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A Wetaskiwin public market struggles with a lack of visitors

The market is open to the public on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A lack of visitors is making life difficult on a Wetaskiwin public market. 

Founder Rhoda Badree said some days are good, but the slow times are really hurting vendors. 

"It's good on payday, but in between it's quite slow,” Badree said about the market located in the Wetaskiwin Mall.

The market is open to the public on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"We're trying to get vendors, trying to get customers. we are trying to get this out, but we are having problems with that," she added.

The items for sale range from jewelry, paintings, and handmade home goods to native work.

Badree said that they tried the market on weekends, but the results were not any better. "It doesn't matter if we're in the middle of the week, or on weekends. We had them on weekends," she said.

One of the reasons for the struggle, according to Badree is that the Wetaskiwin Mall itself isn’t attracting visitors.

"The mall is getting so slow. Were trying to help bring people in to also help the mall out, but the mall is slowly dying. We're hoping to pick up both," Badree explained.

She's asking Wetaskiwin residents to come out and visit them, even if they're not buying the products.