The new Berkeley Flea Market storefront catches the eye with an assortment of plants, bags, knitted hats and earrings displayed outside. Inside the store, the walls feature an eclectic mix of artwork, and there are a wide variety of prints and posters for sale.<\/p>\n
The well-stocked, compact shop opened May 1 and is located across the street from the Ashby BART parking lot, where the Berkeley Flea Market operates every Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n
Kristen Spencer, the store\u2019s volunteer operator and a Berkeley Flea Market vendor, hopes the store will generate more attention for the weekend flea market by showcasing its wide variety of wares.<\/p>\n
According to Artrenia Harris, a Berkeley Flea Market vendor for close to 15 years, the shop could serve as an additional source of revenue for vendors. Harris noted this could be especially helpful in the winter when the market is forced to close due to the weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cI often spend my time sitting out front working on my own products and just greeting people as they walk by and inviting them to come in,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cI\u2019ll have the table set up in the front that highlights a couple items, like an earring rack or if we have plants available, and try to help draw people in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The store has gotten a lot of people walking in and taking a look at items, according to Spencer. She hopes that more prospective customers will come into the store as the weather warms up and foot traffic increases.<\/p>\n
The new storefront repurposes the former Berkeley Flea Market office. The change comes after an eventful few years for the market.<\/p>\n
Last year, the market closed<\/a> due to operational costs. Although the market was officially closed, vendors and buyers continued showing up<\/a>, and a few months later, the market officially reopened<\/a> and hosted a lively event with live music.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it looks good,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cIt looks clean; it doesn\u2019t look dirty or over-clustered. People have enough room to walk around and circulate through the store.\u201d<\/p>\n Spencer noted that figuring out item displays has been somewhat difficult due to the store\u2019s limited budget and small space, and she hopes to continue improving them.<\/p>\n The store is currently open Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. but will consider expanding its hours if it begins to gain more foot traffic, according to Spencer. Additionally, store organizers hope to get more volunteers to work in the consignment store, as Spencer is currently the only one staffing it.<\/p>\n Overall, the storefront is a positive contribution to the market\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Berkeley Flea Market\u2019s been there for 50-plus years, starting in 1973,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThis is the first time this has happened with the office to convert it into a consignment store\u2026 Just walking in there, seeing that \u2014 it\u2019s a lot, and it makes me feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new Berkeley Flea Market storefront catches the eye with an assortment of plants, bags, knitted hats and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[8014,12491,8012,156906,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-389309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-artrenia-harris","tag-ashby-bart","tag-berkeley-flea-market","tag-kristen-spencer","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}