Farmers market not threatened by grocery store

Curtis Fisher of Greensburg has been a beekeeper for 45 years, and now that he’s retired, he… Curtis Fisher of Greensburg has been a beekeeper for 45 years, and now that he’s retired, he keeps busy by selling his honey, jams and jellies as a vendor at the Oakland Farmers Market.

They’re locally produced, pesticide-free and such a specialized product that Fisher said he isn’t worried about competition from the new supermarket on Forbes Avenue.

In fact, Fisher believes that business will get even better in the next month as more and more repeat customers come back to his stall.

‘You have to build a following and that’s [something] I don’t have, being new here,’ said Fisher.

Fisher’s sense that the new IGA supermarket in Oakland won’t change business at the weekly Oakland Farmers Market is shared by both the other vendors and the students who shop there.

Martin Lynn, a student at the Community College of Allegheny County who recently moved to South Oakland, said that he’s been shopping at the farmers market for about the last three weeks.

He says he shops there for the cheap produce and the convenience.

‘I basically live down the street,’ he said.

Whether or not Lynn continues to shop at the farmers market depends on the selection of produce and the prices at the new supermarket.

‘[The farmers market] is still cheaper than most grocery stores,’ he said.

He also doesn’t expect to find better quality produce at the new supermarket.

Jonathan Cingota of Indiana, Pa., has been selling mushrooms at the Oakland Farmers Market for about a month now at his stall, ‘Mushrooms For Life.’

He says that business could be better in Oakland, but he’s not really worried about the new supermarket.

‘ ‘I’ve got such a specialized niche that, unless they’re selling for less than the cost of production, it’s not going to hurt me,’ said Cingota.

However, he hasn’t decided whether or not he will continue to operate his stall in Oakland.’

‘We’ll see how things go,’ he said.

Jennifer Macasek, a senior at Pitt, has been shopping at the farmers market for the last two years and said that she does about a quarter of her grocery shopping at the market.

‘ ‘I like that it’s local,’ said Macasek. ‘You know that [your produce] hasn’t been on a truck for two days.’

She said that the new supermarket on Forbes will be useful in the winter, but it won’t change how she shops at the Oakland Farmers Market.

‘ ‘As long as it’s summer, I think people will still come [to the farmers market] and get what they can,’ she said.