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GREENSBORO — When government fails to respond, people take things into their own hands and help each other out.

The ancient tradition resurfaced this weekend after city officials closed the venerable Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market for a second Saturday in a row — something that hasn’t happened in more than a century, aficionados claimed.

Farmers, other vendors of food or crafts, and die-hard market customers fought back by holding their own alternative market Sunday at a State Street coffee shop.

“I’m really ticked at the city,” steadfast market patron Ann Matthews said Sunday afternoon, standing near the impromptu egg stand inside Greensborough Coffee at 400 State St. “It hasn’t closed like that in 120 years.”

Market officials were not on hand Sunday, but they apparently heeded forecasts warning of worse weather Saturday than actually gripped the region.

The market is located at 501 Yanceyville St., inside the former National Guard Armory across from War Memorial Stadium. Many depend on it to supplement traditional grocery shopping with fresh, locally grown farm produce and homemade products.

Vendor Bill Snider, owner of Simple Kneads bakery, said he contacted every city official he could think to call before the second closure, pleading that another shutdown would be poisonous for him and others who sell at the market.

“I ran into a stone wall,” said Snider, who estimated this weekend’s closure cost him about $1,000 in revenue.

He and other vendors were caught off-guard by the decision, having already prepared goods for Saturday in anticipation of a larger crowd than normal because of the first closure two weekends ago.

“Our chickens don’t realize it’s snowing. We have plenty of eggs,” said Patsy Ward, who farms with her husband Lawrence on Keesee Road in McLeansville.

The alternative event came about after market supporters Donna Myers and Mary Hess arranged for the coffee shop venue, alerted regular vendors, and spread the news to customers via a Facebook page, e-mail and word of mouth.

They called it a Fair Weather Farmers’ Market on a Facebook page called Friends of the Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market.

“They just became very concerned about the vendors,” said Gerry Alfano, now a market patron but formerly the city’s market coordinator for 22 years.

A factor in the unprecedented closures, Alfano said, could be that veteran market manager Larry Smith is in Puerto Rico on an annual mission trip.

Greensborough Coffee owner Luke Whitten said his shop normally is closed Sundays, but he’s been thinking about changing that and decided to test the waters after Myers suggested the alternative market.

Among vendors, the enterprise award must go to Rothchild’s Angus Farm of Liberty. Owner Robert Roth and son Josh were at the alternative market Sunday, but also had “record sales” on Saturday outside the locked curb market, they said.

They never got word the market wouldn’t open Saturday, so they simply sold their farm-raised beef in the parking lot to all the would-be customers who also hadn’t heard of the closure.

“They were upset,” Josh said. “They came expecting it to be open, but nobody was there except us.”

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com