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.
I liked walking around but didn’t buy a thing (which is rare for me). It seems like right now it’s a combination of the Chelsea markets and the Renegade Craft Fair at McCarren pool…but not a good version of either.
Sad to say, but I think the decline of the Chelsea flea markets was as much a result of ebay as the sites being made into overpriced condos. It’s just not as worth it for dealers to drag stuff in.
What I loved about the Renegade Craft fair was that it wasn’t totally crafty. There were some of Brooklyn’s best small biz folk represented there like Lotta Jansdotter and Perch Design.
While you can never have too many journals and onesies, I’d love to see more of Brooklyn’s best represented at the flea. Come on etsy…get your local artists to represent.
As a person who was raised being taken to flea markets, I have been excited about this one for quite some time. I thought it was great. My primary interests are the furniture, clothing and vintage kitchenware. I found the first two a bit lacking (as you’ve said) and found a few really awesome kitchen things. There was one woman there who was a vintage kitchenware guru with her table of orange, turquoise and brown glasses, bowls, etc. Really great stuff!! And not too expensive. I also loved the light fixtures made from bamboo. Very nice.
When I travel to other countries, I try to seek out these kinds of things. There is an amazing Street Flea in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It has more of an old world feel with street artists, musicians, etc. but the prices were certainly similar to those at Brooklyn Flea when accounting for the peso vs. dollar. Some people were commenting on things being overpriced, but this is really what flea markets are like these days. The days of 25 cent items are reserved for suburban yard sales.
I think music would be a terrific addition. Wouldn’t have to be a live band, but if it isn’t disturbing to neighbors, some music might be a great touch. Maybe I just wanted something to listen to, to take my mind off the cold and lack of coffee. We walked up from Park Slope, skipping coffee in the hope of getting some at the Flea, to be told it was sold out. So that kinda sucked and left us to probably bail a little earlier than we might have. No biggie, though.
Speaking of neighbors, I have to say…I’m glad I can go to the Brooklyn Flea whenever I want, but I would not want to live around there. Yesterday was a COLD day and the streets around there were a mob scene. I can only imagine what it will be like on a sunny, warm one. I did feel glad this wasn’t around the corner from me. I like my Sunday mornings quiet.
With that being said, I thought this was a HUGE success. 20,000 is really something to be proud of. Congratulations Mr. B and everyone else who made this happen.
Was it just me, or did anyone else notice that the crowd at Brooklyn Flea was gorgeous? I was thinking to myself…wow…if someone from abroad came over and came to this event, they’d have an awfully terrific view of the people in NY. Lots and lots of beautiful people. It had good energy. Even with that wind.
Thanks for bringing this to Brooklyn!
Had a great time with my family. Thanks for making it happen. I think banning strollers is mean idea, strollers were always allowed in Chelsea.
I didn’t see many googy tshirts actually.
Sadly all the cheap good furniture that used to be on Altantic Avenue has been chased out by, overpriced clothing stores.
First, congrats on the event! It’s a great addition to the neighborhood, and it was great to see so many people out. My two cents: I think it may be ambitious to do every weekend — maybe once a month so as to not risk vendor/visitor burnout? But if the interest is there, why not! I agree with other posters that there were too many t-shirts, etc. I would like to see more quantity of old stuff, salvage, furniture, etc. crazy stuff that you don’t find so easily and better prices. Sometimes vendors put “city prices” on their wares thinking that city people have lots of money. But a lot of people go to flea markets because they are cheap. E.g. one vendor had vintage dresses for $120. I walked away and went to the Housing Works booth, where I bought something for $5. The other thing that we bought was a salvage item that we saw in one of your vendor’s inventory, which we asked him to bring. I think it was interesting to use the event as a “meeting place” for this transaction. In conclusion, props again for all your hard work! You will find the right balance.
I thought for a first go it was pretty great. I agree with lots of the above re: vendors, I personally was disappointed that there was no big lot of used books to pick through. But as others have said, I think those things will sort themselves out.
I’m not sure I agree with the people calling for a strictly “old-school” flea market – part of the appeal of this Flea was that I thought that since it was Web-driven, and theoretically reaching an expanded audience, it would have more of a Flea 2.0 feel. Which I think it sort of did, but if 2.0 means jewelry and kid clothes out the wazoo, then yes, a better balance needs to be struck.
I’d also disagree with the comment above about this being a “white monied” event. Yes there were plenty of pale faces in North Face jackets, but I actually thought the crowd when I was there (1-2pm) was everything good about Brooklyn: every color of the rainbow, young, old, hipster, regular folk, etc. I have to admit that I have been down on Brooklyn lately, but seeing all stripes of people together yesterday made me feel better.
Thanks, Brownstoner! Looking forward to more Sundays…
As a local resident, I have been truly excited for the Flea and can’t even imagine the planning and logistics required to set up an event at this scale, so excellent work on that! I would agree with many of the other posters, though–less hipster tote-baggy things, please (though I do not deny they are crafted with time and care), and more unique items that appeal to more than just the leggings-and-ironic-boots set. Also, a place for people to put their strollers would be great since I was constantly getting whacked by them! But all in all, great job and I truly look forward to watching the Flea’s evolution.
I have to admit – as a resident of the neighborhood, I have mixed feelings about this invading our otherwise quiet weekend. Our street got about 1,000x more foot traffic than it normally does, and while people were more or less subdued, how long before they start throwing trash around? -VERY nervous in FG
p.s. brownstoner, couldn’t you find a nice lot on YOUR block to throw down the flea market?
I’m going to be the defensive vendor here. I’m speaking for myself as an independent business person, and I signed up to make money, pure and simple. Here’s what I invested for the day.
Booth: $100, tables: $20, Zipcar rental: $134. I need to make $254 to break even. That doesn’t include my $200 tent I bought, or the money I invested in the merchandise I sold, or the time that went into cleaning up, fixing and/or creating what I sold.
I did not have silk screened onsies, but those people invested as much or more for their goods, too. Maybe there were too many of them, but there were also a gazillion parents and kids there, and it’s good strategy to create product to meet an eager market.
I found that people were basically looking. I didn’t see that many people buying anything from the people around me. I had plenty of people in my booth, and got lots of complements, but I did not break even. I learned from that and will make changes, because I’m going to continue to do the flea.
I absolutely agree with the tshirt designer who posted yesterday. If you are buying something that someone made, the cost has to reflect the talent, materials and labor that go into it. Why should anyone give it away? The same goes for higher priced traditional things like furniture, or any other vintage item. Someone spent time searching for items, buying them at higher prices than 20 years ago, and had to transport them at a higher cost. If they cleaned or restored them, that’s more money too. This is all hard work to try and provide goods that people want.
Ironically, the popularity and publicity of finding great deals, or Old Masters at flea markets helped kill them. It’s harder to find good stuff to resell at a good price. Ultimately, you as customers decide if that onsie or that antique is worth it.