Brooklyn Flea: Time Lapse
Thanks to all the vendors and visitors who came out to the inaugural Brooklyn Flea yesterday. By some miracle, it didn’t rain and the day went off without a hitch. While some of them were double-counts to be sure, the security guard at the door clicked off 20,000 entries into the market throughout the day….
Thanks to all the vendors and visitors who came out to the inaugural Brooklyn Flea yesterday. By some miracle, it didn’t rain and the day went off without a hitch. While some of them were double-counts to be sure, the security guard at the door clicked off 20,000 entries into the market throughout the day. Insane. We’ll have more candids up later in the day. If you took photos, please put them up on Flickr and tag with “brooklynflea”; if you a post a big Flickr set, please email us with a link. We also want to hear your feedback about vendor mix and other suggestions. Obviously we need more food; unfortunately dealing with the Department of Health isn’t exactly a simple and transparent process, but we’re working on it. Personally, we want to see more furniture and classic category-killers like antique silver and old watches; maybe a little less new jewelry and arts-and-crafty stuff. This first month will be a gradually tweaking and culling process, so please throw in your two cents.
7:00 a.m.
8:15 a.m.
8:35 a.m.
9:35 a.m.
10:15 a.m.
11:00 a.m.
12:00 p.m.
13:15 p.m.
3:00 p.m.
4:30 p.m.
5 p.m.
5:15 p.m.
5:40 p.m.
6:20 p.m.
>To poster ltjbukem73:
>were these sneakers a personal collection >or something? and will your boy with the >clothing rack right next to you be there >next week? i bought something off that >rack, i hope he’s back
yes, they were a personal collection. that’s why we only had 9 and 9.5’s, but on may 11, we have 11, 11.5 and 12’s. please step through, brother.
we will be back may 11, most likely. we don’t have the time to do every week, though we had a friggin’ blast…
buy local! and we’re looking to bring more clothes, since ppl appreciated his gear.
Living in the neighborhood for twenty plus years I salute you for bring so much life to the community. Don’t mind those that have complained too bad for them. Good for business good for the nabe.
1. I agree with all the comments regarding the mix of vendors. This is not supposed to be a craft fair, and also I would not call silk-screening a craft. Also, many of the ‘crafters’ were actually just re-sellers, not the original person who made the item.
2. The layout of the flea needs work. It should be aisles, not ‘areas’, which made browsing difficult. You can better control traffic that way too.
3. I say NO FOOD at all! You want food, walk up the street. The waffle vendor area spilled out into a whole corner of the Flea.
4. There should be a $200 max price for all items. The guy in the back right corner selling 1950’s style POS side tables for $800 needs to be run out of Brooklyn on a rail.
5. I also agree with 11:18 that there should be an area for locals to have one booths. You will get some very interesting stuff that way. Having walked stoop sales across downtown brooklyn since 1995, I can say that the FG/CH stoops generally have more broken junk, but also better occasional gems.
6. Anti-baby types need to STFU and GTFO before I run over their $200 sneakers with my dirty, extra wide stroller wheels.
One of the more unique vendors I appreciated was Katie, the woman with the bikes. I don’t know how she fared, but I left the flea and returned with my bike to get my brakes tightened. Tune-ups on the spot, spare parts, and whole bikes if you wanted them. Reasonable prices too.
The flea overall was a good mix of boutique and thrift store. Both I could go to any day, but keep an equal balance and you’ll keep me heading back.
PS my bodega 6 blocks a way was packed as it would be any nice day, flea or not, so there ya go.
I agree…3:22. Putting the tables next to one another and crowding them in will actually make the Flea Market feel LESS crowded.
It means more booths and fewer people in each booth.
I thought there could have been at least another 50 vendors packed in there. Maybe some bailed because of the cold. That’s what I figured.
to be truly interesting, the market needs more FURNITURE seller – old and reclaimed. i liked the mix of old junk sellers and new Brooklyn businesses. it makes an interesting mix. i suggest that you get more tables/stands. it felt a bit empty for such a large lot. at the flea and craft markets in europe it’s one table next to the other, that way you really have a lot of stuff to look at.
To poster ltjbukem73:
were these sneakers a personal collection or something? and will your boy with the clothing rack right next to you be there next week? i bought something off that rack, i hope he’s back
more antique furntiture and jewelry.
more antique furniture and jewelry and antique whatever.
we only had time to walk swiftly through the flea once but as a vendor of a new line of kid’s stuff we did extremely well. we’re artists looking for a better day job and this was alot more fun than our corporate work – our point also was to be able to sell originally designed clothes at half the boutique cost and the market lets us do so. i don’t really understand all the knee-jerk hate reactions to babies and families, most of these parents are as much new yorkers as anybody single and without kids.
jg