Gulfport's Tuesday markets have always been busy.
"So, it's just sort of become the heart of Gulfport, you know, one of our big our weekly events that we have, and it just kind of the heartbeat of our town," explains Victoria Ann Wenners, cook chef at the Gulfperk Coffee Shop.
But, in March of 2020 they abruptly stopped, like much of everything else.
"I was a self employed vendor who did shows like this. I did Renaissance fairs and large music festivals and whatnot. So my industry went completely dark. And I lost my my business of 20 years, to be perfectly honest," explains Wenners.
"So the start of the pandemic was pretty much doom and gloom. My wife's shop got closed down. All the markets and events got closed down. And all our makers for our clothing are in Thailand, so they closed down before us. So they had no business. We had no business," explains local vendor Ed Wedlick.
In the fall, merchants were back on the streets trying to safely sell.
"It's great to have Tuesday fresh market and people come out. And they eat, they drink. They shop. They wear masks, they social distance," explains Wedlick.
Now, they're booming and considered a success once again.
Wedlick says, "Oh, it's great to be back in business with people shopping and they're shopping local. We're not going to the to the big online stores. They want to support local and they're supporting local businesses has been great."
