Popular vendors who were forced to leave the Festival Marketplace indoor flea market want their regular shoppers to know that they are surviving, if not yet thriving, in new locations across Broward and Palm Beach counties.
The market in Pompano Beach, which once boasted 250 businesses, closed its doors for good on June 1 to make room for warehouses. Many of the longtime vendors retired.
But numerous entrepreneurs gritted their teeth and decided to start over in new locations, says Caryn Deri, who moved her store, JMC Hairwear, to a small strip mall in Lighthouse Point.
“Everyone kind of just dispersed wherever they could find a decent rent and a place without a parking issue, you know?”
Joe Riggins and his wife, Cynthia, reopened their New York Pickles and Company in a strip mall at 10261 W. Sample Road in Coral Springs on June 6, a few days after the flea market closed.
Joe Riggins said his company is doing well, catering to new customers from Coral Springs, Coconut Creek, and nearby Parkland, but also welcoming flea market regulars who still can’t get enough of the store’s gourmet pickles, peppers and olives.
At the flea market, he said, shoppers would buy a single pickle, a pickle on a stick, or the four-pickles-for-$3 deal. Now they’re walking away with jars of pickles, he said.
“Now, when you come in to the actual pickle store, you’re coming in for that reason,” he said. “So that allows us to sell more pickles.”
New locations present new challenges
Other former Festival vendors say they’re are still getting accustomed to their new locations and different clienteles.
Ada Buesco’s kiosk, Ada’s Coffee, was one of a handful of businesses that accepted Festival owner IMC Equity Group’s offer to relocate to the Lauderhill Mall it also owns on State Road 7. Buesco said she is struggling to match the $500 to $600 she would pull in “even in my slowest days” at the flea market.
Situated on the main promenade in the front of a mostly empty store subdivided into spaces for additional Festival vendors, Buesco says she hasn’t yet topped $200 in a day selling coffee, ice cream, lattes and baked goods.
She says that her mom asked her a couple of days ago how long she plans to hold on. “I want to give myself at least two or three months,” she said. “That should give us enough time to get noticed. I just want to be patient and keep working on it.”
A couple of stores away, Helen Zheng renamed her store, known at Festival as Dollar & Up, as Miami Household when it opened in June. Twice the size of the old space, Zheng’s store stocks a wide variety of discount-priced everyday goods such as suitcases, cargo shorts, kitchen tools, sandals, hats, belts, makeup and cologne.
She was forced to relocate 17 years after starting her business from scratch at the Festival Marketplace.
“So far it’s a little slow,” Zheng confided. “I need for our customers to know we’re open here and that I have a lot more stuff.”
One of her biggest challenges, she said, is figuring out how to transition her clothing line from what appealed to elderly, white shoppers at Festival Marketplace to what younger, Black customers who frequent the Lauderhill Mall want.
Caryn Deri said her store, JMC Hairwear, at 4628 N. Federal Highway in Lighthouse Point, has been adjusting to far less foot traffic than what she was used to over 34 years at the flea market. She says her sales are down 35% compared to her days at the Festival.
Her new location is “in a small center, maybe 12 stores, and there are no big anchors, like a TJ Maxx or Marshalls that brings in a lot of people,” she says. “Here, people park in front, go to their destination and then leave.”
She says her “saving grace” is the list of positive Google reviews built up during her years at the flea market, plus the fact that “all of our regular customers followed us.”
“But what are you going to do?” she said about the rebuilding process. The Festival Marketplace “was a thing of the past” where advertising was handled by its owners “and we were lucky we had it for all those years.”
Relocating to Wellington
Tara Wilder says the store she managed as Anita’s Place at the Festival Marketplace for 10 years moved to The Mall at Wellington Green in western Palm Beach County, three years ago after the flea market’s owner first announced plans to sell the property.
Now called Jewelry Box, the store’s owner followed another vendor, Lifetime Kitchen, who had already moved to the mall. Others have since followed, she said, including Tango Beauty, a salon and beauty supply business, Plus Platinum, seller of luxury jewelry and watches, Executive Leather, and As Seen on TV.
The Wellington mall, she says, draws a clientele “that’s younger, more like paycheck-to-paycheck people” while the Festival attracted a more “sophisticated, mature shopper … people with a lot of money.”
Women who shopped at the Festival purchased only silver jewelry, she says. “This mall, the young people, they want gold. So now we’re bringing a lot more gold.”
