04/30/2022
One of the critical responsibilities of running a business is having to make difficult decisions. Based on the current situation, I have decided to close the Weare Real Food Market and the associated Saturday Farmers Market.
This is an incredibly frustrating decision because the store and the outside farmers market have been well received by the community and have basically met all of our performance expectations. Our goal was to earn our place within the Weare community by providing a commercial opportunity for small, local suppliers to offer their products to the public in a low cost, low risk environment. We sincerely believe that we have accomplished this.
In support of providing a low cost, low risk opportunity, we NEVER charged for participation in the outside market (no booth fee, no percentage of sales). Inside the store we added a reasonable markup on local products simply to help cover utility costs and payroll. Neither of these businesses were intended to be profitable.
From the beginning, our business strategy included a third element, a drive up coffee service. Our hope was that a high quality retail coffee location would be a benefit to the community and also generate enough profits to justify continuation of the outside farmers market and the store. We did significant research and felt confident that our business strategy was viable.
Unfortunately, our early research underestimated the investment necessary to open a coffee shop at this location. On several occasions, we believed that we had met all the requirements only to learn that there was more work to be done. Furthermore, we are uncertain whether there still might be more requirements that we are still not aware of.
At this point, the necessary investment is much more than we planned. The potential for encountering additional requirements before we can open also adds to the risk. After 2 years of working on opening a coffee business, I can honestly say that I have no idea how much it will cost, how long it might take or if it's even possible to actually open a coffee business at our location.
Without the profits from the coffee business to help cover costs, the outside market and the store are unsustainable.
We have grown to love the Weare community and have met a lot of very nice people here. We are struggling with letting go of the vision that we have been working on for the last two years. We are considering a wide range of options for moving forward, but have not made a final decision on what will come next.
Many thanks to everyone that supported us. We will continue to post and monitor this page and keep everyone up to date on what's happening.
Thanks again for everything!
