[The 90’s raw: Eddie Tape #95 – Festival mall Florida]

Eddie Tape #95. Festival mall Florida. Interviews and recording from inside West Palm Beach's "Festival Flea Market", early 1990s.

00:00Copy video clip URL An elderly woman driving along a road in West Palm Beach, Florida listening to WXEL FM radio. They pull into the Festival Flea Market. The woman notes, “it was a regular mall. Now it’s a flea market.” Lots of periodic video and audio signal loss. The woman notes that the structure held a lot of stores, but many were not rented. Many of the stores had high prices. The mall closed. She says that there is a video arcade and a movie theater there in addition to the flea market.

03:18Copy video clip URL Video signal loss. Stop/re-start digitizing. The videographer, Eddie Becker, is with Vicki Alexander, Director of Public Relations for Festival Flea Market, an indoor air conditioned flea market. She notes they have 700 vendors, an 8-screen movie theater, a game room with putt-putt golf. She gives the videographer a tour starting with the food court, a kiosk selling “as-seen-on-TV” items. She goes down an aisle called “Rodeo Drive” because it’s where the upscale merchandise is offered.

06:48Copy video clip URL They stop at the “Barkery” booth, a bakery selling homemade items for pets. Margie, the owner, talks about the items.

09:31Copy video clip URL The tour continues down an aisle. Alexander notes all the aisles are named in alphabetical order. They enter an area that will be the farmers market. They enter a booth selling authentic sports items. John Nutolo, the owner, introduces himself and tells about the sports items he has, some of which are autographed. He shows a football helmet signed by Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants.  It sells for three-hundred and seventy-five dollars. Without a signature this is worth one-hundred and seventy-five dollars. B-roll of kids shopping in the store. Nutolo notes that he played professional baseball for the Chicago Cubs in 1982.

14:00Copy video clip URL The flea market, walking down the aisles. They come upon a golf booth called Video Golf Pro. The owner has set up a video camera and he videotapes customers golf swings and then instructs them on how to improve. The owner is Joel Aptaker, a PGA golf pro. He says that his shop helps people with their golf swing by providing a short, quick analysis. The customer has their swing videotaped and then a proper swing recorded. They can take the tape home, study it, practice, and then return with the tape for additional lessons. Instead of a typical seventy-five dollar lesson, his are fifteen.

19:15Copy video clip URL Shoppers and the extraordinary length of the aisles. They are a quarter of a mile long. Alexander notes that the flea market is promoted as “miles of aisles.”

20:25Copy video clip URL They enter a booth called Lucite with Love where a man is selling therapeutic Chinese balls as well as an assortment of knives and swords from the Orient and the world. B-roll of the man, whose name is Schiffer, demonstrating use of the Chinese balls. He said he got started in this business after his wife attended a merchandise show in New York.

25:05Copy video clip URL The videographer and Alexander stop at Shimmy’s Jewelry, a jewelry vendor. The owner introduces himself as Shimmy. “I left the Thunder Bird to come here.” Another man says a truck is about to bring more gold.

26:37Copy video clip URL John Priestley and his customized news headlines and signs shop. He notes that he can produce signs in 7 or 8 minutes and as big as 4-foot and 8-foot. He says the most unusual signs he’s made are Road signs for children’s rooms and fictional towns.

28:20Copy video clip URL Becker walking through the market and checking out various booths: designer swim wear, book depot, cartoon city comic book paraphernalia, t-shirts and novelties. They pass a nuts and spice shop. A customer says they are down from New Jersey. The tour continues.

31:20Copy video clip URL A vendor shows off his lingerie booth. The tour continues passing by various flea market booths.

32:25Copy video clip URL The videographer stops at a booth where Roberta is selling costume jewelry and blouses for heavy women. Customers wave to the camera and one says she looks for anything that looks real.

34:33Copy video clip URL A booth called About Face selling decorative and theatrical ceramic masks. The owner, Barbara, tells about her shop and that she got into this business through “dumb luck.” She always liked masks and one day went on a search for people who made them. Her market is teens to early 40s. The various masks.

37:13Copy video clip URL The security station. More shots of the market. Alexander says that the market owners can dictate vendor prices.

39:00Copy video clip URL The tour stops at a wedding dress booth. Interview with the vendor who shows off her merchandise. She shows what kind of dress someone on their second or third marriage would buy compared to something someone on their first marriage would purchase.

42:18Copy video clip URL Interview with Shumis, the owner of Sunshine’s, a gift balloon shop owner. She explains how the process works and how small gift items are placed into a balloon. She says that it’s akin to a ship in a bottle and says that it’s “gift wrap for the 90s!”

45:33Copy video clip URL Interview with Dan Shooster, the owner of the flea market. He sits at his desk in the office. He says the vendors in the flea market are people who have had an inkling of retail experience and an entrepreneurial spirit. He says he offers an affordable opportunity at $450 a month rent. The benefits are that you are indoors and have high traffic. Many of the vendors, he notes, have come out of retirement, but that he also has vendors right out of high school. He says that variety led him to naming the market Festival Flea Market. He says that they are now planning to include a farmer’s market.

51:40Copy video clip URL Shooster says that at first finding vendors was formidable. He had to convince people that he wasn’t going to take their deposit and run. He says he moved from Philadelphia with his family to get the business going. Word of mouth has been the most successful form of advertising. He points out that there is 24-hour security on site and that his promotion department plays up on the comfort of indoor servicing.

54:16Copy video clip URL Various ads and an aerial view of the market which is near I-95 and the Florida Turnpike. He explains why this location is prime and that he chose an industrial area because property is cheaper.

58:25Copy video clip URL Shooster tours the market with the videographer and discusses how he changed the former mall into a market space by “bulldozing all the stores and creating long corridors.” He notes that this configuration allows smaller merchants to come in at smaller prices.

01:00:34Copy video clip URL Shooster introduces himself to camera and says the market is on the site of the former Pompano Outlet Mall. It’s now the Festival Flea Market. He gives a sales pitch for the market to entice new customers. He notes the reason the outlet mall didn’t work is because the prices were too high.

01:03:17Copy video clip URL END. The footage ends in mid-sentence.