Over the past couple of weeks, we have been going out to different pop-ups and surveying customers. Most of the pop-ups are volunteer run, but for the first couple weeks we would only go to new locations that we would run ourselves. Being the ones interacting with the customers the entire time definitely had benefits since it gave us a better sense of how everything was run and a chance to talk to customers more organically than just through survey questions. Customers came to know us as the ones associated with the pop-ups since we started working them from the beginning. As we began surveying I was excited to go to different locations and see new places but I wasn’t sure if the interactions would be the same at a location where the customers weren’t familiar with us and we were just asking direct questions that they may not really be interested in answering. While this was sometimes the case, most of the customers were happy to answer the questions and most provided detailed answers from which conversations were still able to stem.
Besides having more genuine interactions with customers and learning more about their food habits and how we could improve the pop-ups, going to these new locations allowed me to see a new side of how the pop-ups work and meet the volunteers who usually run them. All of the volunteers clearly care about their communities since they are giving up their time to run the markets, but it was cool to see how deeply integrated into the community they really are. At the Macomb YMCA the volunteers were two older women, one of whom was 84. They knew almost everyone who came in the doors and all of the customers who came to the table. They had conversations with everyone about everything and really made all feel welcome. They also were very knowledgeable about healthy eating and our food system and it was cool to see that people of all ages all over are interested and involved. Part of making our model successful is that customers must feel comfortable enough and trust the market. Strong volunteers are a vital part of this. While I’ve loved working at the pop-ups and think we’ve formed relationships with many customers, I wonder if our new pop-ups would’ve been even more successful if they had been run by people from within that space originally. In the fall there is going to be a big expansion of pop-ups so hopefully all of the locations will be able to find great volunteers from the community they are situated in!
