PORTLAND, Ore. — The wait is finally over for vendors and customers who have been waiting months for Portland Saturday Market to reopen.
It has been closed since March, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While many businesses will be going back to work on Saturday, the Market is going to look at lot different. Executive director Howie Bierbaum says there’s going to be big changes for customers.
“They’ll be about half as many vendors because we have to have 6 feet between booths and we will be limiting the capacity of customers to 600 at any given moment,” said Bierbaum.
Normally there are about two hundred vendors at Saturday Market, starting this weekend, there will only be about half that. Despite the smaller look to what the market is used to, Howie and the vendors are remaining hopeful.
Angelina Webb has been working at Saturday Market for years. She runs Angelina’s Greek Gyros and just like other businesses that depend on the market, she’s been hurting.
"The last few months I’ve experienced a 92% decrease in gross revenue and it’s been a lot of ups and downs," Webb said. Despite that struggle, she says she’s going to do all she can to stay positive.
Saturday Market will be opening up June 20 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays only. Bierbaum said he wants to see how things go before possibly opening on Sundays too.