Virginia Market Maker

A business can login to their account and see how many have viewed both their business profile and any ads they have submitted. 

Virginia Market Maker is already pre-loaded with public facilities, such as meat processing facilities, and other businesses located throughout the state. However, these listings contain just the bare minimum information about each business. The owner-operators of these businesses are strongly encouraged to set up a Virginia Market Maker account and provide key details about their services, and any social media or association connections, to help potential customers find them based on advanced search criteria.

Yes! Consumers do not need to set up a profile to search Virginia Market Maker, they can simply type in their search criteria based on location, food or food product type, or any other specific characteristics about the agribusinesses, such as market outlets or seasonal offerings.

As with raising awareness across the agribusiness community, we will rely on promotional and marketing support from Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech, Virginia State University,  Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Farm Credit, and Virginia Farm Bureau to help us get this information out through their own promotional materials, workshops, conferences, and client events.

No. The information can only be used by the state principles for University and Extension related research following the rules of the memorandum of understanding. 

The Market Search feature queries census data in the following areas: Education, Foreign Born, Household Type, Income, Income by Race, and Race. You can find Market Search by clicking on SEARCH or by doing a quick search. Once you click on search, click on the Market Research tool.

At the top of the map that appears, select the Market Type you want and other specific selections that go along with it. Also select if you are searching by County or state. When your selections are complete, click on Map It. A map will appear showing you the results of your query. Note which color has the largest number of people that matches your request. To zoom in closer, you can use the hand tool and mouse wheel or you can click on the box zoom tool and draw a box around the area you want. To select specific census tracts, click on the census tract tool and drag over the census tracts you want to select. You can also use the control key while clicking on desired census tracts.

Census data is calculated to the right of the map. The default census data before any selection is the current states census data. Once you select census tracts, the data calculates those chosen. You can print the census data by clicking Print Census Profile.

If you would like to know more about the methods used to create the consumer expenditure data, visit http://www.esri.com/~/media/Files/Pdfs/library/whitepapers/pdfs/consumer-expenditure-methodology-2011.pdf

Many retail locations are pre-loaded with data from Sales Genie. That includes all food industry data including wholesalers, eating and drinking places, food retailers and processors. 

How can I save my contacts and make connections? (PDF | 1MB)