A short way from Texas A&M University-San Antonio sits the sprawling grounds of Mission Open Air Market, which welcomes students from A&M-San Antonio, locals and travelers alike. 

Colloquially, the market is known as “The King of Bargains” flea market because of the large wooden cutout of its owner, Joel Dauley, dressed as a king and brandishing a sign that reads “King of Bargains.” 

“I’m the original owner with my dad and my brother. I’ve actually been here almost three, four generations,” Dauley said.

Mission Open Air Market began its life as the Mission Drive-In in 1973, started by Dauley’s father, who owned a chain of swap meets in California. 

The market was moved to its current location in 1985. 

“We opened on Jan. 13, 1985, in 17 inches of snow. It was cold as hell,” Dauley said. “Back then, we had 35 vendors, probably about 200 to 300 buyers.”

Mission Open Air Market originally started with three acres of land at its Southside location. Currently, the market sits on 60 acres and gets 30,000 shoppers a week with over 1,800 vendors a week.

“There’s no alcohol, no music, just strictly buy and sell. This is what people come here for. This is a necessity for the Southside. They come out, they do their shopping there,” Dauley said. “We call it the pride of the Southside.”

Dauley said many locals shop at the market for their produce, opposed to big-box stores, and have been doing so for generations.

Mission Open Air Market operates a fire truck and bus that travel around the Southside to both provide transportation to the market and to advertise the market.

“We’re taking our fire trucks and these other trucks, and we’re going to start hitting these new neighborhoods out by the college (A&M-San Antonio). There’s a lot of new apartments out there, so we’ll start hitting hard,” Dauley said. “Our growth is up. We’re growing every year because of the city itself.”

Mission Open Air Market is open 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 207 W. Chavaneaux Road off the Moursund exit off Interstate 410. Parking is free, and as they boast on their website, so too are shopping carts.