- Demolition of winter storm-damaged booths at Flea Market Tallahassee is complete.
- Saturday was the reopening day for several booths in aisles that saw major destruction from heavy sleet and snow.
- Watch the video to learn about the impact the storm had on vendors and why the flea market needs the community's help to get back to its former level of traffic and success.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Demolition is complete at Flea Market Tallahassee, three months after sleet and snow sent several aisles to the ground. I'm Kenya Cardonne in the Southwest Tallahassee neighborhood. Now that more aisles are officially open, the flea market is hoping new vendors and customers will help pick things back up financially for the community.
From snow-sunken vendor booths to a fresh start for several aisles and vendors!
Flea Market Tallahassee is making strides in its recovery from January's winter storm, which shut down countless businesses.
After a month-long demolition process, Saturday marked the reopening day for dozens of booths in the B and C Aisles.
Stephanie Pickard, Vendor - "My store got, you know, demolished. So now we're kind of moving back and forth between different tables, and it's kind of building back up, but it was a real decline in our business."
Stephanie Pickard, a vendor displaced by the damage, says her monthly revenue has gone from $300-400 a month to $200-100 a month. Fellow vendor Jay Herring says the damage took his business out for about two months.
Jay Herring, Vendor - "That's the equivalent of about four grand."
Lisset Segura, Vendor - "Financieramente también sí nos afectó. Nos afectó porque realmente el Flea Market Sábado y Domingo para nosotros es un extra muy muy fuerte."
'Financially, it affected us too,' says Lisset Segura, who was also displaced by the damage. She explains that the extra income from the Flea Market on Saturdays and Sundays is a really strong one for her and her family.
But now that demolition is complete, the birds are singing and the sun is shining, the Flea Market is coming back to life.
Management and vendors say they want to squash the rumors and let the community and potential vendors know: they are open and they need you.
Pickard - "I think once they see the cars and a lot more people coming out, our income will go back up, so we're just waiting on that."
Segura - "Los vendedores, los negociantes queremos como motivar a la gente, que visite el Flea Market, no queremos que Flea Market se venga abajo."
'We, the vendors, the business owners, want to motivate people to visit the Flea Market. We don't want the Flea Market to collapse,' says Segura.
Management tells me there are construction ideas in the works for what can be done next here, but for now, the main focus is getting vendor and customer traffic back to the flea market.
In Southwest Tallahassee, Kenya Cardonne ABC 27.
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