Note: I am making this review as a vendor.
First step... rent a booth.
I walk into the market office and I'm greeted by a cantankerous, antipathetic woman named Margaret who looks me up and down with a scowl and waits for me to speak.
I ask for a booth, and in a huff, she says booths cost extra when rented "day of". I ask how much it will cost to rent an inside booth and the price is 300% of my budget, $360 dollars for Saturday booth space.
I grudgingly pay the woman and take my receipt. She then goes to fetch the booth manager who will show me where to set up my wares.
Second step.... setup.
As the booth manager leads me to my booth, I almost gag when nearing it. I ask him if something died here and he confirms it was a possum that was killed by maintenance staff the day prior. Great.
I ask the manager if I can relocate to a less dead-possumy booth and he flatly refuses saying this is what he's got, take it or leave it. I plug my nose and begin to unpack.
After I open up my third box and begin to lay my goods out on the table I hear a buzzing and, abruptly, am bombarded by a swarm of flying insects. Flies, mosquitoes, gnats, many kinds. Some are searching for the dead possum that left the terrible stench now emanating from my booth, but most buzz around me, pricking me and generally making my day that much worse.
I finally finish unpacking and purchase a few cans of febreeze from a nearby vendor with which I promptly spray every inch of my booth, hoping to mask the dead possum smell, - if only for a moment.
Third step... selling.
Thankfully there were people willing to buy my discounted retro video games that day. I made about 200 transactions with an average of 5$ per transaction. Not a bad haul. The crowd was your normal flea market fare. Good people, low income, very interested in try before you buy.
Overall, this was the most pleasant part of my experience at this flea market.
Final step... getting out.
After 8 hours of having to constantly spray my booth to hide the smell of a non-present dead possum, I decided it was time to end my day at this flea market and head home.
I begin to pack up and get myself out of this morbid booth. A few minutes in, the booth manager informs me I owe him 360$ for the booth rental, which I already paid at the beginning of the day. I reached into my pocket with my receipt, showed it to the manager, and told him, plainly, I already paid my rental fee to Margaret in the market office this morning.
He disputed my claim, and we argued for a good 30 minutes before I threw my hands up in disgust and marched over to the market to verify my rental purchase to this manager.
I take out my receipt again and, in front of the booth manager, ask Margaret to verify the authenticity of my receipt. She says she has never seen me before and informs me she will notify the authorities if I do not promptly pay the rental fee (again).
I refuse them and head back to my booth to wait for the police to arrive and help settle this dispute. It's been around 2 hours before the cops finally arrive. Another 30 minutes pass as they try to deliberate between the two managers and myself. Eventually I am found to be in the right because they verify the signature on my receipt matches the signature on the receipt of my neighbor vendor.
After all of this, the police head out and after they do, both managers mutter obscenities toward me as I finish packing up my things and head out myself.
12 long hours later I arrive home, a little bit richer but a lotta bit drained.
Overall... Keller's Flea Market has a great crowd to sell to, but the management likes to double dip. Beware of this in case they try to deny your...
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