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Maryland Farm Market Caters to Tourists on their Way Home

By Karen Gentry Managing Editor


When tourists travel Highway 50 on their way back home from the ocean, many have made it a tradition to stop at Wright’s Farm Market in Mardela Springs, Md. Owner Charles Wright IV estimates that 65% of the market’s clientele are tourists from places like Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia who are coming home from the beach. “Our landmark is a full-size windmill. The windmill is our logo,” said Wright, who operates the market and a farm operation with his wife, Michelle, and parents Nancy and Charles Wright III. The windmill structure includes a full size man with a hat and shirt made out of metal. With approximately 10 markets within a seven-mile span, Wright must differentiate himself from the competition. He says his 9,000-square-foot market with 3,000 additional square feet of porch is one of the larger ones around, but it is customer service that he and his family work on the most. “It’s not as good as it used to be. Every time a market goes up the pie gets smaller. Customer service is extremely important,” said Wright. He said they strive to give everyone an agricultural experience and get really involved with their customers. Wright caters to upscale customers because they have more money. “Sell what they want, not what they need,” he said. “They want flowers. They don’t have to have them, but they’re more apt to buy flowers than a five-pound bag of potatoes. The longer they’re in the market, the more chance they have of buying more.” Besides the vegetables that they grow, the Wrights also sell jams, jellies, candy, flowers, fresh crabmeat and frozen soft crab. He recommends that marketers sell items they can markup that don’t have to be handled a lot. Wright also started allowing credit card purchases, which he said he should have done a long time ago. They also now have a gift shop, which he is satisfied with. Wright recommends to other markets to do their research and visit a lot of markets before starting or expanding a farm market. Before expanding their market to its present size in 2001, Wright did his homework. “We visited 20 different markets in five to six different states,” said Wright. They talked with people and measured the aisles in grocery stores, he said. Wright was a speaker at Mid-Atlantic convention this winter and spoke about designing a market layout including the parking lot. Wright said they had to make a decision whether to go bigger in their growing operation or with their market. They built the bigger market and added a bakery, which he described as a “no brainer” decision. He said there is more control in operating a market compared to expanding the growing operation. “The market is our number-one expansion area,” he said. “I could have spent just as much money on a combine.” Their operation also now includes a corn maze and a hayride. Through the expansion, his wife, Michelle was able to quit a job working for a poultry company and help with the business as well as stay home with their two children, Charles V, nine, and Morgan, four. The growing part of the operation, Cornerstone Farms, Inc., began in 1940 when Wright’s grandfather purchased 65 acres. To be able to get more money for their produce, Wright’s father started a small roadside market in 1970. The main crops were sweet corn, tomatoes and cantaloupe. More expansion took place and by the mid 1980s they were also selling chrysanthemums. He said they still grow mums but now buy other flowers from other growers. By 1985, the Wrights went from 100 acres to 250 acres and added corn and soybeans primarily for rotation. By 1989 they were up to 850 acres. They now grow 70 acres of watermelon for a broker and fresh market string beans for a company in Virginia. Wright said watermelon and string beans are the only two big processing crops left. “We grow 17 different varieties of vegetables for our market,” Wright said. The market is open from mid-April though Dec. 1. They also host approximately 2,000 school children on tours each year. In all, from 60,000 to 70,000 people or more visit the market every year, Wright said. The operation employs 30 workers throughout the year including 12 at the market. Wright graduated from the University of Maryland -Eastern Shore with a degree in general agriculture. He is president of the Maryland/Delaware chapter of the National Watermelon Association and an officer with the Wicomico County Farm Bureau and the Maryland Direct Marketing Association. The Wrights’ Web site www.wrightsmarket.com includes history and seasonal information. Wright can be reached via e-mail at charles@wrightsmarket.com.