Giant indoor flea market to open Saturday
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Vicksburg Trade Days Antiques & Collectibles owner Ronnie McDaniel is seen in a mirror of a 1930s walnut vanity with matching dresser.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)
[8/13/03]It was a mobile home assembly area and became a super-sized worm farm. Starting Saturday, it’s to be Mississippi’s largest indoor flea market under one roof.
There are 3.5 acres inside under 30-foot ceilings in the building now called Vicksburg Trade Days off U.S. 61 South at 149 Magnolia Drive. At 10 a.m., owner Ronnie McDaniel hopes to see customers start wandering among vendors from Hazlehurst to Tallulah, selling antiques of all sorts from a life-size suit of armor to a Midwestern dresser dating to the 1880s to Santa Claus-shaped cookie jars.
Across the South, such swap-type venues are staying strong perhaps due to a slower economy.
McDaniel, a former worm farmer who had explored making “worm tea” liquid fertilizer from worm leavings, said that business was “fading off.”
It has taken weeks for him, he said, to get the hundreds of thousands of worms and their containers out of his 170,000-square-foot structure.
“We’ve got room for probably 300 dealers,” McDaniel said, walking along a row that included bedroom suits, golf clubs, pitchfork tips and dining room tables.
After a lot of pressure washing, electrical poles and overhead lights were installed in the section of the building where all of the antiques are waiting for treasure seekers. McDaniel said he will make renovations to other parts of the building over time.
The building, with three 20-feet entrances for pickup and delivery allows people to drive up to their large purchases and haul them out without having to tote them very far.
Jackson resident Gary Anderson, who has rented several booths in the building, specializes in antique furniture from the Midwest dating from the 1880s to the 1950s. He said he is banking on the U.S. 61 South location of the flea market area becoming a flea market mecca.
He said he has been hauling van loads of valuables during the past few weeks, preparing for Saturday’s opening.
Also having flea market booths in other parts of the state, Anderson said he appreciated McDaniel’s selling items on consignment.
“A lot of dealers have jobs n like me,” he said.
McDaniel has grand ideas for the building surrounded by thousands of pounds of landscaping rocks bundled on pallets, ready to line someone’s front yard. In addition to the indoor flea market, he said people are welcome to hold their garage sales outside. Plans are in the works to have automobile auctions scheduled by October. McDaniel also talks about adding antique auctions and a farmer’s market, but he pauses to say it will all come in time.
“I think this will turn into a good thing for Vicksburg,” he said.
About 25 people who dropped in to see the antiques pilling into the building Monday thought so, too, McDaniel said.
Flea markets bring out the sense of adventure in people, wandering and wondering what they will find, he said.
“You could find a bedroom suit, a bicycle for your kid or a recycled worm bin,” he said.