Update: Kings Drive farmers market delays opening to add coronavirus safety measures

UPDATE: The Kings Drive farmers market will postpone its season opening a week, from this Friday to April 10 to add some coronavirus-related precautions.

Norman Simpson, one of the market’s owners, said the extra week is for building fiberglass shields between customers and cashiers to protect against germ exchange. Also, the market is installing a sink for hand-washing.

Simpson said he plans to open first thing in the morning April 10. The market is open Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The Simpson family has sold vegetables to Charlotteans since 1941 on Kings Drive, and face a tough question:

Will customers keep coming to their farmer’s market with Mecklenburg County under a stay-at-home order through April 16 because of the novel coronavirus pandemic?

Traditionally, the Simpsons open their market, on the corner of Kings and Morehead Road, the first Friday in April and close around Halloween. The space is set up with tents and tables, early-season produce is ready for shipping from Florida and a big sign on the property promotes April 3 as the opening date.

However, Norman Simpson, one of the owners, said Thursday the family might postpone opening for another week to assess how Charlotte adapts to the stay-at-home order county commission voted Tuesday to invoke.

Because farmer’s markets sell food, they are allowed to stay open under the order. The year-round regional farmer’s market on Yorkmont Road was open Thursday after the order went into effect.

As with many small businesses, the question becomes not just if it’s legal to be open during stay-at-home restrictions, but whether it’s viable for both customers and employees.

“We want to be here for the community and for the work— this is what we do for a living,” Simpson said. “We don’t want to collapse. But it’s a fine line to be cost-effective. Is there going to be enough cashiers willing to do it? Are there going to be enough customers to even have cashiers?

“We’re talking about it, praying about it. Trying to figure out what we need to do and what we should do.”

Sense of community

The Simpson family has been at the Kings Drive location since grandfather Willie started selling vegetables out of the back of his pickup truck in 1941. Norman’s father, Darrell, expanded the business, based out of the family farm near Indian Trail, into the current spring-to-fall format.

The three days a week they are open — Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturday — create a sense of community, with customers browsing the stalls not only for produce and plants, but for meats, seafood and baked goods in space other vendors rent.

That sense of community could get lost when social distancing prescribes staying at least six feet apart to limit the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

“Our customers and cashiers typically are 3 feet apart,” Simpson said, spreading his arms and shifting back-and-forth to demonstrate a typical purchase.

Farmer’s markets also do a lot of cash transactions. The Kings Drive market has credit card processors for every cashier, but even then, Simpson said, “you’re still going to be trading hands with every credit card.”

Simpson said the family is still working through particulars, such as how to display unpackaged produce for customers to buy at a time when fighting infection transmission is of paramount importance.

Farmers on hold

The year-round farmer’s market on Yorkmont that was open Thursday just had two customers at the indoor facility late -morning. Amie Newsome, who manages the facility, was busy on a conference call and did not return an Observer message as of mid-afternoon.

Farmer’s markets typically open in April, and some other businesses have started converting to that model during the stay-at-home order. For instance, the NoDa Company Store bar switched to a fresh market concept this week.

The Simpsons have established decades of relationships with farmers up and down the East Coast to sell produce seven months out of the year. Everything is in place if there is a market for the concept in these extreme times.

“Florida (crops are) there: The tomatoes are there. The strawberries are there. The squash, the cucumbers. They’re saying, ‘We’re ready! Come get it!’ ” It’s just nobody knows what to do yet,” Norman Simpson said.

“We’re just working every day toward April 3. We may have to decide at the last minute to back up a week. We really don’t know what to do.”

This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 5:07 PM.