IsCool

Great Farmer's Markets In Northern Virginia

So, Farmer's Markets are cool.  Michelle Obama is into them.  They have got to be in if the First Lady is spending her valuable time promoting FM's in DC and in the entire nation.  Indeed, Mrs. Obama has been able to get a FM to open just blocks from the White House. 

But what about those of us who live in Northern Virgina?  We don't have the time or the parking space that Mrs. Obama has to go into DC.  What is available near to where we live.

Why Go?  This quote sums it up:

• I love farmer's markets- I buy as much of my groceries from them as possible. I never buy fruit & rarely buy groceries from the store when farmer's market's are in open (May-Nov give or take). I also buy most of my bread/pasta/cheese/yogurt from them, but not meat or eggs because they are too expensive. Occasionally flowers if they are priced right. I get all my plants/herbs from them in spring.

Where to start:

In my quest to find a simple list of FM's in NoVa I decided to Google it and found a great list at About.com.

• You can find this list here = http://tinyurl.com/ylhhh38

But, Really What Is Each Place Like? 

I wanted to get a better sense of the character of each FM.  What is good?  What should you look out for?   What vendors are a must?   So, I did what any self respecting social media "guru" would do, I decided to survey my friends and family through this Google Document Survey located here.  Go ahead, take it yourself.

Alexandria:

• Old Town Alexandria Upper King Street market on Wednesday afternoons (http://alexandriava.gov/FarmersMarket). This is a small market but convenient to walk to from my office. I like the produce from one local farmer (from Charles County, Md).

Falls Church

• Click here to see a FC FM photo stream.
  
• I go to the FC Farmers Market.  I can walk over there with the dog (though can't take the dog into the market), get to visit lots of friends & neighbors, enjoy the energy of the place, and love the bread samples.
• Falls Church Farmer's Market Saturdays--best selection in the area; uniformly fine products;open all year. Great to shop when it opens at 8am; very crowded by 9am.
• If we're going to the FM in Virginia, we go to Falls Church. I like it because there's a wide variety of farmers/vendors, and I run into lots of people that I know.
• Falls Church City - like the variety, can walk to playground, Pancake House, etc.  
• I go to the Farmers Market in the City of Falls Church (off Park Street) primarily because it's on Saturday and I work full-time during the week.  The other nice benefit is that we usually go to the nearby park afterwords.  The market seems to have a great variety of vendors and offerings such as jams, soaps, meats, coffee, fudge, etc. in addition to the standard fruits and vegetables.
  

Arlington:

• The Columbia Pike market in Arlington on Sunday mornings (http://www.columbiapikepartnership.com/MARKET/index_E.html). This is also a relatively small market, easy to find parking, not too crowded. Also, I often see my old neighbors there, which is nice.
• I don't live in Arlington anymore, but when I used to live in an apartment on Lee Highway, I went to the Arlington Courthouse Farmer's Market.  I went because it had a great collection of food, because you could meet the people that grew or made the food, because they expanded beyond produce to introduce other artisanal foods, because it was a great place to bump into neighbors and friends, and most of all, because I could WALK to it! :)

Annandale:

• I prefer the Annandale (Mason District Park) market. I go there before work on Thursday mornings, arriving just as it opens at 8. I like it because it's uncrowded at that hour; it's easy for me to make my purchases and get on the road to work by about 8:15. I'm a fan of Twin Springs Fruit Farm at the Annandale Market.
• I have been going to the Thursday Farmer's Market at Mason District every Thursday for the past 6 years.  I was addicted to the apples from the market... ate about 3 a day!! Ever since then, I got to know most of the farmers personally. They have seen me through two pregnancies and have seen my kids grow. I can actually leave my kids with some of them while I shop!  They all know my kids and me by name and we have such a great time every week we go! I love the produce (I buy lbs and lbs of tomatoes every week!!) and breads and flowers and honey and EVERYTHING there! After we are done shopping (and socializing), we usually go to the playground or play soccer on the field, and have a picnic lunch. Thursday is definitely by far my favorite day of the week, partly because of the Mason District Farmer's market. I am already waiting for the first week it starts up again next spring!
• I go to the Annandale Farmers Market.  I like the location and the time of the week.  The parking is not always the best at this location and I miss the kettle corn stand!
• I go to the Annandale Farmers Market regularly because it is close convenient and vendors have good fresh fruits and vegetables. They also have a good mix of organic farmers and conventional farmers.  It is less crowded than Falls Church which I use occasionally because it has more vendors with a wider variety of specialty and prepared foods (crab cakes/ breads, etc.)

Why Marketers Have No Clue - Or How Panera Bread Is Slowly Losing The Loyalty Of One Customer

UPDATE:  I sent my post to Panera HQ and I've posted their response at the bottom.  A good response: quick, calm, and fair.  Still not doing it for me.

This is so #IsNotCool.

Panera's new "loyalty" program, MyPanera, is actually making me LESS Loyal.  In fact, the program simply sucks.  Know why?  Marketing folks designed it.

