Landing on Your Feet at the Swap Meet

Swap meets, or flea markets, have in recent times enjoyed a reputation as a place where one can find a good deal on collectibles, art, and antiques. Thanks to television programs like Antiques Roadshow, swap meets have become a kind of high-end retailer in outdoor markets. The recession has not only changed that, but also drawn attention to the flexibility of swap meets and open air markets generally.

Last week Los Angeles' public television station, KCET, broadcast a story on swap meets as part of its program, "SoCal Connected." Here's the link: http://kcet.org/socal/2008/12/thrift-economy.html

KCET Producer Vicki Curry told the story of how swap meets are feeling the effects of the economic downturn. People who have lost jobs have cut back on many things, including making payments for storage units, packed to the brim with goods purchased during good times. Units on which rent is not paid are subject to "foreclosure" by the storage unit facility. The units are opened and the contents auctioned to eager buyers. These buyers turn around to resell the items on ebay, at garage sales, and swap meets. These merchants of second hand goods have their finger on the economic pulse of America. High end merchandise is not moving much. Low end necessities are.

The story illustrates two aspects of the flexibility of open air commerce. First, is the low cost of entry to market participants, especially merchants. Some of the people buying at storage unit foreclosures are seasoned professionals, who have been doing this for years. Others are folks who have themselves been pinched by the recession. Out of work, they've turned to second hand reselling as another way to make ends meet. One unemployed construction worker turned second hand goods merchant found that he liked the change. He was already earning more money per hour reselling than he did as a construction worker. If necessity is the mother of invention, then open air markets are a father of entrepreneurship.

The adaptation of swap meets to economic times also illustrates the flexibility of open air commerce to changes in economic conditions. Many storefront retailers have specific brand images and special facilities to market their wares, making it somewhat costly for them to change what they sell and how they sell it. Open air markets and street merchants are different. Lacking nationwide branding and much in the way of permanent infrastructure, swap meets and their merchants have little to lose in making quick changes in what they sell. Yesterday it was art work, crystal, and collectibles. Today it is clothes, plates, and tupperware. You can still sell it outside.

Like a cat, the open air economy will always land on its feet.