NEW ALBANY, Ind. — Just in the last month, a business new to Kentuckiana has launched inside the Floyd County Fairgrounds. It's called Market Wagon, and it's bringing the farmer's market to neighbor's doorsteps.
"Everything is directly from the farmer just like a regular farmer's market, but we deliver to your door," said Amber Kelly, the market coordinator for Market Wagon.
All the products are from local farmers or vendors. Orders can be placed online, and then farmers bring their purchased product to the fairgrounds to be distributed by Market Wagon weekly.
"It really helps them get their products to more customers," said Kelly.
Even so, Kelly said opening up during a pandemic has brought its challenges.
"Everyone wears masks, we're cleaning and sanitizing our bags our ice packs," she said.
But for Market Wagon's CEO Nick Carter, the pandemic made it even more crucial start offering service in Kentuckiana.
"As soon as the pandemic hit, one of the things that we realized is that farmers were really hit hard," he said. "We really wanted to get open as fast as possible so that we could minimize the impact that the closures of farmers markets and local restaurants and buyers like that have had on the farming community in the area."
Since launching four weeks ago, Carter says the company has seen success.
"It's been our biggest new city launch yet in the history of the company and we've launched eight cities," he said, adding that the pandemic may have contributed to that. "That changed the buying behavior across the board. And suddenly things that were a little suspicious to a lot of people, buying product online for example, suddenly became normal behavior. We had to do it. We were forced into it."
Right now more than two dozen vendors or farmers in Kentuckiana are working with Market Wagon. Carter says the company is adding more products every day.
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