Please help me rebuild my destroyed fruit and veg stall

Hi I'm looking for donations to help me get a council commercial use of roadside permit so i can keep trading and doing what i love without having to worry about being fined

i am currently still working risking fines every day but when u have to support a family you do what u gotta do

im the hardest worker i know and if u donate to my cause, i wont let u down

here is my story

A true story by Aaron Edwards about my journey starting a fruit and veg shop and how it ended up destroyed

The business started when the people doing fruit and veg at the markets i attended every Wednesday and Saturday could not do it anymore

I knew in my mind that the market would die if there was no fruit and veg

I was selling pet products at the time something i loved but unfortunately wasnt very busy and I would see how busy these fruit and veg people were

Especially on a Saturday

Lines of people waiting to pay for fruit and veg

So in that moment I messaged the wife and told her im gonna be a fruit and veg man

I built this business from nothing

I borrowed 2 marquees off the pier market who were so supportive of my decision always

Borrowed $400 off the president at the time

And off I went to buy some local produce

I started off by keeping the produce in my lounge room under the air con

My very first customer was a walk off cause she didn't like the price of the bananas I was selling

This made me very sad and i left, went home and had a meltdown

What was I doing ?

I was known to do things on impulse and sometimes make stupid decisions

Then my phone rang

It was carly my wife, she asked me to come back

I said what's the point, it's just a stupid decision I made

She said no actually, it's busy and she needed help

Now busy for us back then was a few customers,

the pet products best day would have been not much more than $1000 takings

I went home after that first day filled with inspiration

Had I found what I was so desperately looking to find

A job that I actually enjoyed and wanted to get up and do everyday

That night I came up with the name veggiefruit

And designed the logo I still use today

I had a theme tune and something I had never felt before

The fire inside me to succeed was real

I started writing down all the things I thought I could do differently and better than others

I thought to myself this isn't new

People have been selling fruit and veg for thousands of years

How would I be different?

In the beginning I would take both businesses to the market setting up two lots of marquees and tables

Two lots of products

I'd probably still be doing that but my wife, carly started to get sick with arthritis

Eventually I stopped doing the pet products so I could focus on the fruit and veg

Now I'll fast forward the next part

Let's just say I worked very hard making relationships with farms and suppliers

I remember being scared to do my first sat market going up against the people that would have the big lines

It was like in no time my shop started to be the same

I swear it didn't take long for people to get quite inquisitive about the other fruit shop at the market

I started building a loyal following, I made sure I got to know my customers, I would give them all my time

Got to know their names and I started calling them veggiefruiters, I dont have any family, an orphan at 14 I always tried to make anyone that would stick around feel like family

I started adding more and more products to my shop ,milk ,bread and anything that I hadn't seen before

Especially things that weren't stocked in the big stores

The next thing that happened changed veggiefruit forever

I was contacted by a blueberry farm ,do i want to buy local blueberries in 5kg crates, i thought at the time how the hell am i gonna sell 5kg lol that's 40 punnets

But i said yes and organised to pick the crate up,

Well they sold out in the first few min that sat morning, it was very clear i underestimated the love for blueberries

Especially at the price i was able to sell them for

I remember asking the farm like 3 -4 times that week if I could get 2 crates 3 crates 4 - 5 - 6

I asked how many of these can u actually supply

She says we pick about 10k kilos a day

I nearly fell over

10 ton a day by hand wowzers

She said that they could supply up to 2 tonnes a week just for me

So away I went, I'll never forget the first time I took 100 crates to the market

People fed on them like birds

I even had to stop them fighting over them.

That day they all sold out by 10am

I could not believe my eyes

The shop kept progressing every week I was gaining more and more customers

My shop grew into 4 marquees that were double marquees 6x3

So then my shop was 12mt x 6 mt

The biggest site that had ever been at the market

The market was being so supportive that anything I dreamed up they would support

They had all the faith in the world in me

It came to a time the council said they wanted to do some work to the grass

My 12x6 site was to be affected by this

So I was offered the bridge by the management at the time

I was hesitant at first, I didn't like change very much Especially with something I built that worked so well

But made the decision to move to the bridge and I setup an even bigger stall

It was 27mt x 3mt

A whole market in itself

And what happened next was so amazing and real it still makes me cry just thinking about it

It was like overnight my customers doubled again

Everyone was talking about veggiefruit

Everyone wanted to be a veggiefruiter

I had to put on more employees

Then came the first hit for veggiefruit

I would have an amazing day with hundreds of customers

At the end of the week I'd go to pay everything and was astonished

There wasn't enough money to pay everything

I'd have just enough to break even

Weeks went on and this got worse

I started to not be able to pay my wholsaler and other bills including my own personal bills

But I would have such great days with loads of sales and loads of customers

How could I not have the money I needed

I blamed myself, my wife

Maybe I was just a bad businessman

I went over my prices checking weights of everything

I wasn't doing anything wrong

All of a sudden I was nearly 20k in debt, mostly to my wholsaler

Then I put a few of my sons mates on to work for me

It was them that alerted me to what the problem was

One of them said

Aaron u have a massive theft problem

I was like Na

People don't steal fruit and veg

He said well they are, a lot of them get sick of waiting in line and just walk off

Now I didn't notice cause I was always serving the customer in front of me ,giving the personal touch that made my business what it was

So I decided to invest in some point of sale software

The results from I got from that told the story

I was loosing up to $1500 a week to theft

$1500 bucks omg

That's where all the money was going and that's why I was in debt

But that didn't hurt veggiefruit as much as what happened next

The council put the market up for tender

A new management took over

They asked everyone to fill out an application form

I was told to list everything I sell be very thorough and take my time

So I did ,my application was 20 pages long

I took the opportunity to design a new approach and layout for my shop which would tackle the congestion problem in my shop and more importantly the theft problem

I was the whole time keeping the new management up to date with my progress

I was nearly finished the application

I asked the new management if I could do a test run of the new layout I designed

I asked to do it on a wed when it wasn't as busy

The person i was liaising with said yes and that my idea sounded great

So I employed some workers to help and I setup the shop on the bridge to test my design

It looked amazing and I was so happy seeing it setup

I thought yes, this will fix the stealing and take veggiefruit to the next level

Then that afternoon the worst happened

Some of the new management approach me and say

We haven't got many spots left

Why haven't u put your application in ???

