Southend Youth Market Traders are the business!

June 12, 2016 by Southend Borough Council

Southend Youth Market Traders are the business!

Monday 13th June 2016

Energetic young people made more than a mark on the marketplace when they set out their stalls in Southend High Street.

Enterprising Eve Bramley’s homemade vegan goodies and more earned her a top prize from Southend Youth Market judges.

Eve’s stall ‘A Kind Mama,’ sold out of homemade vegan cakes, bakes, themed prints, pocket mirrors and badges at the Youth Market in Southend High Street.

Judges named her Southend Best Youth Trader 2016 and presented her with a £100 Love2shop voucher.

Eve, of Southend, was among the intrepid group of young people who jumped at the chance for a pitch at this special event.

It was held alongside the Farmers & Crafts Market during national Love Your Local Market fortnight.

The aim was to help young people showcase their wares, while introducing them to market trading and running their own retail businesses.

It proved so successful that more than half of the participants now want to set up their businesses properly at Southend’s Saturday Farmers & Crafts market, and they will be supported to do so with advice from the BEST Growth Hub.

Throughout Southend Youth Market day, the judges looked for:

• Stall Appearance – How had they decorated their stalls? Was it appealing to potential customers?
• Customer Service – This covered the level of service offered, from the consumer’s initial approach to the stall right through to the end purchase.
• Pricing Strategies – How had they priced the product? How had they ensured maximum profitability throughout the day?

Judges picked out Eve’s stall ‘A Kind Mama’ because of:

• The originality of the product
• The appealing stall arrangement
• Effective marketing before the event
• Selling out all the products before the end of trade
• And outstanding customer service

Eve said: “I had such a good time at this event and it has definitely inspired me to start running my own stall and business. It was the push of encouragement I needed to get myself going. This is a really positive event for the local youth and it would be great to see it become a more regular thing.”

The judges were Essex Farmers Markets owner, Mike Allen; Street Ranger, Rebecca Venn and the Council’s Economic Development Officer, Emma Crampton.

Mike said: “From working on markets for the past 35 years, I’ve seen that giving young entrepreneurs the opportunity to start up their business has huge benefits to the market and retail industry. I enjoyed advising and supporting the fantastic young traders involved this year and look forward to doing more of this work in the future.”