Today we’d like to introduce you to Tina Berry.
Hi Tina, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My Dad grew up on a farm and his Dad literally had an over abundance of produce one year and started selling corn off the back on the truck on the side of the road. My parents then opened a Farmers market where we got local, fresh produce from all around the Southeast to sell in our roadside stand that they had from 1972 until 2018 when they retired. My sister, brother, and I all grew up working in the family business and actually bought into the business after college. My brother eventually opened his own wholesale produce route and my sister and I helped run our very successful market. When we sold the business it was like a huge piece of our lives was missing!! Customers had become family and we had a huge following. The community truly missed our family market and we did ourselves as well! Fast forward to 2020 and I lost my job because of the pandemic but it was a blessing because I’d been thinking of how I could recreate our market but without all the huge cost, expense, and overhead of an actual brick and mortar, yet on a much smaller scale. With some brainstorming with my family and friends, my husband and I opened a Pop-up market on the weekends to serve our community again. We were ecstatic and our local community has supported us immensely!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There are always struggles, but anything easy isn’t worth doing, right? Well, I thought I could do this alone because my husband works 60 hours a week building power lines as a lineman, however, it has been pretty crazy since day 1. So, we recruit our kids when not in school, family, and friends to help because our market is so busy. That’s a good thing though. We also had a pretty great location that we loved and rented but it was sold so we had to adjust and find another space and this one has actually been even busier. So, sometimes you have to adjust and move on.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We actually rent a lot and set up tables, tents, and sell fresh, local produce to our local community on the weekends. A true Pop-Up farmers market! We are known for our true vine-ripe tomatoes, our tree-ripe orchard-grown peaches, fresh shelled peas and beans, and the freshest produce around. We hand-pick from other farmers and wholesalers, that my dad has bought from for years, each item that we bring into our market. I’m truly proud of the quality of produce that we sell to our customers!
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I feel like any business owner takes risks, and almost each day we do that in our line of work. Do we move and go to different locations or stay where we are that’s been successful? How much extra produce do we buy weekly guessing if it will sell out or not? Do we branch out or not? Sometimes we don’t know, but without risk, there is no reward. The first week we opened, I thought we might get 50 orders. A lot of risk and money was taken just starting up this little Pop-up market….not knowing how well it would go. That first week, we closed our orders down at 250 orders and had walk-up orders over 60 people deep for 3 hours. If we hadn’t of taken this risk, we wouldn’t have known how big this could actually be.
Contact Info:
- Website: burgersmarket.com
- Instagram: Burger’s and Berry’s Pop Up
- Facebook: Burger’s and Berry’s Pop Up Market
