Comment by myself248 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by myself248 | Hacker News Reader

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That sounds like a lot of transport and staffing, but how does it compare to the numerous hands and steps that products pass through in the normal grocery supermarket supply chain?

Obviously they're handling more product at each step, but there are so many more steps and so many more miles, I could see it swinging either way.

My favorite thing about a farmer's market is that I'm talking to people with direct knowledge of the product and its production conditions. I can ask if the recent weather affected it, or what the outlook is like for the rest of the season, and usually get an intelligent answer. If something's advertised as organic or pesticide-free or whatever, I can get specifics about exactly what that means as it applies to this precise crop, not just a set of certification criteria that cover a whole industry.

And if there are ways to preserve that directness while making the market more efficient to get more products to more consumers without compromising the things that make it special, I think that's absolutely worth looking into.

It depends on the grocery store but it’s usually a wash unless it’s an ethnic grocery store that doesn’t try to maintain constant inventory. The major stores like Vons, Safeway, Fredy Meyers, Publix, etc try to maintain the same fruit and vegetables in stock year round which is really expensive and requires a lot of infrastructure to move harvests from all over the world.

Farmers markets and other stores try to focus more on seasonal produce that’s produced more locally so it can be cheaper and less energy intensive.

Yeah, the freshness and the shorter supply chain are the important elements for me. For things to show up in my supermarket, they have a very long path through distribution, warehousing, and retail. Farmers' market products often go direct from farm, to truck, to market. This allows them to carry products that don't keep as well, are already ripe, or that are subject to damage in the traditional model.

I mean at least on the West Coast of the US, my direct experience is that local farmers are selling at local grocers, that's where they sell most of their goods(that and to restaurants). Maybe not in Downtown SF or LA, but even in Davis or Sacramento for example, groceries are typically going to be locally sourced when they are in season.

This is because at the end of the day it benefits farmers and grocers to deal direct. Better produce, no middle man. Produce is very straight forward to sell by the pound too.

I think this might be because most US produce comes from California.

It is noticeable how much better vegetables and fruit are in California because it has to travel such a short distance.

yeah, it's exactly why I specified the West coast. Still applies to a lot of people on here though.

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