The purpose of this study was to obtain information that could help farmers increase the profitability of their operations and improve the likelihood that they would continue farming. The specific objective was to empirically evaluate which socio-demographic characteristics and purchasing behaviors encourage consumers to patronize farmers markets, in general and public markets, in particular. Data was drawn from telephone survey responses from 502 potential food shoppers in Alabama. Logit model results point to several factors that seem to be strongly correlated with consumer purchasing behaviors and attitudes toward shopping at public markets, including income, education, age of household head, household size, price and quality of produce.