Flea Markets

I’ve been checking out local Flea Markets of late and have been surprised at the number of them around at the local level. While some are quite well known others appear to be a well kept secret of sorts. It seems that those considered, “inside” markets, meaning those held within the confines of a structure, (usually some warehouse type of building), are the most likely to be little known. There is one at the local fairgrounds that has been operating for over fourteen years now, that even many locals are oblivious of! While asking around I discovered that the biggest problem was advertisement! While many market owners simply won’t put out the money to advertise well, if at all, others simply cannot get the cooperation they’d need. I suggested that those markets located within driving distance of each other, which is usually just a few short miles in many cases, combine their efforts and post bulletins at each others site informing the public of the other markets., Simple enough, inexpensive, and would promote business by word of mouth while increasing visitation by new customers, who may otherwise not have even known about a particular market. But much to my surprise, while a few owners think the idea is worth the while, others are extremely against any interaction whatsoever! Fearing competition I presume. Congenial enough when one is speaking with them on a one on one level, but when it comes to mentioning other flea markets they become defensive and sometimes a bit hostile even!

Another thing I’ve learned is that the dealers that frequent said markets often complain on how the market management is constantly raising the space and/or table rent regardless of the fact that there are fewer customers for the dealers, which makes it difficult to sell merchandise when there are fewer and fewer customers due to the cost of gas and the floundering economy. So, while customers are becoming fewer and fewer and the dealers themselves are obviously making less but spending more, the only ones making a profit are the market owners who really don’t seem to care as long as they get theirs! Just thinking about it gives me a headache.