Efforts by large grocery chain Loblaws to cash in on the popularity of local Farmers Markets being panned by the head of the Farmers market association in Ontario.
Robert Chorney of Farmers Markets Ontario says what Loblaws is trying to do just won’t work as you cant replicate the atmosphere of a real market in a large supermarket.
He says you can’t replace the farmer, the products or the interaction that occurs between the consumer and producer in a supermarket.
Chorney says the giant grocery store chain is even going so far as to park a John Deere tractor outside to make the store look some farm like.
In addition Chorney says this copy cat market being proposed by the giant grocery store chain wont give farmers an adequate return for their crops.
He says at the supermarket, farmers received about 10 to 20 per cent of the retail price charged for their produce where as at a legitimate farmers market their return is more in the range of 84 per cent.
Chroney says that is why more and more farmers are heading off to Farmers Markets to sell their wares so they can eliminate the middle man and get a decent return on their investment.
He says even consumers they have talk to over the past week or so are leery of what Loblaws is trying to do and says that really its a non starter.
