Hundreds of shoppers spent Small Business Saturday at Heritage Square Park for the second annual Phoenix Flea event, which hosted 75 vendors selling food, clothes, jewelry, cosmetics and furniture.
An event with a purpose, the market donated proceeds from ticket sales to the 100 Club of Arizona, an organization that helps families of first responders, such as firefighters and police officers, who are killed in the line of duty.
Lauren Contreras, event coordinator for the 100 Club of Arizona, said the charity survives on sponsorships, community donations and fundraising events like Phoenix Flea.
“Events like this allow us to talk to people and get the word out,” she said.
In addition to a portion of ticket sales, the 100 Club also received donations from the food truck at Saturday’s flea market, Waffle Crush, which gave a portion of its sales to the organization.
The market is meant to build community through supporting small businesses and raising money and awareness for local charities and nonprofits, Phoenix Flea founder and market coordinator Ashlee Molina said.
The flea market donates to other organizations, too, including Phoenix Suns Charities and Crisis Youth Intervention.
“We team up with some other nonprofits and we do online auctions, Instagram auctions, that we donate to as well,” Molina said.
This year’s market had over 20 more vendors than last year and attendance more than doubled last year’s count.
Molina said last year’s promotion tactics involved word-of-mouth convincing people to come and a little help from local media, but this year the community caught on.
“All the downtown community has really embraced this, from Heritage Square to the restaurants locally have been — all the shops have been — so helpful,” she said.
Shopper Morgan Davis came to Heritage Square Park for the flea market for her second Phoenix Flea event. She said Saturday was “incredibly busy” compared to the last market.
Davis said she enjoys Phoenix Flea because it is “compact, and easy to do a lot of shopping quickly.”
One vendor, Madalyn Nault, started out as a shopper like Davis at the first Phoenix Flea, but after her first visit, she brought her own business, Madalyn Nault Accessories, to the flea market. She sold her purses and accessories, which she said are all one-of-a-kind and custom handmade.
Even though she had a following of buyers before, Nault experienced the flea market’s effect on her business.
“I think that it’s just kind of a different crowd, and it’s a big crowd,” Nault said. “It’s just a lot of people that I can show my brand to that I may not have found otherwise.”
Contact the reporter at Nikiana.Medansky@asu.edu
