Waterfront Market at Ruston — Local services in Ruston

I don't recommend this place unless you happen to be walking by and are bored or something. The lot was like 5% full and I had to pay $6 MINIMUM to park for a one hour minimum on the app. No, you can't select less than an hour. It was around noon on a sunny weekday. Ridiculous price considering that inside there's only like 10 vendors, most being hot food, and it took me right under 6 MINUTES to see everything, look at items in one shop, and buy a drink to go from one of the other shops. The parking thing didn't even go through originally on my app and kept throwing me an error so I chose to skim in the "15 minute grace period" posted on the signs due to the app issue. Then I found out later that it did go through on my card. So I paid $6 to park in a pretty much empty lot to look at a pretty much empty building for 6 minutes. The concept/location was spot on, but it was executed very poorly. And charging a 1 hour minimum parking at a higher than average rate when most visits are 20 minutes or less is a desperate grab for money. Maybe kick out the tweaks and campers instead of pushing away...

I’m convinced this place exists only as a scam to collect parking fees ($6 1hr parking minimum just for the pleasure of shopping here btw). Inside, about a half dozen vendors mostly re-selling kitsch from the internet. One small grocery area carrying mostly national brands and some produce with a smaller selection than any random corner store. One coffee shop manned by one poor overworked stressed out high school girl, with 20 people waiting. What in the heck is this place? Completely bamboozled out of $6, listen to my words of warning and let me save you from the same fate

Edit: In response to the below, there was ONE single local food vendor present at the market - a mead and honey vendor. His mead looked great! But that's all there was, and the "vendor area" was otherwise completely empty. I am not "putting down" local businesses, that's why I went there in the first place, to support local vendors. Instead, I browsed national brand products, booths full of marked-up kitsch easily found on Etsy.com and ali express, I gave $6 to a national parking company, and I left...

You visual will start with your arrival in the parking lot which, unlike most parking lots in front of a business, is theoretically not free. There are prominently displayed QR codes demanding payment for parking. The lot was nearly empty when I rolled in a couple of minutes after 8pm. Keep in mind, it is summer, sunset is not for almost an hour... Depending on where you look, they close at either 6pm or 8pm, and do not open again until 10am. The choice to be closed for so many daylight hours with a fantastic location will likely bankrupt the current owners, which will hopefully allow someone intelligent enough to take advantage of the safety of Ruston in daylight and extend the hours to accommodate the potential customers who are currently turned away by the locked doors. On the upside, there seems to be no enforcement of their overly optimistic signs suggesting that you pay to park. Give this place a pass, and be sure to bring your own refreshments as there are none available for 2/3...