Marketers love to think that they understand their customers.   They talk about things like:

• Being Customer Centric
• Listening To Our Customers
• Implementing Customer Relationship Management Software to better understand what customer's need
• Putting Customers First
• The Customer is Always Right
• Implementing "Voice of the Customer" programs
• Putting together "Customer Advisory Councils"

When in reality Marketers sit in their offices at Head Quarters dreaming up ways to MAKE MORE MONEY FROM CUSTOMERS WITHOUT PISSING THEM OFF.  Often, they get it wrong.

This is the case with Panera Bread and me.  

Panera (PNRA: once known as the St. Louis Bread Company) has been on a rapid growth path for most of this decade and I can proudly say that I contributed (perhaps too much according to my credit card statements) to that growth.

In fact, I just ate there this morning and I've probably eaten there at least 3 times a month since 2001.   That is a lot of bread.

If the implementation of their latest marketing program "MyPanera" is any indication, then the folks at the Motley Fool have it right with their article from January, 2009 "The Worst Stock for 2009:  Panera Bread".

How bad is MyPanera? 

Let's start by saying that It is a rare thing for me to 1) Call the HQ of a company to talk for 20 minutes about how much I hate something and 2) to write a blog post about the ways in which this program really stinks.

MyPanera is a "loyalty" program where customers are given the ubiquitous loyalty card and key chain stub to swipe every time you buy something.   I was told that it was implemented to replace the typical punch card (buy 10 coffees and get one free) that many customers had.   "They were costing us too much money", I was told by a guy from HQ.

I put "loyalty" in quotation marks because in my case MyPanera is a card that is destroying my loyalty and my emotional attachment to the brand.

How?

Well, in my mind a loyalty card should do one thing and one thing well.  It should reward me for being a regular customer and it should reward me with, wait for it, PRODUCTS I WANT TO BUY OR EAT.

What does the MyPanera program do?

It rewards me with offers for products that I DO NOT WANT TO BUY OR EAT, EVER.

For example, I regularly buy coffee and bagels with cream cheese at Panera.  That is what I like and what I want when I eat there.

What was the "offer" I received from the MyPanera card after a few weeks of buying NOTHING BUT BAGELS AND COFFEE AND CREAM CHEESE?

• A free pastry
• $1 off a cookie

Panera.   LISTEN TO ME.  CAREFULLY.

If all I buy is BAGELS AND COFFEE AND CREAM CHEESE there is a good chance that I DO NOT want pastries and cookies.

In fact, let me be clear.   Crystal.

• I don't want a pastry
• I don't want a cookie
• I don't want $1 off either one

What I want is a discount or free BAGELS, COFFEE AND CREAM CHEESE.

Now, I know what these quantitative marketers at Panera are trying to do from their cozy little offices in the mid west.  I was once one of them.

They are trying to MAKE MORE MONEY while, on the surface, telling their customers that they are listening to them.

Now, there is nothing wrong with making MORE MONEY.  That is what companies are meant to do.  Right.

But, a program that is meant to reward loyalty.  Not that instead PISSES OFF A LOYAL CUSTOMER!

Oh, and what about the operations of the company and making ordering easier and employees happier?

In this case the MyPanera card does the following:

• Slows down the ordering process
• Confuses the employees
• Makes customers mad

For example, this morning I bought BAGELS, CREAM CHEESE AND COFFEE and asked my wonderful server what I could get with MyPanera card.  Here is what occurred:

1. She tried at least 5 times to swipe the card.
2. She told me I had $1 off a cookie (this is at breakfast, mind you)
3. I then told her that I had talked to HQ and was told that I could "substitute" a reward.  So I asked her to simply take $1 off the order. 
4. She had to get the manager.   (2 mins later he came)
5. He looked frustrated.   He was required to "key in" and remove the $1.
6. I told him that HQ said it was OK to remove the $1.  He mentioned that they were trying to get HQ to make it a simple change in the system.

Meanwhile the line behind me was piling up.

So, there you have it.   MyPanera sucks for:

1. Customers, and
2. Employees

Anyone listening at HQ?

This is for you:

UPDATE 6.19.09:

Dear Shaun,

Thank you for contacting Panera Bread. We are disappointed that you think so little of our new MyPanera rewards program that we are testing in our Northern Virginia market, but we welcome your feedback. I have shared your comments with appropriate representatives at Panera, LLC.

This program is in its infancy, not quite two months old, so we are obviously still working out the kinks. The more visits and the longer you are in the program, the more significant your rewards become. You should, however, be able to substitute a bagel for a pastry if you wish. As I mentioned, though, it is a brand new program for which our Northern Virginia associates have been trained, but there is no training to substitute for experience in the bakery-café. If you will let me know which bakery-café (address and/or store number) you normally visit, I will contact them to clear up any confusion.

We have no record here of your call to "headquarters," so don't know to whom you spoke. Our coffee/bagel club freqency cards are being discontinued due to wide-spread fraudulent sale of these cards on internet auction sites. However, we will continue to accept stamped cards through June 30, 2009 at participating bakery-cafes.

We hope you will be patient with us as we try to develop a program that will reward our loyal customers.

Thank you again for contacting us. We appreciate your business and value your comments.

Sincerely,
Stella
Customer Comment Coordinator
Panera, LLC