Debate: Did that random guy at the bus stop actually know what he was talking about?

I was in Portland last Tuesday waiting for the 12 bus and this older dude starts saying the local farmers market produce is a total scam... that they buy from the same distributors as the grocery stores. I laughed it off but then I looked up two vendors online and found out they're registered under a corporate address. So which is it... are farmers markets mostly legit or full of marketing tricks? Anyone else run into something you were sure was fake but turned out real or the other way around?

2 comments

2 Comments

miles_garcia1mo ago

I had a similar experience at the Saturday market in Eugene a few years back. A vendor was selling "organic" honey for double the price, but when I checked the jar's label it had a packing address that traced back to a big commercial apiary in California. That made me dig deeper, and I found that about a third of the vendors at that market were just reselling wholesale stuff from the same warehouses as the grocery stores. My rule now is to only buy from vendors who can show me a farm photo or let me visit their stand more than once.

jamie7701mo ago

Stick with the sellers who actually know where their stuff comes from.