I was like what do u mean, u told me to take my time

Testing my new setup was the last thing I had to do

And what do u mean only got 3 spots left

I still have my bridge right ?

Wrong , I was told I was not getting the bridge and it was to be turned into a wellness section

And that my 27mt stall had to be reduced to 9mt

And that i wasn't even allowed in the produce section anymore

I had to be on the road side

I said 3 small sites is not even enough room for my bread

They said about that, we are all about primary producers

When we put it out for stallholders to apply we had a baker apply

So he will be coming to sell bread

I started to cry

My bread is baked by my son in law

The bread flavours are designed by me and I supplied the ingredients

The bakery don't even stock my bread

They said while we are on this topic

Your not allowed to sell

Eggs

Honey

Juice

Strawberries

And many other things that made my shop what it was

Cant sell anything that wasn't fruit and veg

I cried my eyes out

How could this be happening

What did I do wrong

Even to this day they claim there is no malice involved which could be true, at the time it surely felt like it as there are other stalls at the market that sell other items they don't produce.

Did they not realise how much this would hurt me ?

Maybe they didn't

I had made promises to the people that I owed money too that blueberry season was when I would be able to pay them all back

I got 1 last sat with the blueberries before this happened

I had 561 customers in 5 hours

I had $10000 in sales just on that sat

So i made the decision to not stay at the market becauseof these limitations placed on me, yes it was all my decision as I thought I'll just find another location.

I just couldn't stay with the limitations placed on me.

there is nothing legally wrong with what they did ( i don't think )

They had a vision of what they wanted in the market and telling me what I can and can't sell was a part of that

To me it was very morally wrong and affected what I had built immensely

So i left the market id loved for so long, over 10 years of loyalty to the market gone.

I used to say I'd get buried there when I die lol

I put a post up online to see if any businesses close to the pier would let me trade in their carpark

A motor in around the corner contacted me ,said I was welcome to use their carpark

I checked it out and it was perfect

I started trading there and was making it work, customers did reduce to around 300 but that was OK, being around the corner they were sure to find me

Then one morning a council lady turned up

She had received a complaint about me trading in the carpark

She told me i had to stop and told the motor inn owner that he had to put an $8000 application into council to have a fruit and veg stall in his carpark

So I left the motor inn but didn't give up

I started trading in multiple other locations instead

A caravan park

Local corner store

The hervey bay community was really doing their best to help but were kind of chasing me all over town and customers reduced considerably again

I even had one hervey bay developer offer me his multi million dollar block of land on the esplanade that I had to say no too as I'm sure there would have been a complaint made to council cause I exist

whoever was complaining to council about me had succeeded in stopping me from trading

I then was contacted by the koala markets

Giving me somewhere to trade and keep this dream alive

I have been trading there sat and sun ever since

It's a struggling market that has no foot traffic, however I am committed to bringing koala back to life

Im also tried to get veggiefruit online to take off

I would buy the produce from the farms

Run the website

Pack the orders

Deliver the orders

All to 5 post codes all by myself

some days no matter what I do no one orders and i end up a depressed mess.

I am doing it all by myself and after a while orders dropped off

I guess doing it all myself I would deliver till 10pm at night some nights and my customers probably didn't like it

I do always try to be positive no matter how hard things get

I'm not ready to give up, I don't think that will ever be an option for me

My Farms and wholsaler still supply because they believe in me

They believe i am capable of achieving the pinnacle of success

I still have plenty of support

It's very hard to get people to order online

Fruit and veg is something they want to pick themselves

I am trying everything to make it work

Big sales

Free delivery some days

I share my posts to up to 45 local groups

I just want it so bad

I want to make everyone happy with their decision to back me 100%

I am working on it 20hrs of everyday witha smile on my face

I kept trading at koala, doing my best to revive the market

Made new signs for the market and created a Facebook page

Designed the market new logos and cover pics

I tried keeping the variety i had at the old market

I added cakes and bought had two fridges

But the business was still loosing money as I had so much variety and there wasn't enough customers to sell what I once stocked

I started sleeping in the back of my truck at the market so I didn't have to pack it all up everyday

Which ment I didn't need employees anymore either and the marquees were set up permanently

I then made the decision to stop fruit and veg as everyone knew

And start my business again starting with my bread

So I put a post up to tell my customers how the business was loosing money and that I was gping to stop after the Christmas market

Then in the Christmas holidays there was a big storm one night

I think just before new years eve

It totally destroyed my stall

All marquees were broken and everything I had stored in my shop was water damaged including my fridges

Just for 1 fridge to be fixed quote is $1400

And that brings me today

Here i am asking the world for money to help me rebuild

Not just the market stall but hopefully move into my own shop

So if u can help it would be very appreciated

And that's my story

Love u all my Veggiefruiters

We can do this together

Aaron

You can also follow me on my facebook page

So if you donate to my cause you will be kept up to date with what the money is getting spent on My veggiefruit facebook page

Thanks for reading my story

Please help this farther rebuild his destroyed business

Aaron