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Marketplace celebrates one-year anniversary
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.A capacity crowd filled The Valley Marketplace to patronize its 30 vendors for the business' one-year anniversary.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Sodas, kettlecorn, pork, ribs and lamb were among the items being sold to celebrate the first anniversay of The Valley Marketplace.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Lamb legs were being cooked during the one-year anniversary celebration for The Valley Marketplace.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Yoder's Fruit & Produce is one of 30 vendors that do business in The Valley Marketplace. The one-year anniversary of the marketplace's opening was celebrated Aug. 7-9.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Workers at Harley's Smokehouse Barbeque waited on customers on the anniversary of The Valley Marketplace's opening.
By TIM CLEVELAND
After a soft opening the first week of July 2013 and a grand opening the first week of August, The Valley Marketplace has been a successful local business.
To celebrate its one-year anniversary, the business hosted a three-day celebration Aug. 7-9.
Valley Marketplace marketing consultant Kevin Madison said the idea for doing the event was for the business owners to show their appreciation.
“To show utter gratitude to the Valley for being so supportive this first year,” he said. “These people wanted to do something to show the area and all those who patronize the market that they truly appreciate their business. They just wanted to do something special.”
The Valley Marketplace, located at 6121 South Ave., is a unique business. There are 30 vendors who have set up in the building, each an independent business owner and all of them Amish. The vendors sell everything from doughnuts to handmade furniture to pickles to pasta salads to potato salads to yard bird feeders.
“Most of them are first-time business owners who have come up with their own ideas of things that they can fall head over heels for and sell and offer to the public,” Madison said.
Plenty of food was available for purchase at the anniversary celebration, including a motor run ice cream maker, lamb, pork, ribs, kettle corn, apple turnovers and cherry turnovers.
“All the goodies and treats that the Amish are known for, plus the genuineness and kindness that comes with it,” Madison said.
More than 1,000 people were expected the first day.
Madison said business has been good for the first 12 months.
“It’s been surprisingly well, because a lot of people just aren’t familiar with the Amish culture, let alone in the old Pat Catan’s building,” he said. “A lot of people still don’t know that it’s here, so to still hold on for 12 months and do well, that says a lot about them.”
He added that The Valley Marketplace is a natural extension of the entrepreneurial spirit of the Amish.
“They’re very creative people,” Madison said. “They are able to do things that we take for granted and just make them dynamic. They are very disciplined in everything they do, and that’s what makes the market what it is.”