More Than a Market: Cultivating Community in Downtown Bentonville

In this episode, we sit down with Aaron Nolan from Downtown Bentonville Inc to explore how the Bentonville Farmers Market has grown into something much bigger than a place to shop. From local chefs shopping that day's produce, to grabbing a coffee and pastry, it’s a space where local flavor and community connection meet.

Aaron shares how the market draws both residents and visitors, why investing in third spaces matters, and what makes a simple Saturday morning feel like a full experience. Grab a coffee and take your time, because around every corner, there’s something new to discover!

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Transcript

Welcome And Farmers Market Preview

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to a new American Town, a visitor-focused podcast from Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, Graham Cobb, and I'm thrilled today to welcome Aaron Nolan with Downtown Bentonville, Inc. to the podcast. We are going to talk farmers market. Aaron, welcome. How are you, Graham? This this feels like Rolls Report here.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

What was it? Eight, ten years ago? Yeah. I was interviewing you uh on TV.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Yeah, I know. And now I feel like I have to, you know, somehow live up to that. And uh I'm gonna just gonna go ahead and say it's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Uh I expect the hardest-hitting questions about the greatest little town in all of America. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

We're gonna get into we're gonna get you to spill the tea on all things farmers market. Uh look, the farmers market's impressive. If uh our listeners have not been on a Saturday, it could be anywhere in the country.

Growth, Vendors, And $3M Impact

SPEAKER_01 0:58

I mean, it is an amazing, amazing farmers market. Can you give us a brief history of it?

SPEAKER_00 1:04

So the farmers market is something that continues to grow year after year. Yeah. Uh Graham, we've have at this point, let's let's start where we're at and then we'll go backwards. Sure. We have more than a hundred different local farmers, local makers. Uh we keep it really centric on them. We believe that they are the smallest of the small business, and pun intended, we have to cultivate that business. We have to give those people a place to sell their goods. I was walking here to the ledger today and saw one of our vendors dropping off crates and crates to a local business of food to a restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

These are the connections we hope to make. These are the success stories we hope to do. Last year, the farmers market grossed more than $3 million in sales. We don't say that because that goes back to our city, to our nonprofit. We say that because that goes back to the farmers who are able to continue to do what they do, to continue to plow the fields, to continue to raise the crops, to continue to make farm fresh goods for all of us who go to the farmers market. So that number has continued to grow year over year, and it is uh it is something that we're really, really proud of.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Well, you should be proud of it. And our our last guest on the podcast was with Wolfgang Puck Catering, and she talked about how, for the opening gala of the Crystal Bridges expansion, she took the Wolfgang Puck catering team, the 10-minute walk from Crystal Bridges to the farmers market, and they were able to source

From Strawberries To Big Connections

SPEAKER_01 2:33

all of the strawberries for the event from the farmers market. I mean, that's extremely unique. Um it not only speaks to it speaks to a few things. It speaks to the quality of the produce that you're going to find at the farmers market, it speaks to the proximity of all things downtown Bentonville. It's really easy to get from a trail to the museum, to the farmers market, to a local business. But then it also speaks to those connections that downtown Bentonville makes from, you know, to maybe the smallest entrepreneur to one of the largest, most uh impactful cultural institutions in the nation. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Shout out Megara Farms. Megara Farms is where you're gonna get those strawberries. Awesome. Um You're absolutely right, though. You're you're talking about not just an organization throwing a party, building a farmer's market, producing something. You're talking about a community latching on to that programming. Yeah. You don't get that everywhere. My hometown doesn't quite have the community buy-in that we see from each and every corner of Bentonville.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

We're producing this not because we want to see success stories. We love the success stories. We want to continue to succeed in everything we do. We're doing it for the community people. We're doing it for the folks who need to walk from their home in downtown Bentonville or drive out from West Bentonville into downtown to get something that's unique, sticking with strawberries to get that sweet bite of a strawberry. And then you hear stories like you just told. And I didn't know anything about Wolfgang Punk coming in and buying out strawberries. But those are the stories that happen every day. And that what what happens when you have a community that is so driven, that is so focused on themselves.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

