The Common Market Feasibility Study - Agricultural Marketing Service

THE COMMON MARKET FEASIBILTY STUDYComparable Local Food Distribution Centers28• ability to fulfill orders “off-the-shelf”,• fulfill smaller orders (based on quantity & dollar value),• frequent deliveries,• wide and varied customer base.A further distinction can be made between a shipping-point distributor and a market-baseddistributor. 3 Simply stated a “shipping-point” distributor is physically based or originates itsdeliveries in proximity to its suppliers. A “market-based distributor” is physically based in themarket area it serves, regardless of the where its product originates. In industry terms, the“shipping-point distributor” acts more like a “shipper” where the “market-based distributor” ismore likely to be a “receiver.” These differences are significant in defining the business operationsand it is logistics (a measure of time and distance constraints) that distinguishes the two. TheCommon Market will be a market-based distributor and will receive product from local andregional farms for further distribution to its customer base.Comparable BusinessesSimilar OperationsA search was conducted to identify business operations that were similar in scope and mission toThe Common Market. The primary purpose was to (1) see if anyone else, anywhere, was doingsomething similar and (2) if so, to gain understanding of what they were doing, to learn from theirexperience and apply it to the Common Market business model. A second was to identify thevarious infrastructure components necessary to start up and operate the business. Finally it wasimportant to see how similar operations worked directly with farmers and to be able to addressimportant issues in the development of the business model and subsequent recruitment of farmersuppliers.Once identified, an effort would be made to contact a select few in order gain understanding abouthow those businesses operated.MethodologyThe criteria for a similar operation were (1) it is a food distribution business that specializes inselling and distributing food produced on local or regional farms and, preferably, (2) it is locatedgeographically within the heart of the market it serves. Web search, word of mouth, industryexperience were the primary methods used to identify similar operations.The following key word combinations for the web search:• farm based food distribution,• local farm based food distribution,• distributors of farm based food,• distributors of locally produced food,3 “shipping-point distributor” and “market-based distributor” are the author’s terms