A waiting game
In Margate, another longtime Festival vendor, Hillsboro Antique Mall, is almost ready to open in the old Sam Ash Music location in the Peppertree Plaza at the intersection of West Sample Road and State Road 7.
Co-owner Kira Silverman says the store had planned to open in July but said the city of Margate is withholding its certificate of occupancy until some issues with its air conditioning system are resolved.
The store will sell antiques from about 200 vendors and collect a commission on each sale, Silverman says. Unlike some businesses that suffered at the Festival after the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, the antique store celebrated its best year to date last year, she says.
She’s optimistic that business will be even better in the new location, once it opens.
“It’s a lot more private, a lot more accessible, and there’s a lot more traffic here,” she says. “I think it’s going to be a great location. We just want to open our doors.”
A loss of community
While most of the business owners say they’re hopeful they’ll succeed in their new locations, they also confess to missing the community built up over so many years at the Festival Marketplace.
“We were all very sad when the Festival closed,” Wilder says. “Everybody just knew each other. It was fun. Now, I’m in a store with four walls around me. At the Festival, it was more of a booth. You could stand outside your booth and you’ll see everybody, you know?”
In his pickle store, Joe Riggins says he also was disappointed when the Festival shut down “but not for some of the reasons you might think.”
He says he mostly felt bad for longtime regular patrons who lost one of their only outlets to the world.
Retirement villages “like Wynmoor, Century Village and Kings Point would bring the buses up and drop them off right there,” he says. “They’d come in and they were as happy as children in a candy store, because they’re out. That’s their island.
“They’d stop at the pickle man and, you know, they’d vent that they’re by themselves, that their kids don’t look out for them. And then they go home to nothing.
“My wife and I and the pickle business, we’ll find a way, and some of the other vendors, they’ll find a way to get it done. But I have a very huge soft spot for the elderly community. … The Festival was their outlet.”
Here are the current locations of some vendors who relocated from the Festival Marketplace. If you know of a business that’s not on the list, contact reporter Ron Hurtibise at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
Promenade at Coconut Creek, southwest corner of Wiles and Lyons roads:
— Bronx Luggage, luxury and brand name luggage, 4419 Lyons Road.
— Vivian Auld (formerly Vivian’s Boutique), women’s clothing, 4425 Lyons Road.
— My Phone Lab, electronics repair, 4455 Lyons Road.
Coral Springs:
— New York Pickles & Company, 10261 W. Sample Road.
— Alterations & More by N and N, 10269 W. Sample Road.
— Miami Sunglasses, Coral Square Mall, 9469 W. Atlantic Blvd.
— Big Boss Jewelry & Antiques, 10704 Wiles Road.
— Crazy Tees, custom t-shirts, 10263 W. Sample Road.
Delray Beach:
— Galaxy Furniture Design, home decor, 5850 W. Atlantic Ave. (Peachtree Plaza).
— 3G’s Gourmet Deli, sandwiches and deli meats, 5869 W. Atlantic Ave.
Lauderhill Mall, 1267 NW 40th Ave., Lauderhill:
— Miami Household (formerly Dollar & Up), discount items.
— Ada’s Coffee, coffee, ice cream, baked goods and more.
— Boardwalk Sportswear, custom T-shirts.
Lighthouse Point:
— JMC Hairwear, hair pieces for men and women, with Good as Gold, jewelry, 4628 N. Federal Highway.
Margate:
— Hillsboro Antique Mall, opening soon at 5460 W. Sample Road, (former Sam Ash Music site in Peppertree Plaza).
— Golden Bay Jewelers, 5460 W. Sample Road.
Pompano Beach:
— Eddie’s Optical, eyeglass repairs and adjustments, 2400 W. Sample Road, Suite 7, Room 2.
The Mall at Wellington Green, 10300 Forest Hill Blvd., Wellington:
— Jewelry Box (formerly Anita’s Place), jewelry.
— Tango Beauty, beauty supply.
— Lifetime Kitchen, cooking supplies.
— As Seen on TV, gadgets and household goods.
— Executive Leather, leather products.
— Plus Platinum, luxury jewelry and watches.
Yellow Green Farmers Market (Saturdays and Sundays), 3080 Sheridan St., Hollywood:
— Fancy 1 Naturals, vegan cuisine.
— Romancing the Stones, metaphysical store.
Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071 or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.