And I think that's unique. I think that's great. We love to bring in people. Visit Mintonville does a great great job of bringing people from outside. But this farmers market is so unique because it is a community-focused event.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Well, let's talk about the community a little bit. I got here in 2017. The farmers market's always been impressive. But it has grown. Um, I remember maybe it's 21, uh, sitting uh it's now Bentoville. It was press room at the time, and looking up and going, like, oh wow, this is working. Like, look at the buzz that's going on. It's amazing, it's not overwhelming. And as it's grown, the footprint's grown, certainly the attendance has grown. But Bentonville's invested in this. It now feels totally different because you have some new real estate. Talk about what A Street Promenade

A Street Promenade And Third Spaces

SPEAKER_01 5:10

has meant to this whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Well, first I want to go to the purity of the bit of the event. Okay. Uh obviously, we love to hear when we have visitors that come in and just go, wow, this is Hallmark. This is a a postcard. Uh, when my my daughter comes up with me early to the farmer's market and she goes, This is beautiful. The purity of the farmer's market is something that we hold very dear. And I don't I don't want to say that this is a community market and we don't want others to experience that. We certainly do. But then you open up the A Street Promenade. Got two major hotels sitting on it. So all of those guests have this really cool opportunity to come out and maybe they can't take strawberries on a plane, but they can get a homemade candle, a homemade trinket, a t-shirt, a hat, hat I'm wearing. He's been at the farmer's market. These are unique opportunities. And to your point, it's about the real estate that was put in there. It was about the investment into third spaces, these livable spaces, these playground spaces that we can activate, that we can make something unique and say, you know, yeah, we do have this availability at 21C or the Compton or Motto right down the street to welcome everyone there because of this great world of Bentonville that we've created. And maybe you were looking at press room and going, okay, A Street, it's you can go all the way around the square. Can't do that now. But it's our job to create something that people want to be at. Right. And I think through the farmers market, and again, the purity of that, the attention to detail to just let it be itself, we can use that space that they've created. We can use that real estate to keep that purity going as we continue to get bigger.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

There are not a lot of places where locals are fully bought in in supporting a tourism economy. Yeah, that's a great way. Please come on, visitors. There's not a lot of places that do that. Bentonville does. And the farmers market's so cool because like I can end a bike ride there, as I often do on a Saturday. I've been known to go to my guy who comes up from Cane Hill who sells steaks. Frozen, I can put them in my pockets and they're thawed and ready to roll by the time I get home.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

So wait a minute. So you're biking with steaks frozen in your pocket? Just home. Just to cool off. Just home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

It's weird, man. It is weird. I'm a weird dude. But so I have that spot. I have the um uh the Mennonite bakeries for my delicious, super sweet pastries. Um so you got locals everywhere. They remember me, or at least I feel like they remember me. They kind of do. But they're, you know, they're giving the same treatment to the the visitor that they're giving to the local. The visitors are getting a little bit of that experience from locals. Right. I think it I think that's important. I think that adds to the overall vacation experience when you

The Organic Local Visitor Mix

SPEAKER_01 7:58

know locals want you there.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

You know what's funny? It's it's organic. It's not planned. Right. We're not trying, we're not we're not out there going, okay, how can we get this person here and this person here? Well, let's put this. I mean, there's some there's a lot of producing, there's a lot of scheduling that Dylan and his team do with the farmers market all the time. But it's so go back to that word of purity. It's just so organic. It's just something that's happened. It's just the biker who puts frozen steak in his pocket that that just goes weekly to pick something out. And I think if you are traveling, uh my wife and I went to a wedding in South Carolina recently. When you go past that art market, when you go to um Charleston and you're there for second Sunday and the purity on King Street is there, that's commercially driven. It feels like it feels like what we're doing is community driven. And those that travel in can feel that. And what's amazing, and I think you'll you'll understand this, it's attractive.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

If you are an an outsider, if you're a traveler and you see community, you see the guy with frozen meat in his pocket, you wanna you want to be a part of that. You want to partake in that. And I think me being a guy who moved in about five years ago, that's the the organic nature. That's where, you know, I remember my wife in Chicago going, I want to raise my kids the way we were raised. That's why we're doing this. Because it is attractive, because it is pure, because it is organic. And and again, I go back to what my daughter tells me all the time walk in the farms market, it's beautiful. And kids see it. And and and I think guests, travelers, they all see it.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

