Flea market

A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously-owned (second-hand) merchandise.[1][2] This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal' and 'casual' markets[3] which divides a fixed-style market (formal) with long-term leases and a seasonal-style market with short-term leases. Consistently, there tends to be an emphasis on sustainable consumption whereby items such as used goods, collectibles, antiques and vintage clothing can be purchased.[1][4]

"Swap meet" redirects here. For the CSI episode, see Swap Meet (CSI). For other uses, see Swap meet (disambiguation).
See also: Indoor swap meet
For the Tierra Whack song, see Whack World.
Montsoreau Flea Market, Loire Valley, France
The Market NYC, an artists, designers, vintage and an indoor flea market in New York City

Flea market vending is distinguished from street vending in that the market alone, and not any other public attraction, brings in buyers. There are a variety of vendors: some part-time who consider their work at flea markets a hobby due to their possession of an alternative job; full-time vendors who dedicate all their time to their stalls and collection of merchandise and rely solely on the profits made at the market.[3] Vendors require skill in following retro and vintage trends, as well as selecting merchandise which connects with the culture and identity of their customers.[4]

In the United States, the National Association of Flea Markets was established in 1997, which provides various resources for sellers, suppliers and buyers and also provides a means for suppliers and sellers to communicate and form affiliations.[1]

Regional names

In the United States, an outdoor swap meet is the equivalent of a flea market. However, an indoor swap meet is the equivalent of a bazaar, an permanent, indoor shopping center open during normal retail hours, with fixed booths or storefronts for the vendors.[5][6][7]

Different English-speaking countries use various names for flea markets. In Australian English, they are also called 'trash and treasure markets'. In Philippine English, the word is tianggê from the word tianguis via Mexican Spanish coming from Nahuatl. Despite common misconception, it is not derived from Hokkien.[8] The word supplants the indigenous term talipapâ.[9] In India, it is known as gurjari or shrukawadi bazaar or even as juna bazaar in Pune.

In the United Kingdom, they are known as car boot sales if the event takes place in a field or car park, as the vendors will sell goods from the boot (or 'trunk' in American English) of their car. If the event is held indoors, such as a school or church hall, then it is usually known as either a jumble sale, or a bring and buy sale. In Quebec and France, they are often called Marché aux puces (literally "flea market"), while in French-speaking areas of Belgium, the name brocante or vide-grenier is normally used.

In German, there are many words in use but the most common word is "Flohmarkt", meaning literally "flea market". The same applies to Swedish "loppmarknad" and Finnish "kirpputori". In the predominantly Cuban/Hispanic areas of South Florida, they are called [el] pulguero ("[the] flea store") from pulga, the Spanish word for fleas. In the Southern part of Andalusia, due to the influence of Gibraltar English, they are known as "piojito", which means "little louse". In Chile they can be called persas or mercados persa ("persian market") and ferias libres, if mostly selling fruit and vegetables. In Argentina are most likely called "feria artesanal" (artisan's or street fair) or "feria americana" (American fair), the latter name is due to have taken the idea from their United States counterpart.

Etymology
Troedelladen (fleashop) by Ernst Thoms, 1926

While the concept existed in places such as what are now India, Bangladesh, and China for millennia, the origins of the term "flea market" are disputed. According to one theory, the Fly Market in 18th-century New York City, located at Maiden Lane near the East River in Manhattan began the association.[10][11] The land on which the market took place was originally a salt marsh with a brook, and by the early 1800s the "Fly Market" was the city's principal market.[12]

A second theory maintains that "flea market" is a common English calque from the French "marché aux puces" which literally translates to "market of the fleas", labelled as such because the items sold were previously owned and worn, supposedly containing fleas.[1][13] The first reference to this term appeared in two conflicting stories about a location in Paris in the 1860s which was known as the "marché aux puces".

The traditional and most-publicized story is in the article "What Is a Flea Market?" by Albert LaFarge in the 1998 winter edition of Today's Flea Market magazine: "There is a general agreement that the term 'Flea Market' is a literal translation of the French marché aux puces, an outdoor bazaar in Paris, France, named after those pesky little parasites of the order Siphonaptera (or "wingless bloodsucker") that infested the upholstery of old furniture brought out for sale."

The second story appeared in the book Flea Markets, published in Europe by Chartwell Books, has in its introduction:

In the time of the Emperor Napoleon III, the imperial architect Haussmann made plans for the broad, straight boulevards with rows of square houses in the center of Paris, along which army divisions could march with much pompous noise. The plans forced many dealers in second-hand goods to flee their old dwellings; the alleys and slums were demolished. These dislodged merchants were, however, allowed to continue selling their wares undisturbed right in the north of Paris, just outside the former fort, in front of the gate Porte de Clignancourt. The first stalls were erected in about 1860. The gathering together of all these exiles from the slums of Paris was soon given the name "marché aux puces", meaning "flea market", later translation.[14]

There are flea markets in Japan. However, because the words "flea" and "free" are transcribed in the same Japanese katakana phonetic letters, they have mistaken them and started to use "free market" instead of "flea market" (Cf. the website of the Japanese Free Market Association).[15][lower-alpha 1]

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See also

Notes
  1. "The "Free" Market In Japan, the groundwork for this new kind of consumption has already been laid in the form of the "free market." The term "free market" is a Japanized form of the original English term "flea market." The Japanese version is ..."[16]

References
  1. LaFarge, A. (2000). "Introduction". U.S. Flea Market Directory, 3rd Edition: A Guide to the Best Flea Markets in All 50 States. US Flea Market Directory. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-26405-5. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  2. "flea market | Definition of flea market in English by Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries | English. Retrieved 2019-03-24.
  3. L., D. (2006). "Editorial Perspectives: Flea Markets". Science & Society. 70 (3): 301–307. doi:10.1521/siso.70.3.301. ISSN 0036-8237. JSTOR 40404837.
  4. Appelgren, Staffan (2015). "Introduction: Circulating Stuff through Second-hand, Vintage and Retro Markets" (PDF). Culture Unbound. 7: 11.
  5. https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/feb/28/las-vegas-epic-second-hand-shops-antique-stores-an/
  6. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-08-mn-1515-story.html
  7. https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/young-businesses-thrive-in-indoor-swap-meets/
  8. Hernández, Paloma Albalá (2007). Americanismos en las Indias del Poniente: Voces de origen indígena Americano en las lenguas del Pacífico. Lingüística Iberoamericana. IX. Vervuert. p. 171. ISBN 9788495107527.
  9. "Tagalong Lang". Tagaloglang.com. Retrieved 2013-02-09.
  10. "History Blog Insight into History – A Weekly Instrospective Into The Past". Archived from the original on 21 March 2012.
  11. "Flea Markets in Arkansas". Arkansas Arts and Crafts. Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism. 2006. Archived from the original on 2008-08-22. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
  12. Google Books: The geographical and historical dictionary of America and the West ..., Volume 3, by Antonio de Alcedo and George Alexander Thompson, p. 409, 1812
  13. "What is the origin of the term 'flea ... | Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries | English. Retrieved 2019-03-24.
  14. Prieto, J. (2007). "Flea Market History". Hollis Flea Market. Retrieved February 12, 2012, from http://www.hollisflea.com/flea_market_history.html
  15. Free Market. freemarket-go.com. Accessed July 2019.
  16. Jiji Gaho Sha (2003). Asia-Pacific Perspectives, Japan Plus. Jiji Gaho Sha, Incorporated. p. 12. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
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