My Trip to the Flea Market Today...

So, the flea market can be an amazing place to grab wonderful deals on all sorts of items. I decided to go to my local market today to check out what they have, and to (more importantly) find info about perhaps renting a table there for a weekend or two and see if anyone would be interested in my items.

I have to say, I was very disappointed. The flea market seemed to be full of very cheap half broken items, and clothing that was either illegally produced (think very cheaply made but too expensive to buy falling apart bags and apparel with LV and other name brands) or overused to the point that Goodwill wouldn't even sell them.

I also wanted to check out the competition, and unfortunately, I don't think I will be selling at the flea market. Not that I don't want to, I really really would love to, but I don't think I can compare to the little stores that seem to mass order products from China and resell them at insanely cheap prices, even if the quality isn't as good as what I would make, it would still be cheaper. And those little stores seem to be a dime a dozen at the huge flea market.

But what I REALLY cringe at is the thought of who is being put to work to make these items, and what are they being paid for it, and what conditions are they working under? It just really bothers me. If a place can sell something for half of what I can get the materials for, I can't even imagine what they actually paid for the product itself and for the shipping. It must have been mere pennies. This is one reason I've made a commitment to buying only American made products. And I'd definitely buy products from other reputable companies too mind you...Canada, the UK, Australia are a few...usually the shipping is a bit high though. And I'd only buy from actual people or small companies. I just can't imagine the deplorable conditions these items must be made in. I know that if something is made in America, chances are that a child wasn't forced to make it. My worst fear is that a child is slaving away somewhere making next to nothing if anything at all, all day every day, just to mass produce products to fatten some stingy jerks wallet that doesn't care who makes what and what the working conditions are.