It is a real it is a pretty magical place to be on a Saturday. You see, you know, I'll shout out to my son and his buddies who run cross-country at Bentonville High School. You'll see them running through the farmer's market on the way to the splash pad. You know, you see people that are clearly eyes wide, their first experience in Bentonville. And I think that go from like, whoa, this is amazing. And then I bet their blood pressure goes down. Isn't that a lot?

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Isn't that something though? To sit there and go, okay, yes, people are trying to sustain their way of life farming, of producing you know, greens or fruits or whatever it may be. But at the end of it, it's just it's it's special.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

It is. And look, it's about quality of life, and it's about it's an experience, but it's also about uh it's

Success Stories From Booth To Brand

SPEAKER_01 10:43

a critical piece of our economy. No doubt. Do you have data around the economic impact?

SPEAKER_00 10:50

We don't directly. Okay. We know what what is being sold, we know the numbers that are being sold, and again, we tout those millions plural of dollars that are going right back to continuing to build the smallest of the small. There's just no other way to say that. I'm a product of small business in Little Rock. But this is the smallest of the small.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

And it is so vital that we continue to look at numbers. And if this $3 million that we're looking at on your notepad here doesn't continue to grow, we got to figure out a way to make sure that this is sustainable, not for our event, but for those farmers.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Yeah. For some of the, you know, for some of the vendors, it's a side business. For some, it is what puts food on their table. Uh are there examples of folks that started at the farmers market and have scaled?

SPEAKER_00 11:46

I can tell you a story about a major brand that was featured at the farmers market and was picked up and is now a national brand that you know very well. We were in LA at Expo West, which is a a very known vendor community event where vendors come and kind of like a First Friday, but just on the business side, not family oriented as much. Yeah. So we walked up to Vita Coco and I said, guys, I have heard this story forever. Did you get your start at the Bentonville Farm Market? Yes, we did. Unbelievable. So they were found, they they had a booth, were doing some sampling, a buyer walked in and said, This works. Let's put this coconut water into stores. So Vita Coco, I have confirmed through their company that they in fact did get their start at the Bentonville farmers market.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

I bet that moment is like at the same time terrifying and exciting. You're like, this is amazing. Oh gosh, I can't believe this is happening. What do we do?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

You know, but but there's also other success stories, and and it doesn't have to scale for Vita Coco. It could be Matt Cooper, who's running Conifer, buying out vegetables to serve at his you know, world-renowned restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

And that happens nearly every single week, Graham. We see Matt always out trying to do that, talking to the the new place, uh Haley Nutt, and what she's got going at written by the seasons. Oh they want to come to the farmer's market. These chefs that are bringing in businesses and restaurants to our area want to use what's in front of them, and what's in front of them is locally grown produce.

Market As Civic Infrastructure

SPEAKER_01 13:34

You talked about the infrastructure investment of A Street Promenade, and soon we'll have Quilta Parks in downtown. But it's beyond a physical infrastructure. The farmers market has become civic infrastructure. It is um a gathering place with great magnetism. What does that mean to a community that's growing so fast to have a place that well they could the kids would say you can go and touch grass.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

It's a it's it's a responsibility, first and foremost. And it's a responsibility, Graham, to say yes, that's a point, but how can we make this point other places? And for us, that was a Wednesday farmers market.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

We wanted to start a midweek market. So we have. Smaller in scale, again, very, very special. You still feel that that farmers market feeling, but the infrastructure allowed that to happen because A Street was there. So we were then able to say, okay, 10, 15 booths, not the hundred on a Saturday market. Outside of that, we also heard that there's another point to be made. There's an indoor market during during the winter months. So from November through March, you can go over to record and just peruse any farmer that can produce during that time of year. So then all of a sudden, it goes from one singular point to three different points running side by side together at the same speed. That's the importance of what we're building is creating like-minded events that continue to sustain local farmers while also holding true to cultivating community in our area. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

You know, the the farmers market on a Saturday could be a destination in itself. No doubt. I'm looking at the razor back on your shirt, and you know, if it's a five o'clock kick, I know where I'm starting my day.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Um Do you see that? Do you see people spend Saturdays in downtown Bentonville as a destination?

