Farmers’ Markets Become an Unlikely Retail Growth Story

While big-box chains consolidate, weekend markets are posting double-digit growth — and building supply chains of their own. The details, assembled from interviews and documents reviewed by The News Tribune, sketch a picture more textured than the headline suggests.

For smaller firms, the shift is existential rather than statistical: contracts that once went abroad by default are being quoted locally, in weeks instead of quarters.

The easy part is the announcement. The hard part starts tomorrow.

Investors have noticed. Capital that sat on the sidelines through the downturn is moving again, and the bidding for proven operators has turned sharp.

The wider picture

Analysts say the trend has room to run, but warn that a single shock — a strait closed, a tariff imposed — could unwind months of progress in weeks.