Thanks, guys. I have enjoyed a lot of repeat customers from previous years. Many of them just hand me some money and tell me to pick out their plants for them. It's nice to be trusted like that.
The competitor pic I posted - I don't seem to remember a table full of tomato plants in their spot last year, or any year previous. I may have an imitator. It happens a lot at market. I was the first one up there selling cherry tomatoes in mixed colors - now almost everyone has that product. I don't get mad about things like that at all - imitation is flattery, as the expression goes, so it's a compliment.
When I was a stock trader, I met other traders who were much more successful than me. Some guys would pull in $10-15k on a good day. So, just sit next to that guy, buy what he buys, and you'll make easy money, right? The funny thing was, that never worked. Trying to copy someone makes you always be a step behind. In trading, that small difference magnified over many transactions in a day was the difference between making thousands and losing thousands. That's one of the lessons I learned in trading - to go my own way and not try to imitate anyone else. It's not an effective strategy.
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