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.

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

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 “Map/Detail” under the “View” column is for the individual record in that row. You can click on “Map”, 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 above 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 at the top of the map and clicking directly on the yellow marker. In a separate window, the name, address, and telephone number appears at the top of the window. In addition to the business, 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”.

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. The darkest color has the largest number of people that match your request. If you want to focus more closely on an area within the county you selected, you can "zoom in" to the area. Select the "zoom in" icon at the top of the map and draw a box around the area you want to look more closely at.

After finding a particular market segment, you can search for businesses located in this area by selecting the ""find a business" dropdown box and selecting a particular type of business you are looking for. The search will result in yellow 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 at the top of the map and clicking directly on the yellow marker. In a separate window, the name, address, and telephone number appears at the top of the window. In addition to the business, 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”.

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, click on either the "Find a Market" or "Find a Business" drop down box below. Happy searching!