The Mission

Merret makes Maastricht’s weekly markets reachable for people who can’t visit between 09:00 and 15:00 on a weekday. Customers order online before Friday 10:00. Our shopper walks the Markt with every list, buys from the stalls, and the order goes to a free pickup point or is delivered by bike the same afternoon. Vendors keep their full prices, pay no commission and need no webshop or technology. We earn from a 15% service fee on the basket, capped at €8, and a €4.50 delivery fee. Pickup is free. Our goal is to keep the market part of daily life in Maastricht: more customers for local traders, fresh local food for residents who work, study or have limited mobility, and less unsold stock at the end of the day. We start with the Friday market, then add the Wednesday market and other Limburg towns.

The Challenge

Maastricht’s markets run on weekdays from 09:00 to 15:00. That shuts out most people who work or study, and people with limited mobility, such as many older residents. Those who do come find dozens of stalls with no overview of what is sold where or at what price, which puts off first-time visitors and internationals. For vendors, every customer who can’t come is a lost sale. Most market traders have no time or budget for a webshop, and platforms that ask vendors to enter their own products and prices have not caught on. Meanwhile, the number of market traders in the Netherlands keeps falling. The gap is filled by supermarkets and delivery apps, so money that could go to local producers leaves the region.

The solution

A web app (merret.vercel.app) where customers browse products from partner stalls at stall prices, plus everyday items shown as a price range that our shopper buys at the best stall on the day. Customers order online before Friday 10:00 and pay when they order. All orders merge into one shopping list, so one shopper serves everyone in a single walk through the market. Orders go to a free pickup point or are delivered by bike within 3.5 km the same afternoon. Vendors do nothing technical: our shopper updates prices each Friday morning from the stalls’ own price boards. Customers pay stall prices plus a 15% service fee shown at checkout, capped at €8, with a €15 minimum order. Delivery costs €4.50 and pickup is free. Our model breaks even at about 66 orders per market day, which a pilot of four Fridays will test. A working prototype is live.