Selling at a farmers market costs a booth fee each market day, card fees on what you take by card, the cost of the products you sell, help if you bring it, driving and samples, plus gear, an application or permit and insurance that you pay once a season or once a year. In the example below, a small food maker spends about $740 on gear once, about $600 a season on gear wear, the application and a permit, and about $225 on each market day besides the products. On a $595 day, that leaves about $173 for the owner's seven hours. The day breaks even at about $330 of sales, around 28 customers at a $12 average. Below is every cost, a market day worked through, the break-even, and what changes it most.
The short version
- Once: tent, weights, table, signs, a card reader. About $740 in the example.
- Each season or year: application, permit if needed, product liability insurance.
- Each market day: booth fee, card fees, help, driving, samples, and the products you sell.
- Work out the day's profit after the products, not from the takings.
- Break-even sales = the day's fixed costs ÷ what's left of each dollar after products and card fees.
- Help is often the biggest day cost; it's also what lets you serve a queue.
- TaroStack tracks what goes to market, what comes back, and what each product really costs. More below.
The costs, once, each season, each day
| Cost | Example | When |
|---|---|---|
| Canopy tent, 10 × 10 | $250 | Once |
| Tent weights | $60 | Once |
| Folding tables | $120 | Once |
| Tablecloths, signs, price cards | $150 | Once |
| Card reader | $59 | Once |
| Display crates and baskets | $100 | Once |
| Gear, once | $739 | |
| Market application or membership | $50 | Each season |
| Permit, if your state or county requires one for what you sell | $150 | Each season |
| Product liability insurance | $900 | Each year, and it covers wholesale too |
| Booth fee | $40 | Each market day |
| Card fees, about 3% of card sales | $14 | Each market day |
| A helper, 7 hours at $18 | $126 | Each market day |
| Driving and parking | $15 | Each market day |
| Samples, at cost | $10 | Each market day |
Some markets charge a percentage of sales instead of a flat booth fee, or as well; ask before you apply. Many ask for product liability insurance with the market named as an additional insured. What you can sell from a home kitchen, and where, depends on your state; Hawaii's rules are in Hawaii cottage food law.
A market day, worked through
Windward Roots, the made-up taro business I use in these examples, takes three products to a Saturday market:
| Product | Sold | Price | Sales | Cost each | Cost of goods |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taro chips, 5 oz | 40 | $7 | $280 | $2.10 | $84.00 |
| Guava jam, 8 oz | 15 | $12 | $180 | $5.22 | $78.30 |
| Chili pepper water, 5 fl oz | 15 | $9 | $135 | $2.27 | $34.05 |
| Total | 70 | $595 | $196.35 |
Sales $595.00
Cost of goods − $196.35
Card fees (80% by card, 3%) − $14.28
Booth − $40.00
Helper, 7 hours at $18 − $126.00
Driving and parking − $15.00
Samples − $10.00
Share of season costs ($600 ÷ 30 days) − $20.00
Profit for the day $173.37
That's about $25 an hour for the owner's seven hours, before the year's insurance, which the business carries for its wholesale customers anyway. The product costs come from starting a jam business and hot sauce business plan.
The break-even
Fixed costs for the day = booth $40 + helper $126 + driving $15 + samples $10 + season share $20 = $211
Left of each dollar = 1 − 33.0% cost of goods − 2.4% card fees = 64.6%
Break-even sales = $211 ÷ 0.646 = about $330
Customers to break even = $330 ÷ $12 average sale = about 28
Without the helper, the day's fixed costs are $85, and the break-even drops to about $132. That's why many makers work their first season alone and add help once the queue is losing them sales. The same arithmetic, for a whole business, is in break-even point for a food business.
What changes the numbers most
| Lever | Effect on the example |
|---|---|
| Bring help, or don't | $126 a day; the biggest single cost after the products |
| A higher average sale | Bundles, a 3 for $20 on chips, a gift box |
| Products with a lower cost share | The chips leave 70 cents of each dollar; the jam 56.5 |
| The right market | A $40 booth at a busy market beats a $20 booth at a quiet one |
| What comes home | Shelf-stable products come back as stock; fresh ones are waste |
How much to bring, so you don't sell out by ten or haul half of it home, is in how much inventory for a craft fair.
Get the calculator
Download the market day calculator. Type each product's price, cost and how many sold, and your booth, help, driving and season costs; it works out the day's profit, the profit per hour, the break-even sales and the customers you need to reach it. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The calculator is only as good as the numbers you type in after a long day. What went to market is a guess from the packing list, what came back is a crate nobody counted, and the jam's cost is from a sheet last updated in spring. So the day's profit is a feeling, and you can't tell which market, or which product, is paying for the others.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the numbers behind each market day, from the van to the table and back.
The stall is a site. A market stall can be its own site, like your kitchen or warehouse. What you load is a transfer to the stall, and what comes home is a transfer back, so you know what went, what came back, and what's in the van.
Counting at the table, with no signal. Counts work on a phone where there's no signal, as at plenty of markets, and send themselves when you're back in range. Samples, spoiled and expired stock are recorded with their reason, so the losses report shows what samples and waste cost you, by item and by site.
The right stock goes out. Lots carry their dates, and stock is picked first-expired-first-out by default, so the jars that go to market are the ones that should. The expiry forecast shows what will expire unsold, and what it costs, while you can still put it on the table.
And the cost of goods is real. Each batch is costed from the lots it used and divided by what came out good, so the $5.22 jar in the day's sums is this month's jar, not last spring's. If you take cards on Square, TaroStack connects to Square.
| The question | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What went to market? | A packing list, maybe | A transfer to the stall |
| What came back? | An uncounted crate | A transfer back, counted |
| What did samples cost? | Unknown | Losses by reason, item and site |
| What does a jar cost now? | Last spring's sheet | This month's batches |
Counting with no signal, lots, expiry and the losses report are on every plan, from $49 a month; a market stall as its own site, transfers, and batch costs are on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.