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Absolutely. Yeah. They want to start there. Then we have amazing restaurants. We shout out Matt and Haley Nutt, and there are other restaurants, there are other destinations. 10-minute walk to a couple of world-class museums, but you start with a coffee, with a scone, with a muffin, with a strawberry at the Bentonville Farmers Market.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Do you have any um any secret local tips to tell folks if they're gonna come here

Local Tips, Parking, And Walking Culture

SPEAKER_01 16:10

for this market?

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Uh first and foremost, I would arrive early. Right. Um, look, I've kind of changed my tune, Graham, on parking in Bentonville. And I I'm gonna lean into it. I don't think I don't think we have a parking problem. Yeah. So for a long time I was saying arrive early, parking's tough. You uh you know, pack some patience. It's not it's not that. My advice in this is come when you come, and if you have to walk three blocks, I promise you it's worth it.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

That's right. Yeah. Aaron, I'm so I'm really glad you brought that up. Because I have started to describe when I when I'm meeting someone in downtown Bentonville, a lot of times they're from a city that's larger than Bentonville. I say, treat this like it's a um a metro stop. You don't expect to hop out at your destination in Manhattan. All right. And there was a time when a three-block, never really a three-block, call it a block and a half walk in Bentonville, um kind of felt like a hassle. There wasn't anything going on, but that's because there wasn't programming. Well, now every square inch, especially on a Saturday, there is something to to to tease the senses, right? There's something to look at, there's something to see, there's somebody to talk to. That's another thing, is that man, the the the miles per or the smiles per square foot in downtown Bentonville is pretty high.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Right. You know, you bring up something there's a there's a we're we're tossing around this idea, and and I'll pitch it here. I don't know if it's gonna happen about a neighbor project. Just a good neighbor project. So as you look at downtown Bentonville, obviously I I can tell you what the direct exact parameters are. Walton to J, 14th to Tiger. Right? Yeah. So that's the direct that that's exactly what the map of downtown looks like. Obviously, that's centric on the square.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Expand that. When we were growing up in central Arkansas, I would I I would run to my neighbor's house. My neighbor may have been two blocks away. What difference is that? Of you park, and to your point, you smile at someone, say hello to neighbor, yeah, and you're downtown before you know it. There's so much going on here. And again, you can pack patience, like the old cliche say, but do it while walking and enjoying it and knowing that the outcome of that walk will be just as good as if you park next door.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Right. You know, I um I drive my kids crazy because I will wave to I wave to everybody, I talk to everybody, I say good morning to every person that I see. And the sneaky part of that is it looks selfless and kind, but the sneaky thing is it's as selfish as could be because that makes me feel good, right? And so I I think residents lean into that here. Locals lean into that, um, and visitors get a lot out of it when they're in downtown Bittonville, and certainly at a at something like the farmer's market.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Quick story.

Mayberry Energy, Belonging, And Future Plans

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Recently, I was at a hotel and I was looking outside and I saw Kevin Bacon walking by. Uh-huh. Last year, saw other actors that were here. Seeing uh, again recently, Anthony Ketas from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, just sitting right here in Bentonville.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

The beauty of all of that is this is not New York, this is not LA, this is not Miami, this is not Boston. Guess what? They can sit there and be. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And that going back to the farmers market, it's it's a sense of being. It's not a location, it's not uh an opportunity to buy something. You can just be. Yeah. And that's what these celebrities are witnessing when they come to town for these amazing events, whether it's the film festival, whether it's Heartland, whether it's Walmart, whatever it may be, but they can just be.

unknown 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Shout out to my son again who came home from a run one morning and was like, There was a dude on the square that looked just like John Cena. I was like, that was John Cena. Pretty sure. I I can't confirm it, but I'm 90% sure that's who it was. Just hanging out. And uh because we I think in Bentonville, and you just nobody's a big deal because we're all a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

It's a way of life. Yeah. It is I I I go back to our the start of our conversation. Mayberry, Anda Griffith, he didn't care who you were. He was going to treat you the same way. And I hope everyone in Bentonville does that as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Okay. So Bentonville's so unique. You got 60% of the folks living here aren't from here. Yeah. Right? People have come here from all over the world because it's a great place to live, great place to work, great place to raise a family. It's a lot of fun. But everybody, all communities across the country are thinking about placemaking. They're thinking about sense of place. There's an authenticity to sense of place. How does the market contribute to that?

