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Below, you’ll find an anonymous community feedback form which should only take 5 to 20 minutes, depending on how involved you’d like to get. I also go in to detail about where I see things, and my intentions moving forward; but ultimately I’m doing this for the community, and your feedback is incredibly important for keeping it meaningful, relevant, and useful.
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Easily the most humbling. Easily the hardest I’ve had to work and easily the most difficult it’s been to get outside of my comfort zone. But, this year’s been the most fruitful in getting people together, and gaining clarity on what the Open Market is, and where it’s going.
Since starting the project in 2020, the Open Market has been steered and shaped by feedback and ideas from artists, makers, farmers, ranchers, small businesses, local shoppers, community leaders and all sorts of our neighbors. I’ve learned that it’s my role to translate these ideas in to useful tools and spaces for building connections in the West Slope.
It’s only natural that I start to develop blindspots and build my own biases and habits in while nerding out on the Open Market’s frameworks. I am all ears if any of you ever have any ideas, concerns, questions, or maybe you want to grab a coffee. The Open Market is going through some big changes, and I feel pretty good about where I see it going, but this is a community effort, so here’s an invite for community feedback to help refine things as we move forward.
Originally, I thought the Open Market would only be a place for online shopping. It’s really the only idea I had for it from 2020 until the middle of 2024, when a random artist at a popup market told me I should host events. I knew getting more involved with the community was how the website would grow, so I consulted with SEVERAL event coordinators and then decided, sure, let’s try it. Since then, the Open Market has hosted 4 festivals, and they keep getting better.
The website’s inventory and usage has consistently been growing and improving and it’s always very gratifying to see it. It’s very slow and steady growth but it is definitely helping Sellers do their thing without needing to devote their time to managing their own websites, and the OM fees are super competitive, while offering basically the same core tools as Etsy, Amazon, or Shopify. It’s absolutely worth my time and energy to nerd out on improving the website for my Sellers and their Shoppers, even if it continues on this trajectory.
The internet is pretty neat, and flashy, but we’re all kind of waking up to the fact that our elders were right – we need to put the screens down, go outside, and touch grass. In my case, in early 2025, my grandfather took it one step further and told me my “website is useless, what we really need is a magazine so we can shop local at home without the internet.” I’m always grateful for this old man – he’s one of my best friends and he says it like he sees it. The website isn’t going anywhere, but he had a point.
In late summer, 2025, I began getting a feel for what it would take to publish a magazine, and getting a feel for how useful it would even be for the community. All of it required a ton of in-person outreach, which is not easy for me. I’m no stranger to crippling social anxiety, depression, and imposter syndrome, which is one of the reasons why I fell so hard in to alcohol and drugs for 15+ years – it was a release from that. But, after 3+ years completely sober, I’m grateful to be tackling this thing head-on. It’s not ever easy, every day is a new challenge and every day is a gift and reminder to keep going, but this year, the Open Market, and this holiday shopping guide really helped me grow.
We ended up publishing The Grand Valley Holiday Shopping Guide, just in time for Black Friday and it really helped to clarify a huge paradigm shift I’ve been going through.
I’ve always put a lot of weight on the importance of data in this mission, and I’ve used it a lot as the main metric of “success” or “failure”. There’s lots of quantifiable metrics that are valuable tools, but too much focus on it will just make things go sterile and hollow, and in a world of AI, it’s becoming more and more important to embrace authentic DIY cringe.
I’m embracing slowing down, trusting the process, thinking long term, getting more intentional with my energy, and allowing myself to treat this as a creative outlet for myself, rather than a problem to be solved.
What’s important is that the Open Market is here to serve the community. And it’s so much more important for me to show up consistently as I am, rather than trying to perfect everything always thinking about the data and the outcome.
Branding refresh!
Personally, I love the out-of-date, brutalist, and simple look of things now. But let’s be real – it’s out of alignment with the Open Market’s mission of being a community hub, and it doesn’t really serve the folks the project is built for.
The plan: We’ll be working with a local artist to make the site feel more natural and inviting, while also streamlining and simplifying the shopper experience. The goal is for the Open Market to feel more like a West Slope summer morning farmer’s market, rather than a retro dungeon themed video game (though, I am in love with both haha!)
Social media content
We’ll be focusing on higher quality videos, seller interviews, and useful informational content this year.
If you’ve got any ideas or want to collaborate, let’s talk. jon@theopenmarket.co
Regular meetups
We’ve got a list of workshops, lectures, party-themes, fun activities to pass the time, and non-capitalism events planned and we’ll be broadcasting them as soon as they’re scheduled!
If you’ve got any ideas or want to collaborate, let’s talk. jon@theopenmarket.co
Festivals
May 9th – the 3rd Mom and Pop’s Fest: how about a Colorado Avenue block party?
November – Small Business Saturday is already on the calendar with Fruita Chamber of Commerce for our 3rd event together for 2026!
Magazines
We’ve got basically the same thing as the 2025 edition, except this next one will be a 2027 Local Shopping Guide, published right before 2026’s Black Friday!
Open Market CO-OP
While thinking about all the different moving parts of the Open Market, it’s becoming more clear that the whole mission is moving towards becoming some sort of small business/creative co-op for the West Slope.
This idea is still early on the drawing board, but it makes sense. Thoughts?
Help shape the Open Market for 2026 and onward! This survey should only take 5 to 20 minutes, depending on how involved you’d like to get.
Reach out any time: jon@theopenmarket.co
If you’d like to reach out or get involved, fill out the following form: