More than three weeks after fire destroyed the main building of the St. Jacobs Farmers Market, vendors say the new normal doesn’t look too bad.
Many vendors have been able to set up temporary booths either outdoors on the market grounds or inside the Peddler’s Village building – even if they don’t quite have as much space as they did before the Sept. 2 fire.
Settling insurance claims remains an issue for some vendors, although others say they’ve reached understandings with their insurance companies and are now only waiting for the money to be released.
“At first insurance wasn’t going to cover us,” says David Schuit of Saugeen Country Honey, which now will receive a payment.
In some cases though, it’s not clear how soon that money will be made available.
Schuit estimates that between equipment and inventory, his business lost about $10,000 in the fire.
Hilltop Acres Poultry has a farm store in addition to its market location, but manager Donna Reist estimates that the company lost about 80 per cent of its business when the market building burned down.
“Even though you have a farm store, this is where the bulk of the people (come), this is where the traffic is,” she says.
Halenda’s Meats moved into a temporary indoor space for the first time Saturday.
The 40 feet of counter space they enjoyed in the main building has been pushed down to 12 feet in the new facility due to space limitations, but manager John Younie says he’s just happy to be back.
“We’ve taken a bad situation and tried to make the best of it,” he says.
Despite the losses and – in some cases – ongoing battles with insurance companies, vendors are quick to say their thoughts are with other vendors facing bigger losses.