SPEAKER_00 21:23

It's a really good question, Grim. This is um I think it's it's hearkening back to days that of lore. Uh-huh. Of of the ones we've got. You looked at me like I was alive in lore. Right. It may have been that. But it it's something that is so going back to those big cities we just mentioned, you don't get it. And big shout out to our farmers market team that produced, and uh they were up against some stiff competition in this USA Today. And they got fourth? Fourth place, beating out some some stalwarts. Um but that's what it is. It it it makes you it's a feeling. You know, placemaking and and third spaces and but you feel it you feel a this belonging that you're here and it harkens back to to whether we're watching it on TV, something we could never attain. Yeah. And for some weird reason, Bentonville has has been able to grab on to something that is attainable that feels so out of place in a society where you've watched me look at my watch as I'm getting texts and calls or on my phone. You don't have to do that. Yeah. It's pure. It's it's exactly what I think many youngsters, a couple in this room that are much younger than us, that's right. Probably you know, could only dream about something like the farmers market. And it's there for them.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Aaron Powell Yeah, it is there for them. And I will say this in a town that understands who the customer is and values that experience, I have seen on multiple occasions Dylan, who runs the farmers market, whose long, beautiful hair should be on fire every Saturday morning.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

I have an amazing picture of him from behind with this like rainbow aura around him just because of the hair. He I should be hanging in crystal bridges, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Anticipate someone's need. Notice that they need something, and stop and walk over to a single person and say, What are you looking for? Can I help you find a booth? I just don't know that you get that a lot of places. Uh I think we're up against time, but I'm gonna push it. Is there anything we need to be thinking about in the future that we could expect out of the farmers market?

SPEAKER_00 23:48

I I I think just continuing what it is. That's also we we don't look, I'm big on, and I don't know where I heard this. We don't necessarily need to always get bigger and bigger and bigger.

unknown 24:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

We want to focus on getting better and better and better. And how that how we do that at a farmer's market is simply continuing to do exactly what we've done. Continue to understand that Bentonville needs something like this. And more than that, it wants it and let that drive it. Welcome in everyone who wants to be there, give them the experience of Pleasantville

Kids Club, Everyone Welcome, And Closing

SPEAKER_00 24:24

or Mayberry, and really lean into that. Yeah. I don't think we need to change anything. And that is from someone who's, you know, helping an organization like downtown Bitonville Incorporated. What am I supposed to do? Just keep doing it.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Yeah. I mean, you're constantly evolving because you're just moving with the market. You know, you're moving with the market. Aaron, thank you so much. Thank you to your team.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Yeah. They're the ones that are doing it. They are doing a fantastic job. Emma is the new uh farmers market lead right now. Okay. Dylan is our events lead. Uh there's going to be some really cool things that continue. Um, kids' club, bring your kids out. There's kids' activities there, whether it's seeds to start their own garden or whether it's a coloring station. We want everybody from everywhere to experience the Bentonville Farmers Market.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

And when you show up, you see that everyone is enjoying it. Truly one of those things where uh you go and you can say, okay, maybe we do have a lot more in common than we do have different.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

I mean, that's you just put a bow on this whole conversation. Well, we are cultivating community, and every single person is 100% welcome at every single time.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Thanks for letting me play the role of you in this conversation. I expect copious notes, my friend. None at all. Fantastic job, Graham. Thanks. Thanks, Aaron. Ready to explore Bentonville? Check out visitbentonville.com for dining guides, event calendars, and trip planning tools. Follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter. Links are in the show notes. Thanks for listening to a new American town.