Flowood flea market closure causes vendors and customers to seek new beginnings
FLOWOOD, Miss. —
The Flowood flea market, a long-standing Mississippi business, is closing at the end of the year, leaving vendors and customers to adjust to the change.
Michael Page, a vendor with one of the largest game stores in Mississippi, expressed his frustration with the sudden closure.
"I've been building this place up for 15 years and now all of a sudden you have 57 days to get out," Page said.
He has expanded his collection from a few shelves to 30 cases of video games, including retro game consoles and Pokémon trinkets.
After 16 years, the Flowood flea market is shutting down, now having to pack up a warehouse full of unique, old-fashioned, and unexpected items. For Page and regular customers, the closure is a hard reality to accept. Cate Dempsey from Clinton, who visits the market monthly with her family, shared her appreciation for the variety and value it offers.
"First of all, you get way more for your money, and then you get way more options, it's just cooler stuff," Dempsey said.
Jack Cameron, co-owner of the Flowood flea market, explained the circumstances leading to the closure.
"We've lost our lease and now we are looking for a new home," Cameron said.
He noted that operating out of the warehouse has fostered a community of people, and while they plan to relocate about 30 miles away, they will have to change their name.
"It's going to be really sad if our regulars find it too far to travel, and that's why I hope we find new regulars at the new location," Cameron said.
Despite the impending move, Page remains passionate about his work.
"I get the thrill out of watching that person smile when they see it cut on or handing the controller and saying, 'Here, check it out,'" Page said.
Their new space will be in Canton, with plans to open sometime in January.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of an era: Vendors scramble as popular South Florida flea market closes
Originally opened as the Pompano Outlet Mall in 1986, the sprawling Festival Flea Market Mall — as it was relaunched in 1991 — has been a community staple for decades, for Broward and beyond.
Vendors selling jewelry, cigars, shoes, handbags, perfume, outdoor furniture — and everything in between — have cultivated a loyal customer base, who can spend hours searching for bargains and prized finds across 390,497 square feet of retail.
But the marketplace’s time is coming to an end. Last year, vendors received letters announcing its operations would end in June. Although many are moving to another location, for some of the smaller stores, it could spell the end.
"I know that they tried to kind of rehouse people wherever they could," said Kira Silverman, who runs an antiques store at the marketplace. "But commercial real estate prices are expensive, and for small boutique-style vendors like this, unless you come up with a group of people, it's really hard to be able to make that move."
Silverman's store, the Hillsboro Antique Mall, which she runs alongside Christiane Scott, was first opened by their families in Deerfield Beach in 1997. It moved to the Festival Flea Market Mall 15 years ago.
They were hoping the market wouldn't close, but the news wasn't a surprise to them. They had been wondering if they would be safe "for a while," Silverman told WLRN.
" Honestly, aside from the stresses and the burdens of having to move our own business, I think we're all just really sad because a lot of these smaller vendors that already are here in the festival have been here for years before us," she said.
"Unless they find another flea market-style business, a lot of them aren't going to have anywhere to go."
In 2018, North Miami-based IMC Equity Group purchased the flea market and filed plans in 2022 to rezone the land from general to industrial, which the City of Pompano Beach eventually approved. Orlando-based Foundry Commercial has the property under contract from IMC, and they plan to turn it into warehouses and industrial spaces.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that some vendors appear to be relocating to the Lauderhill Mall, which is part of IMC Equity's vast portfolio of retail properties.
'Business is not what it used to be'
However, not everyone is moving to that location.
In the immediate months following the initial announcement, Silverman said there was a scramble within the market for people to try to partner up and see if they could move into a new business together. A few of the vendors reached out to her.
" Unfortunately, the real estate market for commercial business is very competitive and real estate is very expensive," she said.
The Hillsboro Antique Mall will be moving two miles west, to the Peppertree Plaza in Margate, in the coming weeks. Silverman is excited about the fresh start, but says they will be losing a sense of community, since they won't have a variety of businesses all under the same roof anymore.
" I don't think any of us will ever be able to get that back, because the flea market business is just not what it used to be," Silverman said. "There are a couple of other flea markets and antique stores that have all just slowly started going out of business because so much more of this business is done online now."
------------------------------------------------------------------
New Swap Meet Directory Available
Forum Publishing Company, publishers of Retailers Forum Magazine and Swap Meet Magazine announce the expansion and update of the industry's best swap meet directory: www.SwapMeetDirectory.com. This is a great way to search markets to visit or rent space at and covers the most popular markets in all 50-states. All content is free and the community keeps it updated weekly!