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Saturday Shops founder tells council vendor academy helped minority‑owned food trucks and small sellers grow

5503156 · June 12, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Council received an update on Saturday Shops, a vendor academy and retail program that has graduated more than 300 vendors, hosted 114 markets and generated more than $1.14 million in small‑business revenue over four years; founder Renee Edwards said the initiative also provided food and emergency relief during hurricanes

The St. Petersburg City Council heard an update on June 12 about Saturday Shops, a local small‑business incubator and vendor academy that supports minority‑owned food trucks, makers and microenterprises.

Lede: Renee Edwards, founder and CEO of Saturday Shops, told council the program has graduated more than 300 vendors from its interactive vendor academy, hosted 114 outdoor markets averaging about 80 vendors each, and generated more than $1.14 million in vendor revenue over four years. Edwards also said Saturday Shops operates a retail “Everyday Shops” storefront and has enabled vendors to reach new customers via the Grand Prix event.

Nut graf: Council…

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