checking up on the south park flea market
UPDATE: The South Park Flea Market has moved to 11th and Figueroa. New hours are from 11:00am-4:00pm Sundays. Downtowners who have visited the South Park Flea Market recently may be wondering why the venue has been coming up short nearly two months into its launch.
This past weekend, a rainy forecast that never materialized resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of vendors and visitors to the large parking lot at 8th and Grand.
We checked in with Phillip Dane, owner and operator of the market, to get his take on why the market has faltered, and what he plans to do about it.
“I knew it would be a tough beginning even without the bad weather, the Marathon and now Easter coming up,” Dane said.
Despite the hit-or-miss schedule of the past two months, turnout has been “good, but not great,” with 500-1300 shoppers per event. With the onset of spring, turnout should steadily increase well into the summer.
Many potential vendors are playing it safe until attendance at the market picks up, creating the classic chicken-or-egg scenario. The problem becomes how to bring shoppers and vendors together for the weekly event.
Starting this Sunday, in an effort to lure people to the market and give them reason to linger, a large stage will be built for local musicians to play live, then sell t-shirts and CDs to the audience. Dane is taking suggestions for local artists interested in performing for the crowd.
The most promising news comes by way of the community’s overwhelming input: Plans are in the works to bring a weekly farmers’ market into the mix. Additionally, look for reoccurring food drives and blood drives to start soon.
Though Dane is “absolutely” as bullish on Downtown now as he was a few months ago, he needs the community’s help to make the market a success.� Too often, we forget to support what we already have in an effort to find the next big thing.
“It’s all about creating urgency. When you have a weekly market, it’s tough to motivate people the way you can with a monthly market. The feeling is that since it’s every week, who cares if we miss this week, we’ll hit it next week. With a monthly market, you only have one shot to hit the market in a month.”
If you have any input on how to improve the market, let us know in the comments or contact us.
-flea market has modest debut, shows big potential
-south park flea market will enhance downtown weekends
New to Downtown LA? angelenic.com is the neighborhood resource for those living, working and visiting Downtown Los Angeles.
Sign up for our RSS feed or email feed to receive angelenic in your inbox every morning!
Related reading:
24 comments
It needs to be a monthly market, the entrance fee needs to remain at $0. Once a buzz starts building about the monthly market then it can become weekly. That’s my opinion at least. I mean really, there’s not enough there right now to make me a weekly regular (other than the bbq pork sandwiches). At least in terms of buying stuff.
What kind of advertising does the flea market do? The only reason I found out about it is because I stumbled upon the Angelenic blog by accident (and now I’m addicted.) The the market managers can leave a flyer in the lobby of the local residential buildings perhaps more people will know about it and show up. I’ve been loyally visiting the flea market every Sunday for the past month. There are some really wonderful artists out there and great finds if you have the patience and a keen eye. I am very glad we have this market, small as it may be for now. I look forward to it every weekend.
Thanks, AUG!
I know that there are flyers in different cafes and coffee shops around Downtown, and I think there may be an insert in the Times or Weekly. Not sure about that last one, though.
I can’t wait to see some fresh farmers’ market produce on the weekends!
If this farmers market thing pans out I think it will be a huge hit.
Another vote to make it a monthly market.
I am finally going to visit this sunday..even though i got easter plans.
They need to be consistent- “rain or shine”.
Like they say Rome was not built in one day or even a month lol.
I would prefer that they keep it a weekly- on Sunday. It shows the local community that they are truly serious and committed.
Adding a stage for live music and the farmers market element is a good thing.
I also agree that if no one knows about the South Park flea market, no matter how “good” or “bad”, it does no good.
They need advertising and to make themselves heard especially in and around the area they are located.
And mind you I for one do not live in downtown la, but 8 miles south east of downtown la.
So for me I make a choice, “its a want” on my part to favor , to choose to frequent, shop and hang out in downtown LA.
And once I can afford the housing there then i will move in:)
SUPPORT PHILIP! SUPPORT THE FLEA MARKET!
LOOK FOR THE AD THIS WEEKEND IN THE LOS ANGELES DOWNTOWN NEWS…FREE HOT DOGS, LIVE MUSIC, & EASTER BASKET RAFFLE!
I’ve been at the market nearly every week since it opened with my roommates running one of the boothes. Its a tough call for now. So far, we’ve been doing really well for the most part. I wish it was bigger, but you need more venders to bring in the people. The venders aren’t going to come, however, unless there are more people coming. It truly is a chicken or the egg situation.
The pork sandwhiches are pretty damn good, but i’d love to see more than two food choices, more than just the one DJ playing music, and more cool stuff overall.
But I love it. It has made my sundays and my immediate neighborhood much more interesting.
Easy, Vanessa. Easy, girl. No need to shout.
David: Sorry about that, I didn’t realize the “caps lock” was on :-)
I had friends visiting from out of town, and I was busy that day, so I sent them to the flea market and they LOVED it. Even though it was small last week, they remarked on the quality and hand-made character of most of the items. They bought stuff for their friends and family back home.
I agree it should remain weekly. Stick it out for a while. It takes time for people to really get the idea that it is there. Add the farmer’s market to it and I’ll be there every week as well.
if they incorporate the farmer’s market, I will be there for my weekly supply of produce cause Ralph’s produce selection isn’t much, not too mention expensive….
I live in South Park but still do my produce shopping at the Grand Central Market for a fraction of the price Ralph’s charges..
Please , please include the produce market so I can just walk to buy my bananas, apples,oranges, onions etc!
