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The Saturday Market has
been as mobile as many of the
merchants who sell their wares
there and at other fairs and craft
shows around the West.
When the market began in
1969. it was located under the
[’arcade building. Moore said,
then it moved to the comer of
Eighth Avenue and Oak Street
under the flagpoles in front of
the lane County Courthouse.
Before it was moved to its pre
sent location straddling Oak
Street between Eighth and
Ninth avenues, it was held in
the parking lot directly across
Oak Street from the courthouse.
Between 85 to 125 merchants
set up shop at the market each
weekend, said Margo Schaefer,
the market’s publicity and
entertainment director. Over
the course of a summer, as
many as 500 different vendors
will have set up a booth at the
market at least once, she said.
The market has a definite im
pact on the economy of the
downtown area, Moore said. An
urban planning study done in
the late 1970s showed that 60
percent of the people who visit
the downtown area on a
weekend come mainly for the
market.
Another statistic cited by
Schaefer from a recent study
reveals that 22 percent of the
people who visit lane County
will go to the market — not bad
for an event that takes place on
ly once a week, she said.
The Saturday Market Associa
tion is funded solely by a yearly
membership fee each vendor
must pay and the daily booth
fee of $5 plus 10 percent of the
vendor's revenues, Schaefer
said.
A membership costs $7.50.
and a booth can be reserved for
$15 per month. A stable loca
tion is something merchants
value greatly because customers
learn where merchants are and
will return weekend after
weekend, Shaefer said.
Hut while merchants enjoy
the market’s relaxed at
mosphere. they agree that sell
ing crafts at the market isn't
always the easiest way to make
ends meet. Most but not all rely
on some other means of income
for a living and use the market
as a supplementary source of
money.
Former market director
Moore teaches math and
business at Lane Community
College but said he must both
teach and sell his work at the
market to make a living.
Dave Berggren, a potter who
lives in Santa Clara and who got
his start at the EMU Craft Center
10 years ago, said in addition to
selling his pottery at the market,
he has a full-time contract mak
ing ceramic bread pans with
Planned Pottery, which is
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located in the Fifth Street Public
Market. Planned Pottery also
got its start at the Saturday
Market.
Aside from being one of only
five or six professional slab
work potters in the state. Berg
gren said he is also a fledgling
writer and is nearly finished
with his first novel, a fiction
piece on witchcraft.
Barbara Lifschutz, who comes
to the market to sell her hand
spun wool, also teaches her
trade at the EMU Craft Center.
She agrees that the market is
not the place to try to make an
easy living.
"Eugene is very lucky to have
the market both for craftsmen
and the people who come" to
the market. Lifschutz said.
Claudia Brodsky, who
migrated from New York City
with her family seven years ago.
runs Tillie's Blintzes. cooking
her deep-fried knishes and
crepelike blintzes for an eager
public. Brodsky is a bookkeeper
during the week, a job she said
she must have to care for her
two children.
Peter, who withheld his last
name, is a jewelry maker who
plays a bamboo flute to amuse
himself between customers. He
makes jewelry' full time in his
home near Florence, and in ad
dition to the Saturday Market,
he travels to markets and craft
fairs up and down the Oregon
Coast to make enough money to
support his wife and one-year
old son.
Before his son's birth. Peter
said he traveled frequently to
Southern California, where a
flourishing economy generates
a booming market for hand
made wares, drawing many
craftspeople.
But because of Oregon's
struggling economy. Orego
nians tend to look more than
they buy.
"There's a great appreciation
for art in Oregon but no
market." Peter said.
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