23 replies to this topic

[carla]

Anyone know when TNM starts?

[Sandman]

It doesn't. TNM is no more...

http://www.myfolsom....08/no-more-tnm/

[Rich_T]

Bummer. From the link you provided:

"The Folsom Historic District recently voted to cancel the popular event due to a number of problems, from cost to security. Vendors had been complaining of a lack of sales, and the event had lost its shine over the years."

Translation - there were suddenly too many teens compared to adults and young kids.

Once the food and music were cut back, it all went downhill.

[supermom]

Bummer. From the link you provided:

"The Folsom Historic District recently voted to cancel the popular event due to a number of problems, from cost to security. Vendors had been complaining of a lack of sales, and the event had lost its shine over the years."

Translation - there were suddenly too many teens compared to adults and young kids.

Once the food and music were cut back, it all went downhill.

Well, during the TNM last year, there was the historic district renovation. It was a nightmare to drive and park in that area.
I think it a bit harsh to blame the TNM failure on teenagers.
Maybe when the economy picks up, the market will be more marketable to people who aren't going out to spend, rather to find cheap entertainment.

[john]

Bummer. From the link you provided:

"The Folsom Historic District recently voted to cancel the popular event due to a number of problems, from cost to security. Vendors had been complaining of a lack of sales, and the event had lost its shine over the years."

Translation - there were suddenly too many teens compared to adults and young kids.

Once the food and music were cut back, it all went downhill.

It was on the downward slide for some time. Part of the problem was that while it attracted families, the vendors seemed to be the same ones year in and year out. The formula was the same, and while it was good for a few evenings to walk around, the only ones who truly went to it regularly were teens, who seemed to use it as a place to catch up with friends over the summer.

By and large there is nothing wrong with this, however the bigger problem was that it seemed to be more of a hindrance than a help to the businesses on Sutter Street, who pay for the event.

On the contrast, an event like Second Saturday drives people in to businesses, who not only go inside, but they buy things too. I think with the sudden popularity of Second Saturday and similar events that do not attract teens, the event's fate was sealed. I don't think there's anything wrong with focusing on something different when a formula has gotten stale. Even the uber-popular Folsom Live was spawned out of a much different event, Taste of Folsom.

Fortunately, even with the loss of Thursday Night Market, there are still plenty of options for casual summer evenings like Friday Night Concerts in the Park, and now Palladio hosts a weekly concert on Wednesdays. There are still lots of great summer events too like the Cattle Drive and Rodeo.

[Rich_T]

We will certainly survive without TNM, however I am still scratching my head as to why it got "stale". If it was worth going to in the beginning, it should have still been worth going to now. You would think that some people would still go out of a sense of tradition, while others would go because it was new to them, just like it was once new to all of us. There are tons of new families pouring into Folsom all the time, and the overall population is maybe 10k more than when TNM (actually FNM) began. I think there are two issues at work here: (1) Folsom has been built up, and people have more options (Palladio, etc) than before; (2) the actual TNM event did not merely get "stale", it got much weaker; there was very little to do or see there. People have commented before about places like San Luis Obispo with its successful weekly evening event, and obviously Folsom was not doing the right things for the right people to make this a success. It's not a huge loss, but I will still miss seeing Sutter St. filled with people strolling along on those summer evenings. It's just a little bit more character lost for our town.

[Chad Vander Veen]

Bummer. From the link you provided:

"The Folsom Historic District recently voted to cancel the popular event due to a number of problems, from cost to security. Vendors had been complaining of a lack of sales, and the event had lost its shine over the years."

Translation - there were suddenly too many teens compared to adults and young kids.

Once the food and music were cut back, it all went downhill.

I don't think teens were the problem. I think it was the fact TNM had become TNFM - thursday night flea market. The vendors and their wares were terrible. What is the point of walking around in the heat browsing booths that offer nothing but crap? And the lack of food vendors was the final nail. Street fairs live and die by food. With no street food TNM withered away

[cw68]

I don't think teens were the problem. I think it was the fact TNM had become TNFM - thursday night flea market. The vendors and their wares were terrible. What is the point of walking around in the heat browsing booths that offer nothing but crap? And the lack of food vendors was the final nail. Street fairs live and die by food. With no street food TNM withered away

Yep, definitely. I *never* went. From what it sounded like there was no reason for me to go. I'm not one to buy junk but I could happily eat my way around a garbage dump. If it would have focused around local food and music with booths thrown in for good measure I would have gone, and would have likely bought a few things here and there. But just going to buy things didn't attract me.

[aztransplant]

I don't think teens were the problem. I think it was the fact TNM had become TNFM - thursday night flea market. The vendors and their wares were terrible. What is the point of walking around in the heat browsing booths that offer nothing but crap?

EXACTLY. We went once, either last summer or the summer prior and expected more of a farmer's market atmosphere along with live music and the option to pop into the shops for food and drink. We were sorely disappointed and never came back.

Anyone ever been to Berkeley's farmers' market? I would be there every single week if located here!!!

[john]

Can't argue with the above complaints. All around the whole thing was no longer a good product for customers or merchants (who pay for the event). Perhaps in a year or two they will "reboot" the tradition and start over.

[Steve Heard]

I miss the Thursday Night Markets. It was great to stroll along, run into people we knew, or get introduced to new folks, stop in at one of the restaurants or bars, the galleries and shops, and we always did.

Some consumers complained that a lot of the businesses were closed and merchants complained that no one bought anything.

The teens sometimes were problematic, particularly when they clogged the intersection of Wool and Sutter. There was one year when there was a number of fights.

