Fresh Market Evening Hours Canceled

For the past 5 months the Gulfport Tuesday Fresh Market invited guests out for a late night of shopping and cooking demonstrations in downtown Gulfport. For seven years thousands of people have come to Gulfport, once a week, between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to shop for local produce, handmade art, jewelry, flowers and more.

This past fall, officials announced that the first Tuesday of each month the market would stay open until 8 p.m. to allow residents and visitors, who couldn't make it during the day, to enjoy the Fresh Market at night.

Below is the announcement from Coordinator Daniel Hodge explaining why they will no longer continue "Twilight Tuesdays."

"After carefully considering the experiences we’ve had with our Fresh Market evening hours in the fall as well as this month, we have decided to discontinue the evening hours which had been scheduled for the first Tuesday of each month. Even after extensive promotions and paid advertising, we did not get enough customer traffic to keep our vendors busy or to warrant our own extra work and expense.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained” is a wise saying. Our Fresh Market was itself was just a concept that was “worth a try” seven years ago, and I trust you are as proud as we are of its success today. So I’m not sorry we tried out the concept of evening hours, and I do appreciate the participation and patience of all of you who encouraged us."

For more information, contact Daniel Hodge at (727) 366-4086 or email dan@igc.org.