Historically, public markets have provided an entry point for small business to thrive. They are vital places for entrepreneurs, especially minorities, immigrants and women, to test their ideas with modest risk and investment. Today, the market tradition is alive and well, and with it the start-up spirit that makes our markets unique. Farmers, crafters, artists and even re-sellers want to tap into the opportunity a market can bring, but many don’t know where to begin. However, being a successful market vendor requires a particular set of skills and a love of competition!
Loyal patrons, visitors to the city, and aficionados of public markets in general will be fascinated by the inside story told in The Reading Terminal Market: An Illustrated History. Enlivened by extensive photographs and memorabilia from the author’s large collection, this book brings to light the long, eventful story of the market. From its early beginnings in the first open-air markets of colonial Philadelphia, Reading Terminal Market has been at the heart of the city’s commercial and social life, surviving to its present vibrant form by initiating and adapting to change over the years. The market became an innovator in cold storage at the end of the nineteenth century and revolutionized the industry by establishing new standards for the buying and selling of food. Over the next century, it responded nimbly to the advent of the telephone and the automobile, and dodged threats from the Reading Railroad, the Great Depression, World War II food rationing, the rise of the supermarket, and unionization.