There’s one question that customers often ask Charmaine Poling, owner of Charmaine’s Garden Gate Flowers & Gifts.

“It happens all the time,” Poling said. “Customers come in and look around and then they’ll ask, ‘Will you be here next week?’”

It’s a common misconception that the businesses at the Port Orchard Public Market are only temporary, she said.

“Most people seem to think that it’s filled with temporary vendors,” she said. “But all the businesses around the perimeter are here under leases, and plan to be here for a long time.”

Poling said she understands why locals and visitors may be confused. The public market, which opened in 2014, has had a number of new businesses pop up recently, while a few others have left. And often on the weekends, especially in the summer months, vendors will set up in the middle of the market to sell garden-grown vegetables, arts and crafts and baked goods.

“Even the sign out front has vegetables and seafood on it, which makes people think of Pike Place Market in Seattle,” she said. “It’s easy to think that the businesses inside would be changing all the time.”

Poling opened her flower and gift shop last November. After years working in the optical field, she decided to join the other businesses in the market.

“I’d had a floral shop in Carnation when I was raising my daughter,” she said. “After going back to school and working as an optician, I decided I wanted to go back to flowers.”

An FTD certified florist, Poling offers fresh-cut flowers, greenhouse plants, coffee beans, chocolates and handmade soaps. She does arrangements for weddings and funerals, and she has fresh silk and dried flowers to choose from.

“I also do gift baskets,” she said. “So, of course, I have balloons.”

The fresh flowers she sells come from all over, including Canada, Australia and Holland. She works with wholesalers, including one in Tacoma.

Another permanent merchant at the market is the Bay Street Meat Company, which is now operated by Ray Paul Schumsky, who formerly owned Ray’s Meat Market in Purdy.

“I’d been there for five years,” he said of his previous location. “But I lost my lease. And at almost the same time, the owner here said he needed an experienced meat cutter to revive this place.”

Schumsky has been at the market since April. Many of his regulars are former customers who have followed him to Port Orchard.

“I have wonderful customers,” said Schumsky, who’s been cutting meat for more than 40 years.

“My father was a meat cutter and had a business in Kent,” he said. “He taught me to cut meat when I was 14.”

The meat he sells is from Painted Hills Natural Beef farm in Oregon. It is choice-grade natural beef with no hormones and no antibiotics. He has a full line of fresh meat and deli meats, and he also smokes meat.

“If you haven’t tasted beef that is all natural, you are missing out,” he said. “The flavor is just so much better.”

He thinks consumers are looking for healthier foods, and that’s why his meat products are so popular.

“That’s the biggest plus to what we do,” he said. “I often have people come back after their first time here and say, ‘That was the best steak I ever ate.’”

Schumsky said he thinks the market has a good mix of businesses right now and expects it to be even more successful in the months to come.

Currently, the other permanent businesses in the market include Stone Waters Pottery, which sells food-safe pottery made by Cherie Bilbrey. According to Bilbrey’s daughter-in-law Kelly Rojas, who works at the shop, customers have been friendly.

She’s looking forward to the coming tourism season. “We used to do the outdoor markets,” Rojas said. “But we got tired of packing and unpacking everything and traveling. It didn’t work for us. So we decided a permanent location was better.”

Other items they sell are colorful scarves, candles and jewelry. They have children’s tennis shoes that have been “blinged out,” she said. This summer, they will be adding dog collars with bling.

An array of wind chimes made of sea glass and sea shells, and garden art made of china plates, complete their current inventory.

Just next door, Cheryl Stevens has the Jewelry Box, where she sells earrings she’s made. Each pair is unique and most have colorful beads and charms. They sell for $5.99 a pair under her brand name “Dragonfly Dangles.”

Stevens was a day vendor at the market before taking a permanent stall.

“I decided to go full time and knew this was just the perfect little space for me,” she said. She’s been at the market since May 1.

It was several years ago, while she was recovering from knee surgery, that she began making earrings.

“I ended up with so many pairs that I knew I had to begin selling them,” she joked. In just the first month at the market, she’s sold more than 100 pairs.

She also has estate jewelry in her booth that’s on consignment. And she sells trinket boxes, bracelets and beaded necklaces, wine toppers and perfume bottles.

Another tenant of the market is Carter & Co. Chocolates. Owner Matt Carter has been in the market since it opened. Known for great chocolates by the piece, ice cream, cakes, tarts and espresso coffee, he’s moved locations in his time at the market and is now located at the back, with his own entrance off the public parking lot.

He’s excited about the market’s future. He said plans are underway to upgrade the small patio outside his shop.

And, Carter said, the Central Dock restaurant inside the market has plans to add to its menu, do a bit of redecorating and re-arrange the tables and chairs where diners sit.

Central Dock now offers prime rib and cheese French dips, burgers, salads, calamari, oysters, shrimp cocktail, three-meat chili, seafood chowder, locally-brewed beer and wine.

“Big things are going to be happening,” Carter said. “Changes are coming and it’s gonna be a great summer.”

Also in the market is Sue’s Fresh Juice and Just a Sandwich shop, which also has lavender products such as tea and lotions.

The Public Market is at 715 Bay St. Hours for each shop vary, but most are open seven days a week.

The property manager for the market is Reid Real Estate, and it’s marketed by Coreen Haydock. The building is owned by Abadan LLC, a local holding company.