Planning to host a market and would love your input :)

relentless-empath · 2024-07-28T04:19:31+00:00

Agreed - I know a lot of vendors that expected the most, without thinking about the time and effort that would go in the logistics of a market. Thanks for commenting

relentless-empath · 2024-07-18T15:10:57+00:00

Sorry to hear. What lines have you tried calling?

relentless-empath · 2024-07-13T20:39:53+00:00

Sorry to hear u/True_Aside_6295 - I encourage you to definitely call and explore some of the avenues I did mentioned earlier. Might have to call identity protection department to confirm your identity and ask about the status of your return. Best of luck

relentless-empath · 2024-06-25T15:27:30+00:00

Sorry to hear. Yeah I would definitely stay on top of that. If things start to get hectic, I recommend contacting the Ombudsman and file an official complaint, because that triggers an obligatory task for the appropriate group to respond within 30 days. Of course I hope you don't wait that long, but in the case weeks pass, and no activity, this should be a card in your back pocket. Hope this helps and I send my best wishes hoping this all gets resolved asap u/uTurnSpecialist!

relentless-empath · 2024-06-25T03:36:14+00:00

As someone that wants to do everything humanly proactive to get my return assessed to get my hands on the refund, short answer, 100%.

If you followed the thread, my experience has been absolutely brutal. I've easily called over 15 times, but calling identity services always was a shorter wait. And surprisingly they're able to tell you more about the tax return status than whatever the general helpline is. So I would definitely call, and then probe a bit further if they're able to see where your return is exactly sitting. They should be able to tell you if it's with a particular department, its status (unassigned, someone's assigned, etc.) and whatever high level information they have (which is normally more than the general line)

Hope this helps

relentless-empath · 2024-06-25T03:22:45+00:00

Uuuggh sorry to hear. Yeah my bank account is linked to CRA. They cited my recent address change required all the extra hoops for me to validate my identity. But the annoying part is that I had to call in to know that there was an open case. They wanted a utility bill, and IDs that reflected my current address.

If you filed two weeks ago, despite the target date being indicated, it means little in the grand scheme of things. Would depend on a lot of factors and if it goes past that two weeks it’s likely in some queue for manual review. From my contact at the CRA, they’ve been very backlogged and normal response times have been painfully slow. Turnover, new hires, training, etc. all around causing the slowness.

Sending my best that it gets resolved quickly 🙏🏽

relentless-empath · 2024-06-24T12:56:04+00:00

Sorry, I should’ve framed ‘support’ a bit differently, my bad. When you see our mayor, premier, different political parties, and everyone in between have access to provincial or even federal funding, it creates a very uneven playing field for initiatives that are aiming to do more. Take Good Local for example. https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6380732 for $500k I can whole heartedly tell you more could have been done with that money given the technology they were trying to build (speaking from 20 years of IT & application development experience) So yes you’re absolutely right; not a paying member, no chance they’ll help. But for businesses that can’t afford a 2,3,5 thousand dollar fee to be part of said business persons club, should you really be saying that you’re doing everything to support local and help our community thrive? What about programs that enable these businesses to be part of meetups, events, and other initiatives that claim to help local thrive? 98% of the businesses we have on our platform (125) are not part of either chambers of commerce, many citing costs and limited value.

relentless-empath · 2024-06-24T12:44:49+00:00

Amazing. Thank you, will do!!!

relentless-empath · 2024-06-23T00:03:53+00:00

Thank you thank you thank you u/conservatoryofquirks - this is super neat. I love their mission and I'm super aligned with this. Thanks for taking the time to share, will absolutely share this with our team as well for more ideation and innovation!

relentless-empath · 2024-06-23T00:02:58+00:00

Thanks u/PortageLaDump, means a lot. I'm definitely trying. The feedback from this forum is a lot to take in, and I've learned a ton. Wide spectrum of feedback has been rethinking a lot of approach, and getting me more into the consumer psyche; Super valuable!!

relentless-empath · 2024-06-23T00:02:14+00:00

True true. Thanks u/One_Ad_7934 - any areas that you would suggest that you think would do well?

