This post is part of a series chronicling news coverage of rising prices in the United States. See more here.
Wichita's KWCH reports rising fuel, shipping, and feed costs are hurting farmers market vendors
Vendor: “We're just kind of taking it on the chin and hoping that it kind of comes back down, just because everybody's kind of hurting”
Published
Video file
Citation
From a May 16, 2026, video uploaded to the website of KWCH 12 News
JORDAN TOLVAR (REPORTER): Every weekend between April and October, vendors line the Old Town Farm and Art Market in Wichita. Thousands flock to the farmers market to buy products sold by these small businesses. But with rising operating costs, however, some of these businesses are starting to feel the strain.
VENDOR 1: You know, raw materials for everybody is just going up.
SHAWN JOHNSTON (VENDOR): We use a lot of fuel. For like the side-by-side and diesel to go get feed, and the feed prices are going up and things like that. I mean, yeah, it hits us hard, but we still want to be available the best that we can.
TOLVAR: Many of the businesses that I spoke with said they're trying to keep their prices where they're at now, but the more that it costs to run their business though, the less profit they earn.
JOHNSTON: It's hurting our margin because we are not going to increase prices right now. We're just kind of taking it on the chin and hoping that it kind of comes back down, just because everybody's kind of hurting.
CHUCK NEUSCHAFER (VENDOR): I mean, we take less on our side so we can keep it affordable for folks coming by to buy from us.
TOLVAR: Others said external factors like shipping their products are starting to hurt them.
NAQUELA PACK (VENDOR): I haven't had to do that, but my shipping prices have gone up because postal has gone up because of the gas prices going up. So, you know, that does trickle down unfortunately sometimes to the customer.
TOLVAR: Some are trying to soften the blow of these prices in other ways though.
NEUSCHAFER: Buy in bulk, we go to Sam's and Costco and buy cases so we get a little bit of a discount.
PACK: I've had orders and they say I'll meet you at the farmers market, so that has been a way that I've been able to alleviate having to ship and use the postage and been able to kind of offset that for a while.