Farmers market please!!!! I’d be there every Sunday for sure!
Ralphs produce is such a disappointment.
I wholeheartedly agree with the overwhelming desire for a Sunday farmer’s market. Downtown has nice markets on Wed and Fri but I can never make it. Farmer’s markets seem to always draw a big crowd so I’m sure it would help the flea market tremendously. Also, I welcome any opportunity to support locally grown organic food. Homegrown fruits and veggies just taste so much better than the bland and boring (and expensive) stuff we find in grocery stores.
A farmers market is exactly what would make it work weekly, even if the vendor list stayed the same size. Unlike designer purses and vintage dresses, fresh food is something people will definitely buy on a weekly basis.
As a vendor, I have no complaint with the people running it. They placed ads in the Downtown News and L.A. Weekly (and City Beat, too, I think?) As evidenced by the additional ideas (add Farmer’s Market, have bands play) they are not giving up, and giving it their all to make this a going concern.
I’ll be blunt. The problem is the customers that are coming. Not enough people are buying things. Far too many people are just coming to browse and are not cracking their wallets. That’s fine when thousands of people come through, like at the Rose Bowl or PCC, eventually you can get some paying customers, but so far this market is different. With only a few hundred customers, most of them have to patronize the vendors, otherwise they can’t make any money and they can’t come back.
The word has to go out to the Downtown community to support this Market. Vote with your pocketbook. Use word of mouth and tell your neighbors in Downtown, or wherever you live. Show up to the Market, and more importantly, BUY THINGS. This is capitalism in action, folks.
Since they seem to be trying to make improvements, I’m going to stick with it, but I can’t do it forever without making a respectable amount of profit. I’d rather sleep in on Sundays, get up late and watch DVDs all day. Right now, I’m not even making minimum wage, after expenses.
“I’ll be blunt. The problem is the customers that are coming. Not enough people are buying things. “
Well if you are getting the same people coming to the market every week, and there’s like 10 or 15 of the same vendors, obviously the same ol’ people aren’t going to be buying something every week. This is why I support the monthly idea… I buy certain things on a weekly basis: food, drink, well mostly food and drink. If you’re selling food and drink it’s likely I’ll buy from you every Sunday. But if you’re selling crazy little handbags that look like little monkeys… it’s doubtful I’m going to buy a new one every week. If you’re selling records and it’s pretty much the same stuff every week, it’s likely I won’t be buying records every Sunday. Once a month, yeah maybe.
“Show up to the Market, and more importantly, BUY THINGS. This is capitalism in action, folks.”
Capitalism is providing goods or services that someone needs or wants. I’m not going to buy something out of guilt or to “vote”. If you want to be capitalistic, you gotta create demand. Sell me something I would want to buy on a weekly basis. Scarcity is another way to create demand, change it to once a month suddenly those monkey hand bags are a little more scarce, and therefore a little more in demand. For the weekly market to be sustained there has to be A LOT more people “in the know”, because it has to be patronized by new people each week (in other words, not everyone goes to the market every week, but there’s enough people who didn’t go last week who will go this week) or else it’s just going to stagnate.
Until it gets going - it needs to be free to get enough people to sample it.
There is alot of foot traffic on 7th street mainly from locals but alot of the tourist staying in Downtown.
The organizer needs to put up some fold out signs on 7th and Grand and 7th and Olive which read “Flea Market that way —-> ” Im sure this will help ALOT since the parking lot has always been a parking lot and no one suspects anything to actually be there esp on a Sunday.
Also I say keep it weekly! … and Farmers market inclusion is also a great idea as well as the live bands.
-Victor (who ponders using his artistic abilities to create and sell at the market)
ohh yah… Also Keep it free for now.
The fact that the farmers’ markets in Downtown only happen during business hours during the week has always frustrated me, and I agree that a farmers’ market is exactly what would help the Flea Market flourish. As Fred said, people aren’t going to buy a crazy monkey-shaped handbag every single week, but more people are going to show up if they can do their weekly grocery shopping there. And when more people can go to the Flea Market for things they need, the number of people buying things that they want should naturally increase.
Wow… I never expected 21 comments and I do appreciate all of them. I’ll try to answer some questions and respond to some of your comments:
The market is advertised weekly in the Downtown News, LA Weekly and some blogs. We also distribute over 2000 postcards throughout the downtown shops and lofts as well as hand to hand throughout LA.
…As for the idea of changing to a monthly market, believe me it has crossed my mind but the truth is that these things simply take time and a steadfast attitude. The Melrose Market got off to a slower start and didn’t really take off until the middle of the second year!
… Food is another tough one because I have to make sure that the food vendors that stick it out through the tough times are at least breaking even in the beginning. We will add more food vendors.
…Farmers Market: Not so easy as calling Joe Farmer and having he/she set up. They are a tough bunch to get organized and we are trying hard but again, in time.
Lastly, please feel free to contact me directly via email (phillip@southparkfleamarket.com) as I like hearing the good, bad and ugly. The only way this can continue to grow is with your support and I personally thank all of those who continuously keep showing up!
FYI: We are open Easter with Free admission, Free Hot Dogs, Free Easter Eggs for the kids and a Raffle for Boys and Girls Easter Baskets…
Plus Live Music this week featuring 2 Bands.
Add the farmer’s market and I will definitely be there more often! Also, I think keeping the flea market free for now is a good move.
We sale the jewelry. We want to go your market. How can we do?
Leave a Comment