ISSUE 31, FARMERS MARKETS, Part 5: The Portable Market
The Portable Market
We tend to think of markets as fixed things—spaces that have been settled, with built display areas, and an assortment of sellers. In most cities the locale, size, make up and conduct of the market were regultated by state or municipal legislaiton. To evade or resist these regulations aas the ambition of a contingenet of traders. They responded in one of two ways: the sellers in the central city market radiated out from the market, supplied by one of the sellers, or sellers set up an underground or alternative makers. There is one such impromptu fruit markets outside of Ashville on the weekends. Sellers in flartbed trucks and station wagons congregate in a park area beside a road.
Before gasoline engine transport became widespread there was a kind of portable wheeled flatbed produce wagon that was horse or mule driven. I've only seen one of these in a farm museum (and it was lacking the hoop cover on top). But this 1908 photo of the 6th Street market in Richmond VA shows a whole line of these wheeled vegetable stalls. The photo shows the usual protective cover on the carts. The cart was dual purpose. A congregation could form an impromptu public market, or it could be used for solo itineraries across a city.