OpenTable Pivots to Managing Crowds at D.C.’s Largest Farmers Market
It’s safer and there are no fees — for now
The weekly Sunday morning market is a crown jewel of outdoor life in D.C., as much of a weekend destination as it is a mecca for farm shoppers. In the peak of summer, the market can draw over 10,000 shoppers with more than 50 vendors.
In the time of Covid-19, though, managing a market the size of FRESHFARM Dupont Circle is a feat. But it is essential, and it’s been deemed such, as a market in one of the many states that declared markets as necessary as a grocery store, allowing them to continue to operate through the pandemic.
But with that kind of volume every Sunday morning, both farmers and consumers were increasingly at risk for exposure — even with big changes to comply with the new rules for socially distanced shopping. Yes, masks are mandatory. For crowd control, there’s a single entrance and exit. Only one person per household is permitted to attend the market. And advance ordering is strongly encouraged, with some vendors now only selling to pre-ordering customers to promote contactless pickup.
But even with changes, crowd control was challenging. A novel solution came in the form of the restaurant-reservation system OpenTable, and it could become a best practice for managing growing market queues across the U.S.
“With strawberries coming in full force, soon local tomatoes will hit, and we need to have crowd control figured out. We want to be able to say, ‘Y’all come to the market,’ but we have to be able to manage it.”
“We got lucky,” said Nony Dutton, FRESHFARM’s deputy director. “Before the Dupont market opened in mid-April, the line was five city blocks long before the market opened at 8:30 a.m. I walked along the row of customers, thanking them, letting them know we were working to shorten the wait and come up with some sort of reservation system, when a customer, Adam Ford, pulled me aside and said, ‘Why don’t you use OpenTable? I know someone there who can help you.’”
