by Bret R. Shaw

People who shop at the more than 8,700 farmers markets operating in the U.S.either year-round or seasonally generally fall into six distinct groups. Three of them are more interested in farmers markets than the others. I study local food systems as a strategic communications scholar, and that’s the main takeaway from a study that I conducted with several colleagues.

As we explained in the March 2026 edition of British Food Journal, people who fall into those groups have different levels of interest in farmers markets but also have some things in common. Most people who shop at them are motivated to go because they want healthy, fresh food, they support local farmers and they think going to the farmers market is fun.

This is not a niche activity. An earlier study I worked on found that 81% of U.S. adults said that they shop at a farmers market at least once a year.

For both studies, we pulled survey data from a nationally representative sample of 5,141 U.S. consumers that was conducted Aug. 2-11, 2023. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.

Researchers define farmers markets and local food in different ways. So we asked respondents to simply think of farmers markets as places where they can buy food directly from more than one vendor and where all or most of the items are locally grown, raised or made. We defined local food as being grown in their state or 250 miles or less from their homes.

Highly engaged, health-focused and emerging interest

We determined that about 18% of those surveyed are “highly engaged” farmers market shoppers. They care a lot about food and enjoy buying, preparing and eating fresh food. They are excited about many aspects of farmers markets, which are places where this group shops for a variety of reasons, such as supporting local farmers, buying nutritious, delicious food and connecting with community.

Nearly 65% of these shoppers were women. This group was the most diverse, with 27% of respondents identifying as Hispanic, 20% Black and 4% multiracial. They also had significantly lower average annual household incomes than other groups, averaging US$40,000-$50,000.

We found that another 18% of the people surveyed were “health-focused.” Like the highly engaged shoppers, they make buying and eating healthy food a high priority. However, this group doesn’t enjoy cooking as much. The health-focused group tends to avoid genetically modified foods, as well as convenient options like takeout food, frozen dinners and microwave-ready meals.

About 58% of them were women and their average age was 57, making them the oldest of the groups. Roughly 70% of the health-focused group was white, making it less diverse than the highly engaged group but more diverse than some of the other groups.

Finally, about 19% of the respondents were what we called “emerging interest” farmers market shoppers. They value convenience and learning about food. This group was the most likely to see going to the farmers market as a fun activity.

Emerging interest shoppers were nearly evenly split by gender, with 52% women. Their average age was 44 years old, making them the youngest of the groups.

It’s not always a love of radishes that draws shoppers to these stalls. Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Convenience, practicality and happenstance

We also identified three groups of consumers who were less interested in farmers markets than the highly engaged, health-focused and emerging interest shoppers, even if some of them do occasionally shop at the markets anyway.

About 16% of farmers market shoppers are people we identified as “convenience” shoppers. They are more likely to eat frozen dinners and buy takeout. They rarely cook meals from scratch using produce and other fresh ingredients.

About 43% of them say they never or rarely shop at a farmers market. Around 59% of them are men and 37% are people of color.

Tashana Small sells mac and cheese ‘cupcakes’ topped with pulled pork, Buffalo chicken tenders and Cajun shrimp at a farmers market on Long Island in 2023. Erica Marcus/Newsday RM via Getty Images

Roughly 17% of these shoppers fall into a “practical” category. They methodically plan their grocery shopping and are among the least interested in farmers markets, with more than half saying that they either rarely or never shop at them.

Practical consumers were close to evenly split by gender; 53% were women. Their income tended to be the highest of the groups, typically in the $60,000-$75,000 range.

We called the 12% of the shoppers in the final group we surveyed “uninvolved.” This group showed very little interest in farmers markets or any other food-related activities. About 3 in 4 rarely or never go to farmers markets. Nearly 70% of uninvolved farmers market shoppers were men and 76% were white.

When someone in the uninvolved group goes to a farmers market, they may be going out of happenstance or because someone in their life wants them to go – not due to any personal interest.

If you forget, you’ll miss it

We believe this information could help farmers markets better serve their customers and perhaps attract more shoppers.

People can, of course, go to farmers markets for more than one reason, and not everybody fits neatly into one of these categories. And everyone we surveyed had something in common: Forgetting to go was the biggest reason shoppers of all kinds didn’t make a trip to the farmers market in a given week.

Bret R. Shaw is Professor of Life Sciences Communication at University of Wisconsin-Madison. This article originally appeared on The Conversation and is shared through a Creative Commons License.

Question: Do you frequent area farmers markets? Why or why not? If not, what could be done to make them more appealing to you as a shopper?

As much as I'd like to, I do not, largely because of convinience, or the lack thereof. They're often timed when I'm working or close enough to my time to work that I can't get to them. And even if I could, the locations for many is kind of an inconvinience, particularly when it comes to parking. As nice as Wisner Market is, there's not enough there that interests me to warrant parking a block or two away and walking there. Last time we went it was largely stuff I'm just not interested in other than maybe the Amish baked stuff and one actual produce stand.

I'm sure it's great for people who work down there when they're on lunch break, but there's just not enough to draw me down there.

I continue to wish for a larger, more centralized farmers market sort of like they have at the Lewisburg Flea Market on Sundays. Lots of produce, plants, etc. I was very excited when there was talk of one at the fairgrounds, but that seems to have fizzled out.

If you count the Windmill, I do go them occasionally mostly for the Amish goodies but this year I will probably go for more veggies. I love cooking them on the flat top.

On a side note, I see Teds in big flats is carrying some Amish made baked goods so I'll need to get up there to try them out.

The Windmill had an amazing selection of produce when we were there last year. Problem is, it was jam packed with people and I couldn’t look at any of it because I had to constantly watch the people ahead of me or run into them.

I gave up and GTFO.

1 hour ago, Chris said:

The Windmill had an amazing selection of produce when we were there last year. Problem is, it was jam packed with people and I couldn’t look at any of it because I had to constantly watch the people ahead of me or run into them.

I gave up and GTFO.

Secret to the windmill is to get there when they open then you have 1-2 hours before it fills up.

2 hours ago, Mike said:

Secret to the windmill is to get there when they open then you have 1-2 hours before it fills up.

Yeah, that last trip was a reminder of why we stopped going in the first place. We'll go to Iron Kettle or someplace less congested.

I’ve been to the Windmill twice and that was two times too many.