Summer Season on the Markets - Stories from the Stall
- Sandy Ruegg Thepthong
- 20 hours ago
- 5 min read
Queenstown & Arrowtown · Market Season 2025–26
"Some of the most meaningful things happen not on a screen, but across a table — between two people, a jar of something beautiful, and a shared love of what's real."
As the last markets of the season are behind me, I find myself pausing — standing back from the stall for a moment, metaphorically speaking — to reflect on what these Saturdays and Sundays have actually meant. Not just for Sanflora Wellbeing as a business, but for me personally, and for the small, warm, slightly wind-battered community we've built together under canvas and open sky.
This season I've had the privilege of trading at two of the most beautiful markets in Aotearoa New Zealand: the Remarkables Market in Queenstown on Saturdays, and the Arrowtown Village Market on Sundays. Two very different atmospheres, one shared spirit — a celebration of local, handmade, and heartfelt.
WHY MARKETS? THE CASE FOR SHOWING UP IN PERSON
I'm often asked why I go to the effort of markets when I have an online shop. It's a fair question — setting up a stall twice a weekend is genuinely hard work. But the answer has always been clear to me, even when I'm loading the car early in the morning.
The numbers tell part of the story. Studies show that around 60% of shoppers prefer to smell or touch a skincare product before buying, that customer loyalty is significantly higher when a purchase involves a personal interaction, and that nearly 8 in 10 consumers say they trust small local businesses more than large brands. But numbers don't capture the woman who stops, picks up the foot cream, closes her eyes as she smells it, and says quietly: "That's it. That's exactly what I was looking for." No algorithm delivers that moment.
There's also the practical reality: renting a permanent retail space in a town like Queenstown is simply not viable for a small artisan brand like Sanflora. Markets offer something even better than a shop — they offer context. You're surrounded by fellow makers, growers, bakers, and artists who share the same values of quality, craft, and community. That energy is contagious, and customers feel it.
What markets do that no website can: they let customers smell, feel, and understand a product firsthand. They create space for real conversations — about ingredients, about skin types, about the rosehip growing wild in the South Island hills. They build trust, not through reviews, but through eye contact.
THE COMMUNITY WE'VE GROWN
One of the most unexpected gifts of market life is the people. Not just the customers — though goodness, you are wonderful — but the fellow stallholders. The ceramicist who sets up beside me and shares her stories. The herbalist three stalls down who taught me something new about calendula this season. The honey bee woman sharing stories about the bee keepers life.
There's a particular kind of friendship that forms between people who share cold mornings, help each other weigh down tablecloths in the wind, and celebrate each other's good days. It's a community built on mutual respect and a shared belief that what we make matters — that there's value in things that are slow, local, and made with care.
The direct feedback I receive at markets has also shaped Sanflora Wellbeing more than I can quantify. When someone picks up the peppermint and frangipani foot cream and asks about the ingredients, and their face lights up at "frangipani" — that tells me something no analytics dashboard can. When someone asks whether a product contains lavender, and why — that's market research, human and honest. It goes straight into how I think about formulation.
And then there are the conversations between fellow plant medicine lovers — the kind that start with "have you ever worked with..." and end twenty minutes later with both of you buzzing. Sharing knowledge about an obscure botanical, debating extraction methods, encouraging each other to keep learning, keep experimenting, keep believing that what we do contributes — in its quiet, fragrant way — to a better world. Those exchanges remind me why I fell in love with this craft in the first place.
THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE CHALLENGING
The beautiful moments: watching someone discover a scent they love. Long conversations about botanicals and wellbeing. Children fascinated by the textures and colours. Busy days when the stall is buzzing. Sunlight over the Remarkables at 8am. A customer returning — and bringing a friend. The autumn light in Arrowtown. Learning from the makers around me.
The challenging ones: the 6:00am alarm on cold mornings. Wind that has opinions about your signage. Rain that arrives exactly at setup time. The deep tiredness of a double-market weekend. Slow days when footfall drops unexpectedly. The unwritten rules some visitors haven't heard of. Pack-down when your feet already hurt.
I won't romanticise it entirely. Markets are physical work. By Sunday evening, my body knows it. But here's what I've come to understand: the tiredness is honest. It comes from something real — from showing up, making connection, putting care into the world in a very direct way. I'll take that exhaustion over the hollow kind any day.
A SEASON TO REMEMBER
This season at the Remarkables and Arrowtown markets has brought me some of my most treasured Sanflora moments yet. New faces who became regulars. Regulars who became something more like friends. Conversations I'll carry with me through the off-season. Feedback that will quietly shape the next collection.
One moment stands out as an example for many. A young woman appeared at the stall, her face lighting up as she approached — "I'm so glad I found you again!" she said. She had bought the Manuka Face Lotion the previous season, and it had transformed her skin. She'd been searching for me ever since. I can't fully describe what it feels like to hear that. It's the whole reason, distilled into one sentence. Not a transaction — but trust earned over time, through a product that genuinely did what it promised.
This season also brought the launch of the Pohutukawa Hand and Body Lotion — and the response from market customers was something I'll treasure. Watching people reach for it, feel the texture, bring it close and breathe it in — and then that smile. That particular kind of delight that says yes, this is exactly right. The Pohutukawa is so full of meaning for people here in Aotearoa, and seeing customers connect with it so immediately — through scent, through touch — was deeply affirming.
The Central Otago landscape — those golden hills, that clear alpine air — has also seeped into my thinking about Sanflora's philosophy in ways I'm still processing. There's something about selling botanically-inspired skincare in a place so strikingly, unapologetically itself that feels right. Like the products belong there.
TO EVERYONE WHO STOPPED BY
Thank you. For the chats, the curiosity, the kind words, and the trust you place in Sanflora Wellbeing every time you take a product home. You are not just customers — you are the reason the stall gets packed up and driven out again each week. You are what makes it worth it.
The markets are winding down for the season — but Sanflora Wellbeing isn't going anywhere. Stay connected, keep ordering your favourites online, and I'll see you again next season with fresh faces, new products, and the same heart behind all of it.
Find me on Instagram or Facebook, join the Sanflora Friends community, and shop online at sanflorawellbeing — your skin doesn't have to wait until next season.
"Until next season — may your skin be nourished, your soul a little lighter, and your hands always wrapped around something that was made with love."
With gratitude · Sandy · Sanflora Wellbeing
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