A few weeks ago, I decided to spend my Saturday afternoon in Coney Island enjoying the first traces of summer: eating hotdogs, enjoying the boardwalk, and – one of my favorite pastimes – browsing the ginormous flea market that was supposed to be set up there. But I was met with huge, aching disappointment.
The Flea by the Sea, orchestrated by none other than notorious Coney Island Killer, Joe Sitt, sits on close to an acre in a vacant lot adjacent to the boardwalk. The enormous powerhouse fleamarket that I was expecting was nowhere to be found. What I did find was a half-thrown together clusterfuck of sidewalk purse vendors, a couple of guys hocking CD’s, a pickle stand, and a very misplaced looking vendor selling decorative plants out of baskets.
Although they had a sign up that said “Pardon our appearance while we adjust our tents”, there were no tents to speak of (unless you count the metal skeleton) and the Flea was being touted as being open since May 1st. There were maybe ten vendors total, selling merchandise on tables set up on a dirt and gravel floor.
Considering that the Flea Market had been publicized in this way a few months earlier, you can understand my letdown.
“Coming in May, a totally new and exhilarating experience will be coming to Coney Island – a magical and festive place to eat great food, hang out, and see and be seen, and of course, SELL YOUR FANTASTIC MERCHANDISE!! Flea By The Sea is a revolutionary approach to the conventional flea market.
In short, the Flea at current is a total disaster. No doubt a product of careless planning, although it had the potential to be so much more. However, they’ve got the rest of the summer, so here’s hoping that they pull it together and offer up a market that Coney Island can be proud of. Photos below.
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The flea market tents are up, my son is there selling homemade cupcakes, cookies, brownies and dog biscuits. Considering it was a Friday and there weren’t a lot of people shopping it was a pretty successful day. It is not as big as is advertised, only 1/4 of the tents are filled but there should be more vendors for the weekend and more shoppers. Give it another chance, it is better than it was that first weekend when you went.
Hey Linda,
Thanks for letting us know the current state of the flea. I’ll definitely be giving it another chance. I am curious though — did they put anything on the ground? I thought it was strange that they were letting people try to sell merchandise with dirt flying around everywhere. Not a great setup for vendors.
The day you went the vendors were not set up right behind Nathan’s and yes, they were on dirt and gravel. Now the vendors are in the sections across Stillwell, right behind Nathan’s and the ground is paved with, I guess you’d call it asphalt. Like the surface of a street. Much better on the feet and certainly cleaner.
I have pictures of today’s turnout at the flea market, can I post them and if I can, please tell me how!!! By the way, the turnout today was great, double yeaterdays vendors and triple the buyers.
i think they should give it another chance people r still talking about how good it got an everyones wondering if they will do it again..things take time to pick up an setup..if they do it again ull see the tents will be alot fuller..i hope they do it again an thousands more like me…
@jb – I think they will do it again. It got decent at the end — I won’t say that it was great, because the majority of the vendors were still those guys that sell random shiz on the street corners (fake bags, ties, scarves, and music). It would be great if they could attract some real booth people — more food and handcrafted stuff. But, I’ve heard that they aren’t easy people to deal with on a business level, so that may or may not happen.
Here’s hoping they get much better — a great flea market by the water would be awesome.
The vendors are not the problem; it’s the foot traffic. People in the area do not seem to want to spend money. I participated last year, and believe me, my goods are in excellent condition, original, etc…Shoppers merely want to spend 99 cents for everything. It’s certainly not worth your time to travel and spend the entire day if you’re giving your items away!
@ Cee – The last time I was there, there were very few vendors and the floor was dusty and dirty. It wasn’t the greatest presentation. But I was under the impression that that was because Thor wasn’t really trying to make it into anything special. Now that the city owns the land again, I’m hoping that it will be much better.
Has it started up yet?