Mining + scraping · Matthews, NC
Data mining and web scraping for Matthews makers and shops
A baker at the Saturday market also takes orders by message and sells through a web page. We gather all three records into one table and mark where each sale came from. When useful, we add public prices from similar sellers.
Mining Matthews market sales and online orders
The farmers market on North Trade Street meets Saturday mornings, with a winter schedule and a few Tuesday evenings. A seller works across those slots and keeps a different record for each.
We gather the cash-box tally, the card reader export and the order messages, then line up dates and items. You can see whether winter Saturdays or Tuesday evenings bring in more.
Because the market sits downtown with free parking nearby, some of your buyers may be walk-up traffic who never give a name. Those rows still count in the table, labeled as walk-up, so totals stay honest and your named customers stay separate.
Mining for a small-town customer list
In a town this size, repeat customers are the business. The same person might show up on your email sign-up, at the market and in a text thread under three spellings.
We combine those records into one list with a source tag on each row. Cleaning then merges the duplicates so a regular counts once.
Public price checks for Matthews sellers
If you wonder whether your loaf, candle or haircut is priced fairly, a small script can collect listed prices, ratings and review counts from public pages of similar sellers in the Charlotte area.
We follow each site's terms and use public pages only. The sheet records the day we looked, since prices change. We compare items of the same size or weight, so a jar of honey is set against a jar of honey.
Matthews owners and the follow-up cleaning stage
Once the market, the web page and the messages share one table, expect small mess: Jen and Jennifer, a phone number typed two ways, a product named three different things. That is normal, and stage two exists for it.
We merge duplicates and fix spellings so a count of regulars means what it says. Then analysis can answer which items sell on which days.
Questions from Matthews owners
I keep records on paper. Can you use them?
If you can photograph or type them into a sheet, yes. We start with whatever exists.
Will this help with the Labor Day parade rush?
Mining keeps each event's sales tagged by date, so next year you can compare against this one.
How much of my data do you keep?
We work from the exports you give us and tell you what we hold. Ask on the call. We explain each step in plain words as we go, and you keep the original files.
Sources for the facts on this page: Matthews Community Farmers Market · Matthews, North Carolina, Wikipedia
Bring a notebook, a sheet or a card report
Book a free call on the contact page. We will say where we would start with whatever you have.