Indoor market looking for vendors By Patti Zarling For The News-Chronicle So far just a handful of vendors have signed on to participate in the annual winter indoor market sponsored by the De Pere Area Business Alliance. DBA officials say that if more vendors and customers don't take part in the venture, this will be the last year of the market. The market will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays, starting Nov. 1 through March 27. In the past, about 20 to 30 vendors from throughout Northeast Wisconsin, including a few from Door County, Manitowoc and the Fox Valley, have sold their wares. The market is held at Van Vehgel's Auction house, 2050 Profit Place, De Pere. Shirley Schultz, programming assistant for the DBA, said she has had positive verbal responses from vendors, so is hopeful many of them will be signed on and ready to go by Nov. 1. She said the DBA intends to do more marketing and publicity for the indoor market this year - and on a weekly basis - to remind potential customers it's there. It also will display a sign, Schultz said. About 5,000 bookmark flyers will be distributed at a Taste of Homes show this weekend. "I think people forget about it," she said. "This year we're going to make more of an effort to keep it in people's minds." She noted that once the weather turns gray and cooler, the market should pick up as people are looking for things to do. The market was begun three years ago to offer farmers a place to sell their goods once the summer farmer's markets have closed for the season, Schultz said. Customers also have the opportunity to shop for crafts and homemade wares even after other Christmas and holiday shows are over, Schultz said. "That's why we started it," she said. "Farmers and others were saying they wanted something like this and there was nowhere to go." Still, she acknowledged this could be the market's last year. "The interest has to be there," Schultz said. "There's no use in kicking a dead horse if the interest isn't there." For more information, call the DBA at 338-0000.