More than just a Saturday market (and a nickname).
What comes to mind when you hear “Soda City?” The Saturday morning street market on Main St.? While that is correct, the company who puts it on – also known as Soda City – is much more than that.

I got to spend “a day in the life” (well, two: a weekday + a Saturday morning) as a part of the Soda City staff – which is made up of 5 full-time employees: Emile (CEO), Erin (Operations Director), Olivia (Business Manager), and Heather (Director of Public Relations) + Jordan (Event + Merchandising Manager) – the two people I spent the most time with.

Heather, the creative mind behind all the punny Instagram captions, is in charge of all their social media outlets, community relations and helps with event planning.

Day in the Life: Soda City Staff

I kicked off my Tuesday morning with her at 9 a.m. in Soda City’s office in the Main St. District. Her day typically starts with browsing through social media, checking her email, then skimming a slew of newsletters, like CRBR, Thrillist, SM Current, BizBash + of course, COLAtoday. When she was done with that, we (plus Erin + Emile) had a planning meeting for a brand-new Soda City event in West Cola: Brookland Beach Bash – complete with free tubing + kayaking, beach games, live music, food, drinks + the release of new Soda City merch (hint: it’ll help dry you off when you get out of the water).

Okie Dokie's Smokehouse | Photo by @guido1961

Rewind: Events? Yep. In addition to the rain-or-shine-every-Saturday-market (more history on the market here**link), Soda City has a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit arm called Soda City Friends.

Soda City Friends hosts ~8 events per year – all of which have raised a total of $325,000 for charity to date. One of the most popular events, the Gervais St. Bridge Dinner (sponsored by Nephron Pharmaceuticals), has raised $125,000+ over the last 3 years for organizations working to improve + protect our rivers.

Aside from their annual events everyone looks forward to, the team is also planning a ton of new events this year.

Events

Soda City Yard Sale | January and April (with plans to eventually do it quarterly)

Make your "keep" + "sell" piles and fill out your vending profiles. Be part of Soda City Market, getting a behind-the-scenes experience as a yard saler and sharing the street with your favorite veteran vendors. Since the audience will be large, remember to come supercharged.

Brookland Beach Bash | July – new this year

Experience Columbia’s rivers in a new way. Partnered with Palmetto Outdoors, this event is turning the Riverwalk into a beach – complete with free tubing + kayaking, beach games, walking tours and a pop-up viewing of The Sandlot.

Retro Arcade Bar Crawl | September 7

Want to play a real game of Pac-Man up + down Main St.? Or dress up as your favorite Mario Cart character? Game on. This event, which is partnering up with The Grand, will allow attendees to drink your way through the Main St. district and play some arcade games along the way.

Oktoberfest | September 22

German beer, food, and music. For the first time, this event will not be part of the market, because they’re switching it up and throwing it back to how the Germans really do it… celebrating in the evening.

JamFest | September 29

Part of the JamRom Music Festival – a day-long music festival with 2 stages + 12 bands – where Soda City will provide the local food and kid-friendly activities to go with the free jams.

Gervais St. Bridge Dinner | October 21

Brought to you by Soda City Friends + approaching its fourth year, the 1,000-person dinner draws much needed attention to the Congaree River and its vital importance to our area's ecosystem. 100% of the proceeds from this event go to selected beneficiaries: The River Alliance, Canoeing for Kids, West Columbia Beautification Foundation, Serve & Connect, and Harvest Hope Food Bank.

Nacht Market | Exact date and location TBD

Imagine the convenience of a multi-day evening holiday market on Main Street. Easy access to unique + local holiday gifts, food + drinks. You’ll be able to swing by on your way home from work or plan an overdue date night around it.

Adoption Day | November

Forget the heavy lifting of finding the right organization, the perfect pet + the best breed because for one day only, Soda City has done all the heavy lifting for you. All you need to do is show up ready to adopt.

Brookland Brunch | ongoing

Snag on the best brunch views in town, while sipping on mimosas + eating local food on West Cola’s riverfront.

Back to Brookland Beach Bash – which is part of much broader idea that’s been brewing for a while: bringing river surfing to Columbia (similar to cruise ship surfing simulations, but in real, live rivers). Surf Soda City, as they call it, is a project they’re working on with the River Alliance, Palmetto Outdoors + local businessman Tom Hall – hoping to attract even more visitors to Columbia + create a whole new industry that would boost the city’s economy (with surf shops, surf shacks + competitions). Now that’s a big idea. 🏄‍🤙

At about 2 p.m., Heather met with Kaitlyn Gooding, the nutritionist + fitness guru behind @honeybee_lieve – who also has a passion for cooking. This collab is part of a new program Soda City is doing where they go to a different local influencer’s house each month + cook a recipe of the influencer’s choosing – using seasonal + local products that you can find at Soda City Market.

