Every Saturday afternoon, a flea market magically materializes around Planet Fitness’ Far East Square branch. Unlike the more glamorous weekend flea market at Clarke Quay or ad-hoc ones elsewhere, the one here features mainly merchants – many of them senior citizens – who trade in truly vintage wares.
When I was last there, I counted about one dozen stalls selling a wide array of retro goods such as vinyl records, stamps, jewellery, paintings and even old currency. I especially like an old gramophone I found.
As I browsed through their offerings, I couldn’t help but wonder how successful these – let’s call them vintage entrepreneurs – were at selling their wares. Although the things on offer were visually captivating, there scarcely were any passers-by and even fewer people who would be interested in buying such retro stuff.
Some of the questions that flashed through my mind:
Did they consider human traffic, or were they attracted by the free rental?
Do they have a regular supply of goods, or did they merely intend to sell what they had?
Were they concerned if their goods targeted a niche audience, or did they just want to hang out together?
Do they base their prices on the scarcity of their wares, or did they allow passers-by to haggle them down?
Were they concerned about profit, or were they happy with just a couple of transactions in one day?
Did their livelihoods depend on this, or was it to them just a cheap hobby?
Did they look at this as a business or did they just want to pass their time?
I’m not sure if I’d like the answers.
