Fifty-one vendors are packed into Millcreek Commons this month, selling everything from artisan gifts to chocolate-covered cereal clusters, in what organizers are calling the largest-ever market of locally made products in the state. The market runs daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. through Christmas Eve, giving Utah shoppers weeks to stock up on homegrown holiday goods before the season ends.
The event is a partnership between the City of Millcreek and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, according to FOX 13 News Utah, which reported on the market's opening. Millcreek has run some version of the market for years, but this season's lineup of 51 vendors marks its biggest showing yet, per the outlet's report.
Among those vendors is Sonya Erickson, who keeps her stall stocked with bags of Uncle Hoss's Crisscross Crunch, a chocolate-covered cereal cluster snack, as the station reported. Erickson said her Candy Cane Crunch flavor is the runaway favorite once the holidays hit, outselling everything else she makes. Her family business has also picked up a boost from being listed through Utah's Own, including a large holiday order from a customer who found the brand through the state's website, the station's report notes.
What It Takes To Get A Spot In The Market
Utah's Own is a state initiative built specifically to promote locally made products, connecting shoppers with food and agriculture businesses across Utah. To qualify, applicants need to be headquartered in Utah and either manufacture, package, and process food in the state or offer a Utah agriculture-based product, per the same account. The program also offers participating businesses training and help with labeling requirements and social media promotion, and its website hosts a vendor directory that shoppers can browse directly.
Utah's Own has described shopping local as a way of keeping money circulating close to home, citing figures that peg agriculture's share of Utah's economy at 15% and local spending retention at 65 cents of every dollar spent, according to the Utah's Own event page for the Millcreek market, which it calls its fourth annual Holiday Shoppes. That page lists the market as running November 1 through December 24, daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and puts the vendor count at more than 40 selling specialty foods, sweet treats, and artisan gifts.
A Program That Has Grown For Two Decades
Utah's Own says it has been connecting local farmers, ranchers, and food producers with their communities since 2002, and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food formally launched the program in 2006 to educate consumers about buying local, according to Farm Flavor. That outlet's reporting traces the program's growth from roughly 30 participating companies to 680 participants over the years, and recalls an earlier sampling event called A Taste of Utah at the 2014 Utah State Fair that drew about 3,500 fairgoers and roughly 50 companies.
The payoff for vendors can be real money. Last year's Millcreek Commons holiday market generated $92,000 for vendors over two months, FOX 13's report states, a figure that underscores why the city and state are leaning further into the format this year. With 51 vendors now filling the space daily through Christmas Eve, this year's market appears positioned to build on that total, though no updated sales figures have been reported.
Millcreek Commons shoppers looking for a reason to visit sooner than later also have a date circled on the calendar: Utah's Own lists a Grateful Get Together for November 20, featuring vendor samples, ice skating, Nigerian Dwarf goats, and the market's annual tree lighting.
