Archive

Mom Markets provide leg up to small businesses: organizer

August 1, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

Community collectives are an effective means for people to buy the wares of artisans and service providers.

The old-time town marketplaces were a place for people to go to find what was needed and for businesses and service providers to go to be found.

Today, people can avail of the Mom Market Orangeville to effectively do business.

The Mom Market Orangeville is part of a larger market collective that spans across Canada. The movement began in 2019 and eventually served as a means for small business owners to be able to continue through the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns.

It serves Orangeville, Shelburne, and Dundalk. One of the last markets drew 250 people. The markets would regularly attract more people than that.

Joy Bhikam took over the Orangeville market and became its director in January. She has four markets planned for the remainder of this year. Markets will take place on Aug. 24 at the Orangeville Curling Club, at Monora Pavilion on Oct. 27, and at the Tony Rose Memorial Sports Centre on Nov. 30 and Dec. 15.

“And it’s been a steady uphill battle to get these markets off the ground when it really should not be,” Bhikam said. “I’ve been dealing with a lot of resistance and a lot of slanders. A lot of people not wanting to work together.”

She said it took her a long time to find out why she’d been experiencing that type of difficulty, especially since such markets are greatly beneficial to artisans and service providers.

“I figured it out,” she said. “I can’t exactly say what went wrong because it’s kind of an internal matter.”

Explaining the issue and associated rumours would end up propagating the misinformation, she said.

“I’m desperately trying to rebuild it (the local market),” Bhikam said. “But, because of the misinformation that’s in the community, I’m having a very hard time.”

In the midst of the needless drama, the community aspect of the Mom Market Orangeville has gotten lost. And that’s unfortunate for the many people who want to expand businesses beyond hobbies conducted from home or online. The whole point of the markets is to enable the community to find the vendors they need.

At the height of the pandemic shutdown when people weren’t allowed to shop in large gatherings inside venues, Moms Market Orangeville provided a means for business owners to at least try to make enough money to weather the restrictions of social distancing.

“Small businesses were struggling,” Bhikam said. “Our markets were outside and socially distanced and popular. They were super popular.”

They took off and progressed greatly.

But for reasons Bhikam would rather not spell out in specifics, the brand’s reputation was degraded, she said.

“To the point where now, when I’m trying to book vendors for markets, they will not speak to me,” she said. “And when I’m trying to book vendors, they don’t want to book me.”

She had high hopes in January of restoring the Moms Market Orangeville to benefit vendors who don’t have brick-and-mortar locations and need a way other than social media to sell their products.

“The whole point of it is to support local,” Bhikam said.

Readers Comments (0)