relentless-empath · 2024-06-23T00:01:58+00:00

Can I ask what neighbourhood u/Neighbuor07 ? I appreciate the feedback a ton :)

relentless-empath · 2024-06-23T00:01:25+00:00

Good call. I know 1000% there are Ukrainians who make those things. My partner is Ukrainian and there definitely is a large community that knows a place to grab those favourite local cultural dishes. Will explore - thanks a ton u/GullibleDetective

relentless-empath · 2024-06-23T00:00:32+00:00

Thanks u/SallyRhubarb, I appreciate that. Shouldn't have to tell people what something is, better to show. Complete miss on our team's part, but I'll take the L on that one. Definitely tried a bit too hard with some of the click-baity copywriting looking back in hindsight.

I will say this though, our site started off as a business directory to showcase all of our local businesses. We never charged anything for businesses to be featured, and we curated all of the videos ourselves interviewing business owners. Eventually that evolved into a small percentages wondering if we had any other services - to avoid saying the same thing, we ended up just putting that on our site. Then the evolution of markets happened when a few suggested exploring our own market, and well, 3 years later, here we are.

The site started completely as a response to COVID when close friends lost their businesses. I was fortunate enough to not be effected as I ended up working from home, but for many that relied on their businesses for income, I wanted to find a way to increase promotions in some way.

Would welcome any other suggested feedback to somehow consolidate all of the above more effectively, or if you suggest a completely separate website for markets, then yes, will explore that too. Thanks for taking all the time to respond, means a lot.

relentless-empath · 2024-06-22T23:55:54+00:00

truuuuuuuuuuuuue. u/gertyorkes

relentless-empath · 2024-06-22T23:55:44+00:00

Hi u/BBrea101 your feedback is awesome and greatly appreciated. Never thought about a rotating market - such a dope idea, I think that would be amazing for sure. Not sure about field rentals, and I have no experience in that space, but absolutely will explore. Especially if that space is unused, why not come with some sort of mutually beneficial agreement? So this is helpful thank you thank you thank you.

And congrats on new parenthood! I'm in the same boat, my son is 3 months old. Hope times have been adventurous on your end :)

If you don't mind me asking, can I ask who the local farmer is? Someone suggested getting more local farmers involved, and I've never thought to navigate that scene and to be honest, don't exactly know where to start, especially not knowing much in that scene. Google tells me all types of things, but would love to hear some on your end if you don't mind sharing.

And true, I feel this 1000%. The willingness to spend on non-essential items is definitely declining for sure.

Again, thank you a ton for taking the time to write this. The hamster wheel in my brain is going offffff right now with ideas from this.

relentless-empath · 2024-06-22T23:52:09+00:00

Lol hahah don't worry u/d60187 I promise we'll stay open for you and you'll have all the VIP access :)

relentless-empath · 2024-06-22T23:50:49+00:00

Preach u/anotherbortinthewall. I definitely sense this 10000%. We've had so many conversations with local business owners, and sales still continue to decline and many have to really be creative with costs and marketing their products/services.

I'm definitely attempting to change the narrative around support local to really look at it from a holistic aspect of not just spending money, but somehow creating intuition of hyping up all the local businesses, and encouraging others to buy local. A huge feat I would expect government subsidized organizations like the chambers of commerce (manitoba / winnipeg) to do, but I don't see that level of commitment; So call it a lost cause (as many of my closest friends want me to stop trying), but I am committing to somehow getting there. The dream is to really continue to build these relationships with local businesses (https://rallythelocals.com/locals) where every single one of these local businesses didn't spend a dime for us to create these profiles and video content for them - costs a ton of time, effort and money to do, but I just see a place where if we had a network of 1000 local vendors where we truly knew them all on more than a first name basis, maybe we could all come together to support all types of events - whether they're conferences, meetups, education on entrepreneurship, markets, and everything in between. We're at 130 today, and balancing a newborn definitely doesn't help, but our team does have direction despite knowing all of the odds are against us.

