Safeway is taking advantage of the increased interest in local foods by starting up its own farmers’ market in front of its stores. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean Safeway is actually allowing local farmers to sell their produce on Safeway’s property. Rather, the store is simply setting up produce stands to push their own products.

The deceitful marketing tactics upset those that participate in real farmers’ markets. Here’s the transcript of a recent KUOW story on the mock market:

Martha Tyler says she was driving past a Safeway store in Kirkland recently, when she noticed a large banner. It promoted a farmers market at the store that weekend. Tyler knows many local farmers since she runs the Redmond Saturday Market, so she went in to ask the Safeway manager for details.

Tyler: “And the manager told me that they were going to be setting up tents and selling Safeway produce by Safeway employees farmers–market style.”

For Tyler, and many others, that concept violates the definition of a farmers market, in which farmers sell locally grown produce directly to customers.

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