Boutiques, WiFi, restaurant: You’ll soon find this and more — at an SC farmers market

The Pee Dee State Farmers Market looks frozen in time — open air, tables covered in fresh vegetables and an ice cream stand, but it also has empty buildings and abandoned lots, signs of what once was.

Most of the clientele on a given day are 50 and older, many of them retirees, or even farmers themselves. That narrow customer base has contributed to the decline of the Pee Dee market, its manager, Bob Sager, says.

There are other problems as well: Grocery stores have siphoned off customers for decades. Some farms that used to sell at the market now sell directly from the field. And a general lack of state support until a few years ago made it hard for more modern businesses (say, ones that need internet access) to open up shop.

“Farmers markets were originally set up really to be a service and a way to help promote the local produce and particularly the farmers to grow it,” Sager said. “Over the years, the number of people like that has just been declining.”

These problems are not new. What is new is the South Carolina Department of Agriculture’s desire — and the steps it has taken in the past two years — to help revive the state’s farmers markets.

A few years back, South Carolina assistant agriculture commissioner Aaron Wood saw the decline of the Pee Dee market along with its Greenville and Columbia counterparts and set out to get funding from the state to support what he saw as symbols of the state’s agriculture industry and heritage.

“People want to come to a thriving, vibrant environment,” Wood said. “That’s why we’ve seen a resurgence in downtowns. It is more about people valuing the experiences today.”

The state agreed to help the farmers markets and allocated hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrades and maintenance that had been deferred for years. One of the first steps Wood took at the Florence-based Pee Dee market was to hire Sager, a 30-year veteran of the retail industry. Sager didn’t have any experience in agriculture but what he did have, Wood said, was the ability to reshape the market and improve the experience of both customers and vendors alike.

At the Pee Dee market, Sager spent the legislature’s funding on new fencing, an electric street sign to increase visibility to drivers and, soon, public WiFi, an essential upgrade that businesses have needed for years to run credit and debit card transactions. He also paid to add a new patio deck and furniture near the entrance to the main shopping area for people to sit and break from shopping, or even eat.

Sager also set up a new stand called “S.C. Made,” a play off of the state’s “S.C. Grown” slogan, that specifically caters to short-term vendors who sell manufactured products, like Tailored Flavor, a Columbia-based online shop that sells tea and spice mixes.

“We see diversifying the offering as part of what’s going to help keep us a vibrant entity,” he said. “We still have great produce. We still have fresh produce throughout the entire year. There just isn’t as much of it.”

Longtime chef Denise Taylor said she never would have been able to bring Tailored Flavor to the Pee Dee State Farmers Market before the S.C. Made stand opened. She had always hoped to sell there but didn’t want to sign a months-long lease. Instead, she prefers to hop from one farmers market to the next to get a wide range of potential customers.

“Everybody has a right to have good flavor,” Taylor said.

Each customer who came by her stand got a walk-through of all her products, which she enjoys, “I like to be direct with the people ... because my stuff is so unique.”

She also doesn’t want to sell in a grocery store, saying that farmers markets and direct-to-consumer sales let her keep her prices down.

A changing experience

The Pee Dee State Farmers Market has the most traditional appearance of the three state-owned and operated farmers markets. Unlike the Midlands Farmers Market, the Pee Dee market is entirely open air, save for the two indoor shops, a landscaping business and Two Girls Treasure, an antique store.

Barely half the space in the main building is devoted to selling produce these days. The remainder is made up of plant shops and smaller boutique stores that sell locally made products.

Johnny Ivey, visiting on a recent Thursday afternoon, said he used to have a stand 10 years ago selling organic produce at the farmers market. One of the biggest changes he’s seen over the year has been that “it seems like the farmers just are not as active as they used to be.”

“That’s the only let down,” he said, as his wife, Karel, interjected, “It’s because we old now, and the young ones don’t want to take it over.”

Customers at the market that day said they’d been coming for decades. They’d seen the market change quite a bit, from initial declines in the quantity and variety of produce stands to the rise of new boutique shops selling goods like succulents, pottery and wine.

“I usually stop by and look at the flowers and stuff and get me some apples, oranges, grapes, okra, tomatoes and squash. That’s what I do on my way home,” said Barbara Reddick, who was visiting one of several plant and flower shops at the farmers market. She said her father used to have a vegetable garden, but “we don’t get those kinds of vegetables anymore. The only way I get them now is I have to come to the market.

The market still hosts McLeod Farms, a famous local mainstay inside the building’s only air conditioned space, which sells ice cream and had locally produced honey and strawberries on a recent visit.

Other businesses, like Holly Beaumier’s succulents shop, are only a few weeks old. She decided to start selling plants after spending the last year growing them and pawning off dozens on her friends and family.

“I just found that gathering plants made me happy, and then I gathered too many, and so I thought I would come out here,” she said.

A red barn, which sits vacant near the property’s entrance, used to be a restaurant. Sager hopes it will soon become one again, the Farmers Market Barn and Grill.

Adding the restaurant — and WiFi — is part of Sager’s plans to change the demographics of the market’s customer base. He wants to appeal more to younger families by making the market more than just a place to shop.

Sager also plans to host more events at the farmers market, including a 4th of July festival with bluegrass bands performing. He also wants to add electric vehicle charging stations for people with electric cars who might have to drive far from a city to get the market.

“Right now, the demographics are a lot of old people like me,” Sager said. “We need to expand that.”

Plant and Flower Sale returns

While the Pee Dee State Farmers Market was designated an essential business by both South Carolina and the federal government, the market did have to cancel two major events because of the COVID-19 pandemic — its semiannual Plant and Flower Sales.

The Spring and Fall Plant and Flower Sales often draw 20,000 people to the Pee Dee market. Every inch of the market, fairly empty day-to-day, will be covered in people, cars and vendors. The sales also provide the market’s biggest sources of revenue and are essential to the state’s desire to make its farmers markets self-sustaining.

This year, they’re returning. The spring sale starts this week and runs through April 22-25.

“The plant and flower festivals have been really the mainstay of the market,” Sager said. “This is by far our biggest event of the year. ... There’s no question that you’re going to find the largest selection of plants and flowers anywhere that you’ve ever seen.”

Marilyn Henderson said she’s loved to see how much the market has grown over the years. She often comes to the market several times a year to buy flowers and said she loves all of the additional vendors that come for the the festival.

“I can find everything I need over here, which is wonderful,” said Henderson, who lives in Hartsville and was visiting the market on a Thursday afternoon with her husband.

The Pee Dee State Farmers Market is located at 2513 W. Lucas St., Florence, S.C.