Hanging downtown college bulletins with flyers picturing the River Flea Market, juniors Mateo Gajewski and Hudson Wild prepare for the weekend’s event. They hope their efforts will draw attention to the tent umbrellas set up abounding vintage treasures. The two bring in vendors that transform the marketspace into a frenzy of early 2000s graphics and denim accommodated with food trucks, music and yard games – resulting in monetary gains for the duo behind the scenes.
This past Saturday, these two students profited off leased space in The River Flea Market at the biweekly festival. The duo invested in real estate near central downtown to host vendors selling vintage products. The first event occurred on Sept. 7, with Oct. 12 marking the pair’s second undertaking of their business model. However, the event itself has been recurring since June 3.
According to Gajewski, he originally came up with this idea after being inspired by his first encounter with the River Flea Market.
“I went to the first ever River Market Flea Market, and that was the first time I was introduced to vintage clothing,” Gajewski said. “From then on, I’ve always wanted to actually sell at a marketplace, but the fees have never made sense to me: so I decided to just own one myself.”
The process of acquiring real estate, sale sources and marketing consumes about 15 hours a week of the boys’ time. Factors for business success take up chunks of this time, from promoting with flyers or social media to communications.
“I probably put in at least 10 hours a week, usually due to people that I message and then getting the clothes from different locations and other supplies,” Wild said. “Then I source from estate, garage and thrift sales. The promotion work takes a long time too, but now that we have it set up, it’s not as bad. For content, it’s another five hours every week to get things out there and grow our following,”
To purchase the space rented to vendors, Gajewski and Wild first considered real estate options based on location. They knew they wanted a ten by ten-foot space downtown, but affordability prevented some of their selections. Finally, they agreed upon a complex lease price and started recruiting vendors to occupy the space.
One struggle they have faced within this business structure is ensuring that their outreach gains enough attention to reach profit.
“Getting people to show up is the biggest factor because we don’t want to rent out the spot and get a ton of vendors out there to sell, and then they don’t get any sales,” Wild said. “The vendors promote the market, and that’s how they get buyers. So if we don’t promote and they don’t make money, neither do we.”
Vendors pay a $75 spot rental fee, and there are anywhere from 12-16 vendors per event, resulting in about $2000 split between each person per event.
The duo currently participates in one event per month but hopes to eventually bump up their business to hosting every biweekly flea market festival. Gajewski roots his ambitions back to figures in this industry that he finds inspirational, such as his father.
“Everyone from the reseller community and owner of the River City Market are super supportive of each other, and I have been familiar with jobs like this for a while: but one reason I started this project was because of my dad,” Gajewski said. “I’m just really inspired by my dad, mostly because I see how he does well in sales, and so I give him credit for a lot of this.”
To prepare for each event, tasks include mapping out what segments each vendor receives out of the building and how many people can fit into each area. The duo explained that they strive to maximize profits by taking advantage of all the space possible. After finding that the first event was too squished with 16 vendors, they decided next time to host one less – which they found to be the perfect size.
Gajewski and Wild recommend getting involved in fields that people find pique their interest and then transforming that passion into a career.
“If someone is trying to get into marketing like we did, I feel like the best way to start is to find something that makes them happy,” Gajewski said. “In the new wave of fashion, I think that this (specific) marketplace is a great place for people to shop and try out new styles. Everyone should come check it out, especially since I think the vintage style is definitely coming back.”
