NEW USERS

Welcome to MarketMaker. The goal of MarketMaker is to make the site a resource for all businesses in the food supply chain. We are as interested in helping a grocery store find farm-fresh eggs as we are helping the farmer find a place to sell them.

The MarketMaker website is rich with demographic and business data that the user can query. Details can be summarized on a map to show concentrations of consumer markets and strategic business partners. Providing this kind of information in a map-based format makes much more sense than business lists and statistical tables.

For example, a user can request lists of federally inspected packing plants along with a map that identifies their locations. If you are a grocery store manager looking for the closest producer of organic vegetables, you can query the website to find names and contact information.

Census data is also a feature of the site. For example, a producer wanting to sell meat to Hispanic consumers can request a map showing the greatest concentration of upper-income Hispanic households, then request a complete demographic profile of those locations.

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How to "Find a Business"

When searching by Find a Business, you are able to query the database for food-related businesses in the following areas:

• Producers/Farmers
• Processors
• Wholesalers
• Retailers - Groceries and Eating/Drinking Places
• Farmers Markets

From the homepage, click on Begin Your Search located on the left side of the page. Click on the down arrow to the right of the search box titled Find a Business. Select the type of business you want to search for. On the query page, select the specifics about the business that you want to find. The specifics are different dependent on the type of business you are looking for. Submit your request for information.

A search results page will appear listing all of the businesses that fit the specific criteria you are looking for.You have a few options with the search results. The MapIt/Detail links are for the individual record in that row. You can click on MapIt, which will show the location of the business in map view. You can also click on Detail, which will provide information about a business that includes the name, address, telephone number, website address, and other information about it.

You can also click on Map All located in the upper right corner of the search results. This option allows you to map all of the results listed. By mapping all of the results, you can see where the businesses are located all at once. There can be an advantage to this. You can determine a location that best suits you without searching through all of the results. Once the businesses are all mapped, you can Identify any business on the map by selecting the Identify icon to the left of the map and clicking directly on the red marker. Underneath the map, information will appear. The name and address of the business you selected appears at the top of the area . In addition to the business information, there will be census data that refers to the census tract that the business resides. Within the same window, you can find out more about that particular business by clicking on Detail located below the general business information.

How to "Find a Market"

When searching in Find a Market, you are able to query the database for census data in the following areas:

• Household Type
• Education
• Foreign Born
• Race
• Income
• Income by Race

Click on the down arrow to the right of the search box titled Find a Market. Select the type of market/census you want to search for. On the query page, select the specific category and county that you want to find information about. Submit your request.

A map page will appear showing you the results of your query. The legend to the right of the map indicates the different levels of population in that particular area. Note which color has the largest number of people that match your request. If you want to focus more closely on an area within the county or state you selected, you can Zoom In to the area. Hold down the left mouse button and draw a box around the area you want to look at.

After finding a particular market segment, you can search for businesses located in this area by selecting the Find Business tab to the right of the map. Select a particular category of business you are looking for and the line of business for that category. The search will result in red markers on the map representing each business of the type you requested. You can Identify any business on the map by selecting the Identify icon to the left of the map and clicking directly on the red marker. Underneath the map, information will appear. The name and address of the business you selected appears at the top of the area . In addition to the business information, there will be census data that refers to the census tract that the business resides. Within the same window, you can find out more about that particular business by clicking on Detail located below the general business information.

The amount of information you can find on the MarketMaker website is endless. We hope you find MarketMaker a benefit to your business. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments.

Begin a Search Now

If you would like to do a search now, go to the "Begin Your Search" page. Happy searching!