@562flea in Whittier held a special Halloween event on Saturday selling some of social media’s most popular trends at an affordable price point. This event was the second @562flea flea market, reaching about 200 to 400 customers.
Guests were invited to shop in their Halloween costumes for this special themed event. Many vendors and customers of the flea market participated in dressing up, and most vendors offered giveaways, candy or other treats to their customers. Several guests also dressed their dogs up in costumes since @562flea is pet-friendly; some vendors even had out water bowls out for pets as well.
Vendors sold items from a wide range of categories, including food, masks, toys, art, furniture, jewelry and plants. What especially drew the large crowd were the cheap brand name goods and Y2K-themed items.
“Y2K” refers to the clothing and aesthetic trends from the late ’90s and the year 2000. These old trends have resurfaced amongst the younger generations on social media, especially TikTok. Some of the items that have made a comeback are chunky chains, rhinestone crop tops and colorful pleated skirts.
Besides the popular vintage clothing, many unique items were sold by vendors, such as resin art pieces, handmade accessories from Mexico and crystals.
Most of the vendors were small businesses from Los Angeles County who base their market online through social media, websites and apps such as Etsy and Depop.
Event organizer Andres Vega runs his small business through Instagram and Depop, selling vintage clothing and accessories. He is a Whittier local and was also one of the participating vendors at @562flea.
@562flea was created about a year and a half ago when Vega decided he was tired of going to other flea markets and realized he could hold his own event in his hometown while also supporting friends and family. He explained his idea to his friend Ricardo Magana who is also in the vintage clothing business. Magana built confidence in Vega to pursue the idea, but the event debut was delayed due to COVID-19.
Through online social networking, Vega was able to secure trusted businesses for the flea event, which then gave confidence to other potential vendors to participate.
“I’ve had a little bit of Instagram promotion that I paid for, but not much. What I think helped too is some of the vendors are popular and also getting social influencers to help promote,” said Vega.
@562flea had its very first event last month in September. Vega is currently the only organizer of the event, doing all the promotion solely on Instagram.
“I think it’s crazy. I didn’t expect the turnout for the first event, and even the second event—it being a night event—I didn’t expect it to do as well as it did, and it’s all because of social media,” he said. “I’ve never been in particular, like, anything amazing in my profiles personally, but I don’t know, it’s kind-of clicking right now.”
@562flea had over 150 vendor applications for this past event but were only able to accommodate 30 to 31 businesses on the property. @562flea is continuously accepting vendor applications for future events.
The @562flea October flea market was a special evening edition for Halloween, but future events are expected to be held at least once a month, during the day on Sundays, much like other flea markets.
The event was held completely outdoors, and guests were required to wear masks. Although there were no strict enforcements, many were respectful of the social distancing guidelines. There were also hand sanitizers provided by several vendors.
@562flea takes place in the parking lot of Margarita’s Fashions in Whitter, located at 16346 Whittier Blvd in Whittier.
For more information and updates on upcoming events, follow their Instagram @562flea.