Getting the right merchants was also an issue. I had a booth there many years ago, then realized that I was among several mortgage and real estate companies, along with 2 chiropractors, Sam's Club, Dish Network, 2 churches, a yough group and a karate club. People avoided my booth as if I were contageous, and I couldn't blame them.

They also had the Blue-blocker sunglass guy, the 'everything's a dollar' booth, and various other junky booths.

When they did bring out artists, they didn't seem to do well. The toe-ring lady and the jewelry booths always seemed busy.

They tried different managers and formats. One year they got rid of the cover bands and tried different entertainment. They had the high school jazz choir, a classical string quartet and a kids dance troup. All seemed to attract only their friends and family.

They put the stage in front of Snooks, down near light rail, in front of the Chamber, Hacienda lot and up at Powerhouse.

Restaurants complained that no one would buy from them when they could get street food, so one year they banned street food and had signs in front of restaurants with the special of the day advertised. They discovered that people prefer to eat street food at a street fair.

To me, the most successful years were the ones where they had a produce stand, the olive guy, Hacienda selling burritos, Barbecue Express doing tri-tip, band playing in the street in front of Snooks, and enough adults to make the teens wary of bad behavior.

I miss those days.

[Rich_T]

I miss the Thursday Night Markets. It was great to stroll along, run into people we knew, or get introduced to new folks, stop in at one of the restaurants or bars, the galleries and shops, and we always did.

Some consumers complained that a lot of the businesses were closed and merchants complained that no one bought anything.

The teens sometimes were problematic, particularly when they clogged the intersection of Wool and Sutter. There was one year when there was a number of fights.

Getting the right merchants was also an issue. I had a booth there many years ago, then realized that I was among several mortgage and real estate companies, along with 2 chiropractors, Sam's Club, Dish Network, 2 churches, a yough group and a karate club. People avoided my booth as if I were contageous, and I couldn't blame them.

They also had the Blue-blocker sunglass guy, the 'everything's a dollar' booth, and various other junky booths.

When they did bring out artists, they didn't seem to do well. The toe-ring lady and the jewelry booths always seemed busy.

They tried different managers and formats. One year they got rid of the cover bands and tried different entertainment. They had the high school jazz choir, a classical string quartet and a kids dance troup. All seemed to attract only their friends and family.

They put the stage in front of Snooks, down near light rail, in front of the Chamber, Hacienda lot and up at Powerhouse.

Restaurants complained that no one would buy from them when they could get street food, so one year they banned street food and had signs in front of restaurants with the special of the day advertised. They discovered that people prefer to eat street food at a street fair.

To me, the most successful years were the ones where they had a produce stand, the olive guy, Hacienda selling burritos, Barbecue Express doing tri-tip, band playing in the street in front of Snooks, and enough adults to make the teens wary of bad behavior.

I miss those days.

ditto to everything you wrote

[Darth Lefty]

I ran a booth for Active 20-30 Club for two years at TNM. My observations were...

• I liked the market and I miss it. Both years, the show-runners were kind enough to donate us booth space, it was an opportunity and a gift we were very grateful to recieve.
• The people visiting were representative of who in Folsom has time to show up on a Thursday night. Young parents with strollers, or teens with their parents walking 10 paces behind. Presumably the parents and kids in between were all driving / being driven to their extracurricular activities.
• Don't (censored) about the people showing up, cater to them. Some stores had this figured out, most didn't. Stores that could set up a table out front with their smaller wares seemed to do OK.
• If you are selling food, you need to make it handy. This means it needs to go in cardboard box and be eaten with the hands and be ready in a few minutes. Asking people to wait half an hour to buy food to-go off the regular menu, or asking them to come inside and abandon the fair to sit at a table for an hour, is stupid. People who realized this did ok... Chicago Fire always sold a lot of pizza by the slice and Old Europe sold sausages. The owners of My Cousin Vinny's were always willing to hand out coupons and (censored) to the other vendors, but not to actually sell the people who actually showed up what they actually wanted.
• It sounds declasse, but if it were easier to buy a beer and carry it around, it would have been nice. Beer sold by the glass outdoors for $5 or more has high margins for the seller and attracts the people with money to spend. For legal reasons this means gates and bouncers, it's an added dimension that they probably didn't want to deal with weekly. For a yearly event in a location like the state fair, it works better. Beer gardens are an OK substitute but again, it cuts you off from browsing.
• I'm not sure an evening farmers market is really a good idea. It will never seem fresh, even if it really is. People want to do these things on weekend mornings. They want the fantasy that what's on sale at 9AM was picked at 6AM.

[caligirlz]

[*]I'm not sure an evening farmers market is really a good idea. It will never seem fresh, even if it really is. People want to do these things on weekend mornings. They want the fantasy that what's on sale at 9AM was picked at 6AM.
[/list]

Apparently this isn't desirable for Folsom, but it works in many other cities, and it rocks! My home town Visalia, with an average summer temp of 100+, has a very happening evening Farmer's Market that specializes in produce, music and other activities. But produce, a real Farmer's Market with multiple farmers (2 blocks worth), is the main attraction. The other example is San Luis Obispo Higera St.

(This has been talked about extensively I believe last year, but the Folsom merchants don't appear to be interested)

This is a huge pet peeve against Folsom IMO.

Plus, there aren't any morning Farmer's Market in Folsom during the weekend that I'm aware of for us working folk. And no, I want a multi-vendor market. I'm not paying top price for one vendor's wares.

[Steve Heard]

Plus, there aren't any morning Farmer's Market in Folsom during the weekend that I'm aware of for us working folk. And no, I want a multi-vendor market. I'm not paying top price for one vendor's wares.

Sunday mornings at the new plaza on Sutter, from 8 to noon.