💡 Vendor "What's Fresh Today" Inventory Broadcasting

[github-actions[bot]]

Summary

Vendors mark which products they're bringing to market today during check-in, creating a real-time "What's Fresh" feed for followers. Builds on the existing check-in flow (FR14) with one extra tap per product. Customers see live product availability alongside vendor status, turning the abstract check-in into a concrete purchase-intent driver.

Market Signal

Farmstander already offers real-time vendor inventory updates and is gaining traction (Google Play launch Dec 2025). Soko sends weekly "what's coming" notifications. Order-ahead behavior is the #1 vendor tool trend for 2026 (Homegrown, Local Market Pickup). Markets' version differentiates by being contextual to a specific market day and integrated with the multi-actor coordination layer — not a standalone commerce tool.

User Signal

The PRD's vendor persona Brad currently relies on Instagram posts that followers may or may not see. The product catalog (FR12) captures baseline offerings but not daily availability. The existing check-in flow (FR14) is the natural moment to capture "what I brought today." Existing idea #72 (produce recognition) addresses catalog updates via AI, but this addresses the simpler, daily broadcasting use case.

Technical Opportunity

The vendor product catalog (FR12) and check-in flow (FR14) already provide the data model foundation. Broadcasting adds a daily_availability join table between vendor_products and market_day_check_ins. Domain events (internal/events/) already dispatch to Firebase Realtime and FCM on check-in — extending the event payload to include product availability is incremental. Exception-first design: vendors with no daily update simply show their baseline catalog.

Assessment

Dimension	Score	Rationale
Feasibility	high	Extends existing check-in flow and product catalog; incremental data model change
Impact	high	Directly drives customer visit decisions and vendor visibility; core flywheel accelerator
Urgency	high	Farmstander already ships this capability; competitive gap is open now

Adversarial Review

Strongest objection: Farmstander already does this. Why would Markets do it better?

Rebuttal: Farmstander focuses on individual farm stands, not multi-actor market coordination. Markets' version is integrated into the check-in workflow (zero extra navigation), feeds into the coordination flywheel (Rachel sees Brad's products AND his check-in status together), and generates follower notifications with product context. The differentiation is integration with the coordination layer, not the feature itself.

Suggested Next Step

Add a daily_availability concept to the Epic 4 (Market-Day Vendor Operations) stories. Design the "What's Fresh" check-in extension UX as a story under Epic 4, after FR14 check-in is implemented.