Soda City Market Provides Local Vendors the Chance to be Successful

Many local vendors are finding new openings due to the exposure from the market

By: Justin Stevens

   The Soda City Market on the 1500 block of Main Street in Columbia has brought thousands of shoppers to the downtown area every Saturday. However, the shoppers are not the only one's benefitting from this market, as local vendors are seeing an increase in income from the growing number of people that come out each Saturday.
   Bryan Tayara, the owner of Our Local Catch, has been participating in the market for a couple of months and his business has doubled in income from the market.
   Our Local Catch now provides fresh local seafood from North and South Carolina to four restaurants in Columbia including Blue Marling in The Vista. Tayara believes that the Soda City Market is great for new and local businesses that are trying to get established.
   "This is a great thing for businesses because I feel like businesses are going to start here and move onto a more bricks and mortar location and really, really support the town and be a part of the landscape of Columbia," Tayara said.
   Some of the shoppers that are attracted to the market love to buy from local businesses. Erin Galloway, an Irmo resident, has been coming to the market since the start of summer and feels like the market is a way for local vendors to showcase their products.
   "There are a ton of vendors out here that we didn't know anything about, so they are getting a great oppurtubnity to showcase products that are made right here in Columbia and I really love to be able to buy local," Galloway said.
   Stuart James, a  full-time real estate agent, sells homemade jewelry at the market. She believes that the businesses on Main Street are the ones that are benefitted the most from the thousands of shoppers.
   "The Main Street businesses have benefitted the most because they have a lot more traffic on Saturday morning that they didn't have before," James said. "So they open earlier now so it helped our Main Street ebcome better and thrive, which is what Columbia needs as a city, especially being the capital of South Carolina."
   Tayara is unsure that he will one day own a permanent location to sell his local seafood, but like many others he will continue to sell at the Soda City market to grow his business.