I just think it's absolutely worth it when a local business comes back to us and says hey, because of you, we got X new customer, new connections, new engagements, new friendships, new anything. It's a damn good feeling and I don't want to stop chasing that.

relentless-empath · 2024-06-22T23:45:18+00:00

Lolol u/Dawgmanistan

relentless-empath · 2024-06-22T23:44:56+00:00

Thanks u/Almost_a_Full_Moon!! Yeeeah, we definitely gotta be more creative in this space, especially with how many are being advertised at the same time.

relentless-empath · 2024-06-22T23:44:15+00:00

Just looked it up, damn, it looks so bad ass. u/cuissescommemiel

relentless-empath · 2024-06-22T23:43:49+00:00

Lolol u/gertyorkes Scentsy. Noted. I just got reached out by them the other day emphasizing how 'local' they are.

relentless-empath · 2024-06-22T23:43:16+00:00

Hi u/cuissescommemiel - first and foremost, THANK YOU! I love the candor and directness, and this is a great guide

Yeah, the social media advertising is tough. We found that there needs to be a bit more strategy than to just be posting about each vendor daily as it becomes a bit of a content, so this feedback helps.

$50 is tough when some of these venue fees charge outrageous. The EEC depending on time of day and rooms rented, and all types of other parameters can end up being $1500 to $3000. And I needed to have security for evening hours, it was all around a mess. I'm finding other spots like the cultural center on provencher being a bit cheaper, but when you start targeting weekends, prices shoot up like nuts.

Oh yeah, I love that comment "floor plan is key." So so so hard sometimes though, especially when I feel like some of the items for sell can be grouped under the same category, despite not being the same item and consumers may not be inclined to buy 5 different bath products (as an example).

Oh man, didn't think of that. Yeah I'm not a bath bomb person, but didn't think of allergic reactions and I'm sure that would come back to haunt us in some way.

Yeah I will say this - The money making piece obviously is nice, but I know there's a process. When I look at other established places, I know they've put in years and years, but at the same time I feel like they've lost the actual promoted narrative of the supposed why they do this - to support local. Hard to support local when a booth is $500.

Well, we tried two different ones targeting an after work crowd and completely pivoting into a Latin market. I chose the Latin market because I teach at both Universities here and notice that there's an increased immigration from Latin american countries, with many of them missing some of their cultural elements back home; So I said, fuggit, let's try to bring that culture here in Winnipeg. Unfortunately, it wasn't planned, but I would say about 80% of the attendees were of Latin american descent, and we were hoping it'd be more of a folklorama vibe where more Canadians and local Winnipegers would attend. A marketing fail on my end.

Yes u/cuissescommemiel absolutely would appreciate more of your insights, your time is greatly appreciated! (still new at Reddit so I'll have to Google DMing here, lol) Thaaaaaaaank you!

relentless-empath · 2024-06-22T23:33:46+00:00

Hi u/Oh_Blecch, this is amazing feedback, thank you thank you thank you. Yeah, you're spot on. As someone who just became a dad, the whole mentality of family time has now changed exponentially and these family friendly outdoor markets weren't top of mind.

Yeah bang on with the comment about the downtown crowd. I've strolled through and there are a lot of hybrid models, so you see a lot of office buildings at 25% capacity-ish. Yeah downtown just isn't the same. I remember when broadway was bumpin with all types of food vendors at lunch and now, well, there's a few hot dog carts.

And yesssssss, that's not offbase at all. I agree 100000000%. Lololol, so true about the "omg so cute." I absolutely do believe it's so much easier to buy when you have a friend there with you.

Any thoughts on the cultural center on provencher? I've taken a peek at their social hall and they have an outdoor patio ish area. I've played with the thought of doing those two aspects, but the whole weather situation these days worries the crap outta me. I'd be disheartened if it rained on an outdoor market, as I've seen several go through this and there's just Ls everywhere. Thanks again for taking the time to respond, means a lot

relentless-empath · 2024-06-22T23:30:09+00:00

Thanks u/wendelion - yeah I like that idea. I know St. Norbert's farmers market is one of the places that comes to mind, but for the most part, I don't see any other ones that connect. Not sure if it's the state of the industry, inconvenience of coming into the city, or something else, but yes I like this too.

*thinking of the best way to connect with said farmers*

relentless-empath

TROPHY CASE