Welcome to Yolkel!

People want what you're selling, they just don't know where you are

Everyone knows that if they need to buy a product, they can go to Amazon. If they want food, they can go to Instacart or Door Dash.

And if they want to buy local? What then? They can make sure to schedule their Saturdays around attending the Farmer's Market, or visit several local shops in hopes of finding what they need, or try to figure out how to join a foodshare program.

WHY isn't there a quick, convenient way to shop local?

Currently, local sellers are relying upon word-of-mouth, or their own ability to do some kind of online marketing in order to reach a customer base. From there it's up to the customer to invest their time into coming to the seller to acquire the product. It's an antiquated process that serves neither party.

Yolkel seeks to provide a single location for local shopping. We drive the online traffic directly to local producers, we fulfill the orders, we pick up the products, and we deliver the products directly to the customer's home.

In short, we absorb all of the time & effort invested by the producer in finding and serving their customers, AND absorb all of the time & effort in hunting and acquiring local products.

The Mission

The last several decades has see the obliteration of the small businesses and family farms. It's time to face the fact that no one is going to stop this from happening. Politicians will continue to make empty promises, and corporate interests will continue to push for more government imposed red tape to keep would-be competitors out of the marketplace.

If we want to see something different, it's on us to make something different.

Yolkel may not be the solution to all of our economic problems, but it seeks to be a solution by streamlining the buying & selling process within local communities - to be an easy tool in the hands of an already struggling industry.

Have A Look Around

This website is a proof of concept. Click around on it, and explore to see what we want to do.

The purpose isn't just to serve as an online farmer's market, but to promote local producers. We want to people to really get to know their neighbors, and build the foundations for a strong community.

Of course, contact us with any questions or comments!

Contact form

FAQ

What is Yolkel?

Yolkel serves multiple functions with the goal of connecting local vendors with customers. This helps them better compete with larger industry players, and drive local economic activity.

1) Yolkel is foremost an advertising platform Currently every local vendor is trying to advertise via social media to increasingly dwindling audiences. Yolkel seeks to compile the hundreds of social media pages into one clean, organized, easy to navigate marketplace.

2) Yolkel acts as an online marketplace
Instead of customers having to make several individual transactions with several different vendors, Yolkel streamlines the entire process by allowing the purchases from several vendors with one transaction.

3) Yolkel acts as a distribution hub
Yolkel makes all purchases directly from the vendors on behalf of busy customers, and delivers those purcheses directly to the customers home. Yolkel is NOT a retailer, or a re-seller, nor do we hold or store products. Yolkel is an advertising and delivery service.

How "local" is Yolkel?

All vendors are within a 25 mile radius of Stevens Point. We are more local than even the Farmer's Market!

Does is cost anything to be a vendor?

It costs vendors nothing to be promoted on Yolkel. To be a vendor, you need only agree to have your product available for pickup at pre-agreed timed. Nothing more.

What are the requirements to be a Yolkel vendor?

All you have to do is make sure the item you are selling is in accordance with State law (i.e., if you sell cookies, make sure you label them with the appropriate information), and make sure the product is available for pickup at the pre-arranged time.

That's really it.

Yolkel exists to make buying & selling locally as streamlined and painless as possible. We have no intention of adding requirements we don't have to add.

How do I become a vendor?

The easiest way is to fill out our Vendor Application. Always feel free to shoot us message if you have any questions, or need any help.

Please note - as a general rule, we do not want to oversaturate the platform with any one product, and are currently limiting all products to just three producers.

For example, there may be 12 different soap makers in Stevens Point, but we can only accept 3 of them (for now - this may change down the road).

The reason is that we want the vendors using the platform to benefit from doing so.