Traders Village Houston — Local services in Jersey Village

Let me start by saying that all you have to do is just read through the bad reviews, and you will realize that with that many bad reviews, the problem is clearly the flea market and not the customers. Believe the bad reviews, every last one of them. I visited Traders Village over the weekend and brought along my TRADERS VILLAGE "souvenir cup" from home for drink refills as they had advertised when I originally purchased the cup, only to be told they couldn't refill it because they now have purple cups. Wait. What? You sell different colored cups now? How convenient 🙄... for management/business. But inconvenient for the paying customer. I explained to the girl at the food booth that when I purchased my red souvenir cup, NO WHERE DID IT STATE that the cup or color would expire or that it would only be valid for a certain period of time. It wasn't and still isn't posted ANYWHERE on the window of the food booth that your "supposedly" refill cup will one day no longer be valid due to management of Traders Village conveniently changing the color of their souvenir cups. The girl at the booth told me I could complain at the office, which I did. The gentleman working in the office was polite and understood my frustration. He said it was their policy to change the cup colors. I told him that's fine. I understand. It's their establishment, and they are entitled to have their own policies. BUT POST YOUR POLICIES AND MAKE THEM KNOWN TO CUSTOMERS. I told him it was VERY MISLEADING. They advertise buying a souvenir cup and getting refills. Yet, NO WHERE DOES IT SAY THEY WILL EVENTUALLY CHANGE THE CUP COLOR. He agreed with me that it was, in fact, misleading. However, he said I would need to speak to the person in charge of food services. I said sure that's fine, I'll wait. Quincy then shows up, and everything that came out of that man's mouth was lies, deceit, greed, and scam. He tried telling me it had been 5 years since they've had the red cup. LIES. I corrected him, saying no, it hasn't been 5 years. He then quickly retracted his statement, saying, ok not 5 years. He went on to say that yes their policy on the souvenir cup is posted. I asked him where???? Because I just came from that booth and NO WHERE IS IT POSTED. He said it's posted on the side of the new purple cups. Wow, imagine that. So I said you mean to tell me customers STILL WON'T KNOW YOUR REFILL policy UNTIL THEY'VE PURCHASED the cup 🤦‍♀️. Can you say SCAM. I told him at this point I don't even want the refill. I just wanted to formally give my complaint in person to the proper person in charge. I will say this, when you catch people in their lies and B.S., they don't even know what to say. It is clear they are scamming people and cheating paying customers with their souvenir cups. Quincy was not a pleasure. He had no intention of doing what's right. What a greedy man. Please DO NOT PURCHASE THE TRADERS VILLAGE SOUVENIR CUPS. You're better off buying a drink from a vendor. I left my red souvenir cup on his counter and told his employees, "Bless y'alls hearts for having to work with such a deceitful man." I hope they change their scamming ways and actually post in on the window of the booth for customers to see.

Aside from their scam with the cups, their parking price has gone up yet again. It is now $6. Not really worth it. Nothing really great about this place. Vehicles constantly getting stolen. Food is terrible and overpriced for the quality. Vendors used to be better; artisan items, unique handmade crafts, woodwork, etc. Now all it is is cheap dollar store quality items. Every vendor on every aisle seems to sell the same repeated items. The only reason we occasionally come is because of a jeweler. We happen to like his work and have purchased from him several times. I think we will just ask him if he has a storefront elsewhere during the week or some other way of doing business with him that does not involve having to go to...

I always enjoy my visits to Trader's Village when I have the opportunity to go. Some things to be aware of if it's your first visit -

Be prepared for a lot of walking, and lots of heat during the summer. Take advantage of the shade provided by the covered shops and hydrate well, and bring an umbrella or large hat if you have one. Lots of shops were closed today, 06/25/23, most likely due to the hot weather. Still, a fun place to visit and browse all of the different shops. Lots of variety to choose from. Bring a wagon, cart, or bags/backpack unless you want to carry your purchases around as you walk through the many different shops and aisles, which can become burdensome.

Most of the shopkeepers there are great, but there are a few there that act like you are wasting their time by inconveniencing them by visiting their shops. Some will follow you around watching every move you make, which is annoying but understandable in the present times that we live in. Still, it's not a good way to make money when you have a customer with a pocket full of cash to spend, but you're making them feel unwelcome and unappreciated in your business. I left with a much lighter pocketbook and a variety of merchandise thanks to the courtesy and friendliness of the shopkeepers who actually appreciated and made time for their customer.

Parking is $5 per vehicle, while entry to the actual market itself is free, so I can't in all honesty say that it is "free" to visit, unless you don't bring your own vehicle or walk in. The admission is basically $5 per carload of people.

As an afterthought, it would have been nice to have a spray mist area to cool off in while visiting. Other than that, I still enjoyed...

I’ve never came here willingly, rather only to spend time with people who like to walk around. Out of the many years of coming, I’ve only ever bought maybe three things. Almost all items here are hilariously priced- literally vendors will try to sell VHS tapes for $7 when they should cost a quarter each because they’re obsolete. Lots of stolen stuff, knock offs, horribly-used-yet-still-expensive garbage, pushy people, etc. