June 28, 2012 — Technology has come to farmers markets, and it is transforming a cash-only business model that has remained relatively unchanged for centuries. Across the state, these modern-day bazaars are adopting wireless technologies, smartphone apps, and other advances to process electronic payments, promote their wares, and establish virtual markets where customers can buy from dozens of Massachusetts farms over the Internet.
Vendors are not limiting their use of technology to payment processing. Red’s Best, a Boston seafood company, uses software and mobile apps so customers can learn the source of the fish they buy. The company, which sells at the Dewey Square and City Hall Plaza markets, initially developed the system to ensure an efficient distribution system, tracking the fish from boat to pier to market.
Now it gives customers access to this information through QR codes – those scrambled-looking bar codes that can be scanned by smartphones – linked to each type of fish. Currently, the QR codes are displayed on signs at the market booth, but soon each individual package of fish will be labeled with its own code.
Shoppers with smartphones need only capture the code with their devices’ cameras and they are linked to a page describing the origins of the fish. Scan the code for cod and learn that the day’s catch was made by Tim Barrett on the vessel Odessa, using a hand line and fishing out of Woods Hole.
One shopper, Bronwyn Cooke of Somerville, said the system is appealing because it makes it easier for potential buyers to sort out questions about where food comes from.
“It’s confusing for any consumer to figure out what’s a responsible choice,” she said. “The codes are super helpful.”
For Red’s Best, said Jason Tucker, the company’s farmers market manager, the tracking system has proved an effective marketing tool. “It creates a lot of consumer confidence for us,” he said, “and we do get a lot of repeat business.”
Read the full story in the Boston Globe