In part 1 of this article we discussed How to Choose a Good Flea Market for your products. Now we are going to talk about picking the best space.

It is better to pay MORE for a GREAT SPOT than to take the cheap spaces. The reason the spaces are cheap is because they SUCK. That is also why they are almost always available.

Generally speaking, the most popular areas of the flea market are going to be centralized (in the middle) and also wherever food places are. A spot near a food court, even a few rows out from a food court, is solid! Food courts are always busy, so you will always have people passing by.  If the flea market you are planning to sell at doesn't have a food court, aim for a space by a seller of food that offers free samples; cheese sellers, dips, seasonings, popcorn, roasted nuts... these sellers are ALWAYS popular because who doesn't love free food?

If a food court space is not available, aim for a slot in close proximity to a seller that has been around for a long time. You can tell who has been around awhile just by looking. A long-term seller usually has showcases instead of cheap tables, professionally printed (or laminated) signs instead of cheap paper signs and a cash register. A seller who has stuck around usually looks a lot more professional because they don’t have to take their stuff home every weekend, so they are able to build a nice space.

The worst places you can pick are:

• Inside of the employee / marketplace seller door
• In a dark corner or in an area with poor lighting
• In an area that has lots of empty spaces
• Outdoor spaces typically do not perform as well IF indoor space is also available. You will automatically lose all of your traffic every time it is chilly, windy or raining IF indoor space is available.

The next thing you need to consider is if you can BUILD UP. People always think about floor space, but they never think about all of the FREE space that is UP! If you can build UP you can double, or triple, your inventory without spending an additional dime on rent. UP!!!!!!! BUILD UP!!!!! So you’re like, “WTF are you talking about?”

Well, lets think of it like this….

Let’s pretend this is your space, if you were looking at it from birdseye view:

You can put in your brown table, a silver clothing rack, etc:

BUT if you were able to build a wall (along the backside):

you would be able to display SO MUCH MORE STUFF!!!

So, when it comes to picking a good space, you need to decide if you will be able to “build out” (including build UP!) your space.

Here’s something you gotta know. A traditional space is around 10L x 5W. It fits basically NOTHING more than one 8’ table plus your chair to sit. You will not be able to sell much off of 1 table. It doesn’t really matter WHAT you sell, you simply won’t generate income much off a single table.Think about it like this: if you were to sell out of 100% of what is on your single table, how much would you make? Now deduct rent and other costs.  If you only end up with $100 it isn't worth the time because you could have made more selling online. 

If you aim for a double space you can actually make money. You need your double space to be back-to-back:

Not side-by-side:

Side-by-side spaces are very hard to monitor and will make it easy for customers to steal your cash box and inventory.