Opened at the peak of pandemic, Lomita’s Farmers Market has closed

The Lomita Farmers Market, launched during the peak of the pandemic, permanently closed on Sunday, Aug. 27, due to not enough community support and competition from other markets in the area.

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience,” said the Lomita Chamber of Commerce in a message on Facebook announcing the closure.“However, due to staffing issues and lack of interest in the Lomita Farmers Market, we are permanently putting the Lomita Farmers Market on hold.”

The idea of the market was formed to provide an additional source of grocery to residents of Lomita, where there are few supermarkets, said Erik Bowman, a member of the Lomita Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

“Basically the talk on social media was that Lomita was a food desert, so in 2019, we came up with the idea of creating a farmer’s market,” Bowman said Tuesday.

Later that year, the Chamber conducted a survey on social media, and found that most of the 2,000 people who responded preferred Sunday as the day to have the farmer’s market, he said.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the Chamber’s original plan to open the market in March 2020 got scrapped due to lockdown orders from the government. But it eventually received the “go ahead” from the LA County Public Health Department.

Lomita Farmers Market officially opened its doors to the community on July 5, 2020 at 24300 Narbonne Ave., on the front lawn of the Lomita City Hall building.

It was launched “with a huge turnout and a bunch of vendors,” Bowman said, because most of the farmers markets in the area were closed at the time to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

But things started to change after 18 months, when larger farmers markets with longer history in the South Bay communities re-opened.

“A lot of our vendors went back to where they came from, which was like Long Beach and Torrance and Palos Verdes and even the Village in Redondo,” Bowman said. “We couldn’t keep attracting more customers, because we have a limited pool of vendors.”

Heidi Butzine, president and CEO of the Lomita Chamber of Commerce, said the market helped some businesses make sales during the pandemic.

“For example, there’s one particular brewery that wasn’t even open for one year,” Butzine said. “They were able pre pre-package their products, so they could actually sell the product with the right permit at the market.”

The City of Lomita is also working to bring additional supermarkets to the area in the next few years to provide residents with more grocery sources. Potential vendors include Target and Grocery Outlet, Butzine said.

Nevertheless, the Chamber’s decision was met with disappointment from some community members.

“I’m so sorry to hear that you’re going to be closing down!!! That had soooo much potential for Lomita to have such a Wonderful Event For A Sunny Sunday Morning!!!,” wrote Facebook user Paul Saben.

Dianne Evans, another user, suggested the Chamber could use social media and advertising to bring more attention to the event.

“Many are not aware Lomita has a farmers market, but Torrance,Carson and Wilmington have busy ones and a social media presence,” she said. “Folks love their farmers markets.”

But Bowman said the Chamber did use social media and other ways to promote the event, such as inviting a band to play at the market, but these techniques still weren’t drawing large crowds.

Vendors have dwindled from around 20 or 30 to six or seven, Bowman said.

“We kept it going as long as we could,” he said. “We were losing money on it and we are not a charitable organization. We are a chamber of commerce.”

Although the announcement said the market would close on Aug. 27, Butzine said it had not been in operation since May.

“We tried it for a good, maybe about three years,” she said, “And based on our priorities as a chamber of commerce, it just didn’t fit within our business plan. So unfortunately, we did make the decision to close it. But who knows, maybe something could come back in the future, and like I said, I’m happy to see that our city is encouraging grocery stores in the city.”