First Monday Trade Days — Attraction in Canton

This vast monthly gathering fills sheds and covers multiple hillsides with curated collections, fascinating antiques, merch that you suspect might be hot, items that put the miss in miscellaneous, and everything in between.

You can land a parking space for $5/car on three sides of the main collection of vendors who mostly come in one of several categories: the "old guard" who are there in their prime locations for decades; the design-savvy retailers who know how the display their offerings for maximum effect, often in stand-alone structures; other more permanent sellers who occupy "lock and leave" areas behind coiling grills; vendors who have leased space under cover and set up before each monthly gathering and then pack up everything didn't sell less than a week later; vendors in the field and on the hillside who in some cases erect a canopy and set up some folding tables laden with a world of whatnots; and some folks that just hope to sell something off a trailer or back of their pickup truck.

There are many food options which tend to be pretty competitively priced. The variety is wide (catfish, chicken spaghetti, nachos, hamburgers, turkey legs, tacos, hot dogs, pizza, gumbo, bbq, etc.) and is supplemented by many snack and drink options.

To cover the grounds with less strain, many chose to rent electric scooters ($8/ he or $35/ day). Well- behaved dogs on leash were in attendance.

Vendors we spoke to reported that crowds grow in Spring (March and April), shrink in Summer heat, then pick up in the Fall with -- no surprise -- largest gatherings in the months leading up to Christmas.

This event traces it's history back to 1850 and is a local event that has become an institution worthy of...

This is my first experience in what I would call a regional flea market. We were told that once a month this market is open and it's equivalent to the type of market you experience in a festival in Houston, but a little larger. Having lived in Houston for many years I have seen festival market areas be of all sorts of sizes so I was not sure what to expect. Well now that we have been I'm not sure a festival market in Houston quite compares to what we found here. Perhaps closer to it is Traders Village, in terms of size, but the Houston Rodeo shops in terms of atmosphere. We happened to visit Easter weekend, and the crowd size was impressive. The market is really distributed over a huge area, with many parking lots available for $5, and all of the many parking areas get you close to some of the shopping, but if you can walk s mile or two, you can get to all of them. Different areas (blocks) have different types of shops, but there is certainly a shop for anything you could imagine you could buy. A very large pet and small livestock area (pups, goats, chickens, turkeys, peacocks, etc), outdoor furniture decorations, interior decorations, used stuff, new stuff, just lots and lots of stuff. Bathrooms are really available all around, as is food. For those who are not sure they can walk the several miles this could mean, there are showers scooters available for hourly rental (I think$8), but you may need to get in the waiting list.

If we do make plans to be in the area again, we will certainly reserve more time to explore more shops. We were there about 4hrs and made it through about 1/3 to 1/2 of the...

It's usually crowded and we fully expected that. However, the overwhelming number of healthy individuals driving recklessly around on scooters seemed to be exponentially increased.

I would also probably say that the number of dogs probably tripled since outfit last visit a few months back. Watching said animals indoors urinating on vendor's displays and products was disgusting, especially near the food court in one of the pavilions.

We will be back but will probably avoid the weekend as that seems to be when "anything goes" with regards to pets and motorized vehicles. To us, part of the fun is walking around to see the items for sale. Racing around on the scooters is not conducive to shopping ave really slows the crowd's movement.

I'll add that I almost tripped on a dog yesterday and felt horrible for the animal; the owner had it on a ten foot leash but wasn't watching it as it pulled off into the crowd.

Maybe examine the rules a bit. Commerce is one thing but allowing some of this still cause you to lose business. Trust me, those kids on scooters weren't spending any money on anything except the rental. Not to mention the vendors losing sales from damaged/smelly items.

Having said all that, I bought a lot of cool stuff and ate way too much. Our group of five spent a lot of cash (most places don't take credit cards) and had a lot of fun. The vendors are all really nice and helpful. Keep your eyes open for restrooms so you aren't stressing when...