Increasing customer purchases at farmers markets using point-of-sale scanner data

Until recently, lack of customer transaction data at farmers markets prevented strategic vendor decision making to increase customer purchases. We collect point-of-sale data on over 26,000 transactions in 2021 from 10 livestock farms at 22 farmers markets in New York State. We find noncash payment types, earlier sale hours, product differentiation, and lower customer densities are associated with higher customer transaction size, as is the number of product groups (species) and item variety offered by vendors. Marginal expenditure effects on over 30 meat product categories across seven livestock species provide valuable information on alternative product offerings and pricing.