Heading to the Easter Market located at Excite Lethbridge, you are met with smiling guests and brightly coloured streamers guiding you down the hall where the Market is being held. The room was full of 68 different business and shops from around Lethbridge, trying to stand out among the crowds.
One business, Croc Daddy 3D owned by Kaydree and Jon Cervo, is a 3D printing shop that sells an array of products, such as mini figures, fidget toys and a vending machine filled with mastery capsules. Jon Cervo mostly uses Instagram and his experience to predict what’s going to be popular next, to keep his store stocked.
“I don’t really have to prepare for a market,” says Cervo. With his store consistently stocked his able to cruse to the market date without stressing the week before, since it can be used year around with little difference between seasons and holidays. Most of the other business around the Easter Market kept their usual stock instead of switching over to Easter-related items, but there were a few outliers like Tracy Korea, the owner of Little Red Hen, who started her business in Edson for 25 years before moving to southern Alberta two years ago.
“We do our spring market very differently,” says Korea, changing over from the Christmas season full of wood-crafted decorations, tress and ornaments into more bird-focused items, with handmade and painted bird houses. Korea says she originally didn’t plan on selling the stuff she crafted but made birdhouses because she enjoyed it. “We really enjoyed it and we enjoyed it more than just for ourselves,” Korea explained how she and her husband started making birdhouses and small decor for their family, who pushed them into expanding and creating their own business.

Stephanie working at Croc Daddy 3D, reorganizing their display at the Easter market
Korea often vendors at different markets to gain more awareness of Little Red Hen, since most people find them there before navigating to their website for commission work.
“It’s not just what sells at the market, but who we meet,” says Korea.
Korea hopes to take the store full time after retirement once the market is more stable.
For Cervo, it’s a similar story, saying it snowballed from him bugging his friends print stuff, so with a little luck, he decided to get his own 3D printer. “I started doing my own stuff and my friend wanted stuff and then their friends wanted stuff, now look at me,” says an enthusiastic Cervo as he is running his own business doing what he loves.
For business like Cervo and Korea, markets much like Easter marker can be a key factor in getting noticed. Both businesses have a have a large online draw of people who see them at a market and then finding their social media latter on. Cervo says he has people chasing him down online for custom orders and he says this allows him to get better feedback from customers.
With the weather changing, more markets are being planed in Lethbridge, giving more opportunities for small businesses throughout the city to bring more awareness of their services and projects. Cervo is looking forward to continue learning and growing that comes with running their own business.