A greedy, soulless and faceless company
The Makers Market is an organisation that, in my experience, has no soul. The overwhelming majority of traders attend only because of the convenience of its locations, many of which are held on private corporate land rather than council-run sites.
It has no genuine connection with the local communities it trades in and shows very little regard for either its customers or the independent businesses that fund its existence.
No thought is given to market curation or trader placement. It is not uncommon to see more than half of a market selling identical cake traders such as brownies while fresh bakes not on the market are lumped in the same category. Meanwhile a butcher selling fresh produce is positioned in a dark corner facing a wall, where customers can barely see them.
Making pitch fees takes priority over creating a balanced, commercially successful market. Even the best of traders have sour things to say about them. Just ask.
In most cases traders are charged around £60 to share a gazebo, whereas many other private markets charge between £30 and £45 for an entire gazebo of your own and that comes with plenty of curation and support.
Prime trading positions appear to be reserved for a favoured few, or as a few of the Makers Markets employees themselves have said to me "for their mates", while the introduction of an opaque dodgy online booking system has made pitch allocation even less transparent.
The company does not refund pitch fees when markets are cancelled, and any attempts to raise genuine operational concerns are too often met with silence such as when they provide a gazebo with holes in it on a rainy day and you lose all your fresh stock to water ingress.
Taken as a whole, the experience is one of poor values, lack of curation, abysmal organisation, narcissistic attitudes and poor communication.
The Makers Market as a business has lost the confidence of many great independent traders and artisans and the fact that the footfall of visitors has dwindled to not a tenth of what it used to be is sufficient enough to demonstrate how badly it has been run into the ground.
The organisation has become, in my opinion, a perfect example of what a 1980s top heavy mindset does to destroy a business and it is not representative of independent markets across the North West.
Many artisans have simply voted with their feet and left to much better alternatives. I would not be surprised if the business were to collapse within the next year or two.
The only contact anyone has with the company is a lady called "Roseann" who supposedly lives overseas. Whether or not she is actually a real person or just an email alias of one of the owners I don't know although I am very suspicious, noone I know has ever met or spoken to her. Regardless of whether she's a real person, the Makers Market experience is an abysmal one.
Rumours have been circulating suggesting that the business is being plumped up for sale. Why anyone would spend money on this organisation I do not know. If it is true, what are they selling? The setup of gazebos is done by their sister company Niche Events. Their stock of gazebos and tables are knackered and unfit for use in most cases. They probably have a huge amount of debt from borrowing and they have desecrated their brand with their horrendous reputation for greed. What exactly is worth spending money on?
Given its reputation and a long history of unacceptable—and, in some cases, legally questionable—practices, I struggle to see where that value lies in this organisation. I for one look forward to the funeral so the spaces can be opened up to a worthy competitor that values people and knows how to run a business.