Vendors at Northside Creators Market look back at fond memories ahead of closure

Jim Middleton clearly remembers the opening day of the Northside Creators Market — March 6, 2021.

"Opening day was incredible," the board chair and one of the market's founders recalled. "We had people all lined up outside."

From there, he remembers the first Christmas market which brought 6,000 people through the doors, watching different vendors grow out of the market into their own spaces and seeing Grampa George, who has been selling pickles at the market since the start, recently celebrate his 85th birthday.

"I really do feel our market is a family," Middleton said.

But like many organizations, financial pressures started to take a toll on the non-profit. And just last week, Middleton, who is also an art vendor at the market, announced it would be closing its doors.

In August 2020, the Northside Creators Market opened a temporary location at Picaroons Roundhouse to fill the gap from the closure of the old Northside Market.

Matt MacPherson, co-owner of MacPherson's Natural Bee Apiary in Tracy, said the Northside Creators Market at Picaroons was his the first full-time market for his business.

The MacPhersons sell lotions, lip balms, honey and other products to fund their 30 or so hives.

He said the market was instrumental in giving the business a chance to test its products on the market and connect with the community.

"There's obviously places that you can go and get products from some of the retail partners that we have, but when you come to those market environments, you get to meet the person that's behind the label or the jar that you're picking up," he said.

"There's still people to this day, you know, four years later, that will remember us from the Northside market."

In 2021, the market moved into a 4,500-square-foot space on Main Street to accommodate the quickly growing operation that opens every Saturday and Sunday.

Middleton said with the help of a grant, the group put $25,000 worth of upgrades into the building.

But running the market still came with a hefty cost. He said the landlord was great, even making arrangements so the rent would be less earlier in the year and more later in the year to accommodate for slow and busy times. But beginning in July, the monthly rent would be a little over $7,000.

"For our little non-profit market, it just got to a point that it's too much for us to cover … because, literally, our only source of income are the vendors who pay for their booths."

Along with the growing burden of bills, he said the market wasn't seeing as many vendors.

Still, Middleton said there has continuously been people who believed in the market.

For Cesar Morales, his wife Claudia and daughter Maria Angelica, the market provided a wonderful feeling of community and acceptance.

In 2021, the family opened Claudia's Pupusas, hoping to introduce Fredericton to the traditional comfort food from El Salvador. They started by making pupusas for friends, but were always encouraged to start selling them.

"During the pandemic, I lost my job … and then I told Claudia, 'Listen, why don't we start selling pupusas?'" he recalled. "It happened that the Northside Creators Market was looking for vendors, and they were just about to open the new location, and the rest is history."

Morales remembers how nervous his family was on their first day at the market, but looking back, he sees how much they've grown in the last three and a half years.

He said with the market closing, Claudia's Pupusas will continue, but the family is still working at getting in touch with other markets and locations that could work for them.

"I think we're going to bounce back, you know, and we're going to keep selling our pupusas."

Despite the market's current location no longer being sustainable, in Middleton's closure announcement on social media, he was careful not to put a definite end to the market, which is set to close at the end of July.

"Even if I'm not a part of it in the future and other people take the torch and run with it, I would just want it to continue, because I think that it's something that Fredericton needs," said Middleton.

"And any entrepreneur who wants to, you know, get their stuff out in front of the community … I think everybody deserves that opportunity, and a space like the Northside Creators Market does that."