creamery , which has sold goat cheese at the Market since its inception in 1998, explains that she is leaving because it has become “clear to me that the Market itself would rather not bother with the concept of day tables, first by raising its rates and then by cutting spaces.”

According to Hunter, last summer, the Market moved Appleton’s space without informing her. The move hurt business as “customers have a hard time finding you again, a simple marketing concept that the PPM management can’t seem to grasp,” she writes. The Market, Hunter claims, never provided her “with washing and cold storage facilities requested by the state inspector,” did not include her or other day tables in its marketing efforts, and did not allow her to advertise in the weekly market flyers.

Hunter decided to call it quits the week of April 2 when the Market informed Hunter her space would be moved yet again. “The final insult,” she writes, “is that our space is being taken over by personal care products . . . I had the great privilege of knowing Betty Noyce [the now deceased benefactor of the Market] in the early ‘90s . . . I find it hard to believe she would be happy with the way her vision of supporting Maine agriculture has turned into an international food court, where you can also purchase toothpaste.”

Ted Spitzer, director of the Market says Hunter’s letter is “full of mistruths.” He claims the booth was moved only “three feet away, to an adjacent table.” Further, he says the Market did provide Appleton with washing and cold storage in addition to special provisions like free electricity, and he contends Appleton is not the last of the day booths; more are expected this summer.

Wells refused to comment on the letter. As for the market as a whole, he claims “The Market is doing just fine.”

The truth is, the market has seen two major original vendors leave in the last six months, the fruit and vegetable vendor A.J. Kennedy’s in January, and Hanson Bros. Seafood in October. Other original vendors that have jumped ship include Ricker Hill Orchards, Smiling Hill Farm, Island Acres Farm Poultry, Wolfe’s Neck Farm, Richard’s Edleweiss Deli, and the New England Bison Company. Many of these businesses have been replaced by Farm-to-Market, a Libra supported non-profit that creates and sustains new ventures to keep the Market alive.