How We Did This: Bow Market's On-the-Fly Innovation During Covid-19
So many Boston area businesses are innovating in real time to adapt to the new guidelines during the Covid-19 pandemic, ensuring that the public continues to eat safely and while supporting our local food community.
Take Bow Market’s new “Safe Supply Outdoor Grocery Store:” With little to no notice, the vendors of the Union Square, Somerville retail collaborative put their heads together and came up with a touchless, 6-feet-away method for customers to get the local food they need while preventing the spread of the virus. Hopefully this kind of novel system can be replicated across the city and the country as we all adapt to our new reality.
We asked Bobby McClean, proprietor of Bow’s In Season Food Market, how their reservations-only marketplace came about. Here’s what he said:
“We had been planning to host farmers throughout the spring and summer to complement our offerings at In Season.
It is notoriously hard for small grocery stores to do a great job of stocking produce. And people love buying directly from their farmers. We already had a couple of farms lined up to pop-up in front of our store this spring.
When we heard that the Somerville [Winter] Farmers Market was closed, we realized that we wanted to start our pop-ups ahead of schedule.
At the same time, Chris Haskell of Mycoterra Farm proposed popping up in the courtyard with some produce. Mushrooms, sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, that might otherwise go to waste, since he usually sells at the [Saturday morning] farmers market.
We said that this sounded like a great idea.
Soon Matthew Boyes-Watson (one of the creators of Bow Market) was looped in and it mushroomed into a full-blown market, with as many Bow Market food vendors as possible involved.
Perhaps it was Matt (?) who came up with the idea of pre-scheduled spots via Eventbrite, to keep people spaced out.
We discussed how in France, many old-school markets still don't let you touch the food. You walk through them and tell your vegetable peddler what you would like. It is a civilized and old-world experience, harking back to a time before the existence of big industrial self-service grocery, and we know that it works.
We thought that we would take it a step further and place a string around all of the stands, to keep people back six feet. But we would maintain the human interaction. Human bonding over food is so necessary, that is a big appeal of the farmers market and of our shop.
In only a couple of days, Matt and Leah (who runs the event space at Bow, The Canopy Room) organized this big safe shopping event, pre-booking over 400 time slots for the first weekend, with a waitlist.
Mandee of Mandee Made, a chalk artist and part of the Bow community, drew a million beautiful chalk signs literally overnight, and covered the courtyard with the human-scale board game path of circles that snakes past all of the different stands.
Frozen, Bakery, Dairy, Dry Goods, Produce, Fish.
We decided to keep it to the staples. To make sure that we are providing what the local population needs, while giving them the opportunity to shop local and support all of the food businesses that might otherwise go under.
We are eternally grateful to everyone who comes to Safe Supply—you are the only reason that In Season and many other local businesses are still in business!”
Upcoming Safe Supply dates are Wednesday, April 1st, Saturday April 4th and Sunday, April 5th. Reserve your 30-minute shopping window through Eventbrite, here>>
When you’re done shopping, you can pop in to Remnant Brewing for some cans or crowlers or even a bag or two of coffee. This market truly is a one-stop shop—and a wonderful way to #supportlocal. And don’t forget to return to Bow when the full marketplace reopens—there are some incredible small businesses there that don’t happen to sell food and therefore have had to close temporarily. They need your help, too.
who's involved:
Matt (Bow Market)
Leah (The Canopy Room)
Mandee (Mandee Made)
The Biscuit (bakery)
Hooked Fish Shop, Buenas, Jaju, Maca, Koshari Mama, Saus (Bow vendors)
In Season (and about 100 small local businesses that we carry, including Japanese teas from the new Bow Market shop being built out, Crane & Turtle)
Local Farms: Brookford, Mycoterra, Stillman Quality Meats, Red Fire....
