There’s more to creating a successful market district than just throwing down a bunch of vendors in the middle of a busy area. There are more than a few secrets to creating a booming market, and we think they’re too interesting to pass up taking a look.
Remember, think bigger than the topic at hand. Use the information here to glean insights you can use for your business! Things that might not seem to have any correlation, often do.
Sense of Arrival
The last thing you want in a market is for someone to wander in without even realizing they’re now in the middle of it.
A good sense of arrival (or sense of entry) is actually a term borrowed from architecture. When designing a building, the architect will often use things like pillars, gates, bridges, and more to anticipate what lies ahead. This concept can (and should) be applied to markets and if at all possible, businesses too!
Location
As with just about everything else, location matters.
You could spend all the time in the world designing the most beautiful, inviting, and well-designed market in the world, but no one will come if it’s not in a good spot. Nearby bathrooms, restaurants to grab a bite to eat, coffee shops for morning browsers, transportation options, housing, or businesses for foot traffic. These are all important things a good market should consider.
Congestion
This refers to both external road traffic and internal foot traffic.
Congestion in a market can occur when there is only one entrance or exit (and they’re too short), the walkways are too narrow, or the parking lot isn’t controlled. Another contributing factor is the hours of operation. Even a large market will struggle if it’s only open for half a day on weekends.
Single Level
While there is certainly more you can do with multi-level markets, not to mention building up is easier than building out, it comes with its own problems. Namely the introduction of more specialized stock loading carts and making it tougher to separate them from pedestrian traffic.
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Room To Grow
Building on a single level also ties into the next point, which is to always plan for expansion.
If you do everything else right, people will love the market! That popularity means more people, and an expectation that it will change and adapt. Markets change, new vendors will want to join, and existing vendors may want more space. Ensure you can expand the market in the years and decades to come.
Four-Seasons
Unless you’re living in a single-climate city, you will need to plan for different types of weather.
Can plows get into the parking lots to clear the snow? Would heavy rainfall cause flooding in the market? Is there adequate ventilation to expel all that stale, hot summer air? Summer will undoubtedly be the market’s high season, but that doesn’t mean it will (or should) drop off completely in colder months.
Want to learn more about what it takes to build a thriving market, business community, and city? The latest episode of the Thinc. Underground podcast welcomes Craig Busch, entrepreneur, innovator, and founder of Busch Systems International and Vision Barrie. He is driven with a purpose: to make Barrie the most connected and energized community with the highest quality of life in Canada. Full stop. “The tools are there, the question is do we make it a six out of ten, or a ten out of ten”.
Might sound like a lofty goal, but after listening to the podcast, you’ll quickly know with his leadership and team, it isn’t just plausible, it’s inevitable.