I asked Heather how she stays organized – planning several events at once, running social media (which we can attest is a full-time job), representing Soda City all over the community, being a community advocate and so on – to which Heather says, “I’m like a squirrel. Don’t know how I get things done, but somehow I do… with the help of a lot of sticky notes, a paper planner and my Google calendar.”

The other side of the business, of course, is Soda City Market on Saturdays. Which, I found out, gets started at 6:30 a.m. 😳

On Main St. so early the street lights are still on

Keep reading to see a first-hand-witnessed hourly break down of how the market gets setup + taken down each Saturday, led by Jordan, Soda City’s resident market master. ⬇

Day in the Life: Soda City Market

First, a little market history:

Back in November 2005, when the market first began, it was initially named the All Local Farmers Market – run out of Gervais & Vine, with help from Bourbon’s Kristian Niemi. They started with only 6 vendors and ~225 customers. It was also run out of 701 Whaley for a little bit.

Fast forward 13 years, and the market is now about to celebrate is 300th market. Now taking up 3 blocks of Main St. – where it’s been located for the last 6 years – with ~150 vendors per week + 5,000-7,000 customers (10,000 on a special event day).

Soda City Market is self-funded, and does not accept H-tax from the city. It generates thousands of business licenses, $6+ million in city-taxed gross sales per year, and contributes to 5,000+ people’s paychecks.

My 6 a.m. wake-up call:

6:30 a.m. | On Saturday, Jordan, the market master, had already been on Main St. an hour and half before I arrived. She gets there every Saturday morning around 6:30 a.m. (2.5 hours before the market begins) to mark all the venor spots + help get them all set-up.

7 a.m. | I showed up to the market a few minutes before Jordan told me to meet her (7 a.m. to be exact), making sure I had time to chug a dirty chai from Drip before we got started – but little did I know I was on Main St. before the baristas rise on a Saturday morning.

7-8 a.m. | We walked the blocks checking on vendors until 8 a.m. – when we could finally go get our necessary caffeine boost the second Drip opened. Since the market has been on Main St. for the last 6 years, and ~1/3 of the vendors are considered to be “evergreen” (i.e they’re there every week, year round), set-up runs pretty smoothly.

8:20 a.m. | Vendors have until 8:30 a.m. to unload, set-up + move their cars off the road – so about 5-10 minutes ‘til, Jordan started giving them all their warnings. She’s been running the market half its life on Main St., so she chats with all the vendors on a first name basis – almost like they’re all one big family – which is her favorite part of the market (after dog watching).

9 a.m. | Once the market starts at 9 a.m., Jordan and a staff member man the Soda City merch table – where you’ll find everything from dog bandanas to dri-fit t-shirts. (I bought two shirts, one of which I repped at work the following Monday.) Jordan’s job isn’t done, though.

Jordan and market volunteer, Natalie, at the Soda City merch table

9 a.m.-1 p.m. | Soda City Market in full swing – covering 3 [very full] blocks with 140-150 vendor booths, (~30 who are farmers) where ~5,000-10,000 people (depending on the Saturday) can eat, shop + peruse.

1-2 p.m. | The market ends at 1 p.m., but vendors have until 2 p.m. (when the street reopens to traffic) to pack up + exit Main St. Jordan stays until then, along with the police, to make sure everyone gets out okay – and to return all the extra trash cans put specifically for the market. The Yellow Shirts of the City Center Partnership also help with cleanup.

While some aspects of our jobs are very similar (a.k.a. running social media, catching up on local news, staying involved in the community, etc.), so much is different, too – for instance, after seeing all the logistics that go into event planning, I’m very grateful for those with the patience to put together these events for thousands of people every month.

Also – as much as fun as I had showing up to the market at 7 a.m. – I prefer my usual routine of rolling down there around 10:30 – when everything is already set-up + ready to go.

But next time you’re chowing down on your avocado toast + sipping your Curiosity cold brew, think about the people down there every single Saturday morning making it all possible – the Soda City staff + all those loyal vendors.

–Sam

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