Build a Stall Backfill and Waitlist Tool for Farmers Market Coordinators

1. 1

   Sit with three coordinators through a market week

   Watch the cancellation texts arrive Thursday night and the scramble that follows. The rules they apply by instinct (category balance, seniority, reliability) are your feature spec; write them down verbatim.

2. 2

   Automate the cascade with the coordinator's rules

   A cancellation triggers timed offers down the waitlist, filtered by category rules and stall requirements (power, canopy size), with each offer expiring to the next vendor. The coordinator watches it resolve instead of running it.

3. 3

   Attach the money

   Stall payment on acceptance, automatic refunds or credits per the market's cancellation policy, and a season ledger per vendor. Uncollected stall fees and awkward refund chases are half the coordinator's dread; removing them doubles your value.

4. 4

   Track reliability without drama

   Quiet no-show and late-cancel records inform the coordinator's waitlist ordering; fairness with receipts replaces politics by memory, which coordinators love and vendors respect.

5. 5

   Price per market per season

   A season price under a couple hundred dollars fits nonprofit market budgets and undercuts the big vendor platforms whose depth these markets do not need. A free tier for tiny markets seeds the network.

6. 6

   Spread through the association grapevine

   State and regional farmers market associations run conferences and listservs where coordinators trade tools; one enthusiastic coordinator presenting their calm Saturday recruits a state.

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