Nearing one-year anniversary in Cockeysville, Dutch market prepares

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Aug 12, 2005 by James Mosher

They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. The Pennsylvania Dutch Market is proving that route is also one way to business success in Maryland.

Sales of fresh-food products continue to draw heavy foot traffic to the Cockeysville market, which is nearing its one-year anniversary.

Many of the market's merchants come from Pennsylvania Amish communities, Christian religious groups known for their old-world lifestyles and avoidance of modern technology. The market's Amish touches include an antique ice cream maker sputtering by the front entrance, although the only horse and buggy to be seen is on the market's York Road sign.

The Baltimore County market contains more than 5,000 items, including Moses F. Stoltzfus's hand-woven brooms. People come here mostly to eat, he said on a slow day recently.

Some merchants are happier than others, said Daniel S. Esh while creating wood-burning art at the Georgetown Woodcraft kiosk. I'd say the food sellers are especially happy.

Yet most merchants said going beyond the market's core food offerings will enable it to remain successful when a Wegmans Food Markets Inc. store opens in two months at the nearby Hunt Valley Towne Centre mall. It will be the grocery chain's largest store.

Wegmans will bring lots more people into the area, said Nancy Boltz, communications director for the Pennsylvania Dutch Market. We don't view Wegmans as competition. We expect many of those extra people to come to our businesses and strengthen our market.

Wegmans, a Rochester, N.Y.-based avant-garde grocery store, plans to open its first Maryland location Oct. 2, almost a year to the day the Pennsylvania Dutch Market opened at Ashland Marketplace.

Ashland, a strip mall, had one food business fail because of nearby competition. The mall's Metro Food Market closed in April 2001 due in part to a Giant Food Inc. store only one block away.

The Amish merchants are ready for Wegmans. Products such as Amish quilts, gourmet coffee and dinner specials are being introduced. The merchants are proving deft at getting interesting products and promotions in front of shoppers.

The Pennsylvania Dutch Market hosts events such as Spring Fling and Old-Time Day, at which merchandise is offered at reduced prices. Thursdays are Senior Days in which elderly customers get 10 percent discounts. Friday mornings in July featured programs for young people. Demonstrations of how quilts and straw brooms are made have been popular, Boltz said.

Still, food remains the market's bread and butter.

Business is good, said Mannie Fisher while patiently waiting on customers at the busy Welsh Mountain Deli, whose offerings include fresh milk in old-style glass bottles.

Large crowds don't rattle the merchants.

The Amish are extremely efficient, Boltz said. They're very good at managing large crowds.

The market left the Crossroads Square Shopping Center in Westminster after 12 years when it lost its lease. It signed a 16- year contract for Ashland Marketplace. Some customers followed the market to its new home.

I recognize a lot of faces from Westminster, Boltz said. About half of the customers patronized the market when it was in Westminster and half are new customers, she estimated.

A lot of people are discovering us, Boltz said. We offer an experience that is very different from supermarkets.

The market took over the space formerly inhabited by Metro Food. It procured the store through a subleasing arrangement with Metro, according to Mark Mueller, an associate at commercial real estate brokerage KLNB LLC, the property's leasing agent. The success of the market has helped solidify other businesses at Ashland Marketplace, which had struggled with vacancies in the past.

They're a great anchor, Mueller said. We're very happy to have them.

The market started in Cockeysville with 30 merchants and has increased to 36. There were 40 vendors when the market was in Westminster. The market is open year-round on Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

None of the merchants live in Maryland, Boltz said. All live in or near Lancaster County, Pa. That means many have to rise at 2 a.m. to be at their booths when the market opens on Thursday.

They're a hearty lot, said Boltz.