Here are some good reasons to visit your local market…

Fresh produce

Wide variety of goods at affordable prices

Healthy open air activity all year round

Sense of community

Atmosphere

Dependability

Individual service

Environmentally  friendly

even more interesting reasons to visit your local market…

if you are new to an area, it’s a great way to meet local characters, hear local gossip and find out what is important to those who live in the area.

You’ll find goods that you won’t necessarily find on the High St. 

Some markets run alongside weekly auctions eg. Diss Auction is on the same day as the Friday Market and Fakenham Auction is on market day too, Thursday.

If you treat the traders with friendly respect, in most cases they’ll welcome you back like an old friend. 

 How to find out what days markets are on and where…

Visit the local tourist office

Go online, most councils have a list of markets

Look in the local newspaper

Some handy tips…

Don’t confuse markets with car boots.  Car boots are a very different affair.  The major difference being, car booters are private sellers out to make extra cash.  Market traders are business people who are out to make their living.

While haggling over price might be acceptable at a car boot, market traders do not take kindly to this practice.  Don’t believe everything you see on TV.  You wouldn’t haggle over price in a shop so treat a market stall as an outdoor shop.  If the trader wants to give you a discretionary discount, leave it up to them.

The most annoying question for a market trader is ‘what’s your best price?’  The best price is the one on the ticket! 

 If you would like to set up as a market trader…

Do your research, talk to traders, find out pitch prices, research your product – decide whether you could cope with freezing temperatures throughout the winter, business can’t just stop then! It’s not as easy as it looks.

There are different types of markets…

City centre markets (sometimes indoors).  Norwich Market is a great example of a regenerated market with stalls on permanent covered pitches.  City markets are usually open 6-7 days per week.

Weekly town markets, find out from the council or tourist office what day the market is on.  They are usually on one or two days a week.   Eg. Sheringham Market is on a Saturday all year round and on Wednesday April-October.

Farmer’s Market are usually on once or twice a month, selling fresh produce straight from the farm.

Fleamarkets might be on the same day as the weekly town market, eg. Fakenham.

Try something different from the everyday shopping malls, visit a market and hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised.

They have been running a course for people who might want to set up a stall and successful applicants will be given stall equipment to help them get started.

The new stalls will be in place around about March 2010.

The idea to fund this initiative came as Stalham Market was in danger of disappearing altogether which would have been a blow for the local community.  

Hopefully it will be a successful initiative and the NNDC and Happing Partnership will provide longterm support and promotion to Stalham Market.  Should it work well, perhaps the interested parties will provide such support to other markets across North Norfolk?  Before they start to disappear too.

Last week at Sheringham Market ten or so traders managed to get to market only to set up on a snow covered car park, this week at Fakenham Market only four traders managed the treacherous journey and the same happened at Sheringham Market.

Before the New Year even started conditions were difficult to trade in.  On Christmas Eve traders at Fakenham Market found they could hardly stand up on the icy car park which had not been gritted so  had to curtail what should have been a very busy trading day for all of them. 

At Diss Market conditions weren’t so bad and the market went ahead as planned.  Traders did have to contend with the fact that one of the main roads into the town was blocked while a new railway bridge was delivered but at least they did get a full day’s trade in, albeit quieter than usual.

This week snow conditions became even worse and hit markets (as they have everyone) once again, few traders could make it out to trade.

Still hopefully this ice age will soon pass and markets throughout Norfolk and indeed throughout East Anglia can get back to trading at normal.

Diss Market is on every Friday througout the year and hosts the following stalls:

Fishmongers, Fruit & Veg, Eggs, Foodstuffs, Pet Foods, Plants & Flowers, Car cleaning accessories, Ladies clothing, Men’s clothing, Underwear, Nightwear, socks, Tools, Jewellery & Scarves, Silver Jewellery Stall, Mobile Phone Accessories, Sweets. 

Visit the Hotdog Stall for a delicious snack, and enjoy chips from Sylvie’s famous Chip wagon!

The aim of this blog is to get you interested in shopping at markets in Norfolk and enjoy all they have to offer.  Markets are a very traditional way to shop, part of our national heritage and the hub of our rural towns so it is important that we keep them going for a variety of reasons.

This blog will show you what our Norfolk Markets look like, what you can find to buy, where they are located and lots more.  The sister blogs are www.sheringhammarket.blogspot.com and www.fakenhammarket.blogspot.com which are specifically about those markets.  The Norfolk Markets blog will be more general with interesting historical facts, and information about markets across the county.

If you are inspired to shop at markets, leave us a comment telling us why and what markets mean to you.