About
Built by a vendor
Last updated 2026-11-08. SPOT is in alpha; this page changes as features arrive, and changes are dated here.
What S.P.O.T. stands for
- Sellers
- The vendors who load the van, set up the canopy and work the table.
- Producers
- The farmers, bakers and makers behind what's on that table.
- Organizers
- The people who run the markets, fairs and bazaars, often as volunteers.
- Together
- All of them, and the shoppers who come out, in one spot.
I sell at markets around Vancouver and Portland. Most weekends you'll find me behind a folding table somewhere between Camas and Beaverton, talking to whoever walks up.
I didn't start out as a vendor. I started as a customer at the Vancouver Farmers Market, walking the aisles on Saturday mornings like everybody else. When I crossed over to the other side of the table, I hit a wall right away: there was no single place to find out which markets existed, when they ran, what a booth cost, or when they took applications.
So in 2024 I made a spreadsheet. Every market and fair I could find, with the season, the days, the fee, and the application window. Nobody had one, so I built my own.
It got passed around the Vancouver Farmers Market. Vendors I'd never met asked me for a copy. Then I noticed the other half of it. Shoppers needed it too. People who love markets have never heard of half the ones twenty minutes from their house.
I wanted something that didn't exist yet for vendors and organizers. Something more current than a spreadsheet, with better features, and kept up by the community that actually sets up at these markets every weekend. This guide is my try at that.
Over the years my business has built a lot of tools I wished someone else had already made: trackers, calendars, checklists, the boring stuff that saves you a Saturday. I know a lot of vendors and a lot of organizers, and I hear the same frustrations from both sides of the booth. I grew my farmers-market business to seven figures, and plenty of people helped me get there. This is my way of giving back and sharing what I learned.
The guide is free for vendors and free for shoppers, and it's going to stay that way. Organizers can pay to promote their markets and events to the people who'd want to hear about them. Nobody has to. A listing is free, a correction is free, and a listing nobody paid for is never pushed down or hidden.
If something here is wrong, tell me. I'll probably be at a market this weekend anyway.
Kai
I'm a vendor too
I sell at some of the markets in this guide. My own listings get no special placement, no badge and no ranking boost: they aren't ranked higher, they aren't featured, and my business can't buy a paid slot, even at full price.
Vendor tips are moderated by me, by the same rules for every market, including the ones where I sell. A tip isn't removed for being critical, and it isn't kept for being kind.
Spot Check
The Spot Check stamp means a person compared the listing's dates, hours, fees and links against the organizer's own website or official page, and it shows the month that last happened. No stamp means nobody has confirmed it yet, so check with the organizer before you go or apply.
How listings are verified
- Organizer sources only. Details come from the organizer's own website, application page, or official social account, never from another directory's copy.
- Every link is checked. Broken links are repaired or removed, so you don't land on a dead page.
- Every listing carries a Spot Check. The Spot Check stamp shows the month the details were last confirmed against the organizer's own site.
- Unverified means unverified. When we can't back a listing up with a second source, it shows No Spot Check yet instead of being hidden.
- Nothing is deleted. A market that stops running is marked Inactive and stays, so old links still work.
Submit a correction
Run a market, or noticed something out of date? Suggest a correction. A person reads every one. Organizers can also claim their listing for free and keep it up to date themselves.