Cheaper than KMart

When I was a kid, we visited our relatives in Arizona and took a very enlightening trip across the border to do a little shopping, a little looking and a lot of learning about the art of merchandising. For instance, I learned they still drank Coke out of bottles (and you know, it always tastes better that way) and one of the men selling stuff - most likely stacks of scratchy, thick blankets and some papier-mache marionettes - announced that his prices were cheaper than Kmart.

So yesterday, when Lisa & I headed to the flea market at six a.m. with all five tubs of my Stuff in tow, I figured that would be a good mantra for me, too. My theory was that whatever didn't sell was getting donated, so every yen was a bonus. Little did I know how very entertaining it would be! Lisa warned me as I was neatly laying out my cute stacks of sweaters, pants and t-shirts that it was kind of pointless and I think she gave it about thirty seconds. Um, she might have overestimated.

Here's how it looked right before they opened the gates - our pretty piles on the left and the nice Okinawans with their faces pressed up against the chain link fence, like kids waiting in line to see Santa, on the right.

And then Wham! We're off to the races. You think I'm exaggerating? I present exhibit A.

Flea Market Sprint from Stephanie Rock on Vimeo.

My pretty piles, 44 seconds later.

Annnd, all my merchandising seems to have been for naught. It was fast and furious for the first hour and a half - and they haggle, haggle, haggle, but it just made me laugh - then it slowed down and we didn't have a ton left, so Lisa and I turned it into our own 100Y store. That cleared out almost everything else and we left three hours after unpacking, about $400 richer between the two of us. Not a bad morning's work. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled about the found money, but it was a nice benefit to get this purely Okinawan experience.

P.S. As I found myself thinking about the next time I do this, hopefully out of the comfort of my own garage, I realized the metamorphosis of me becoming my mother is a step closer to being complete.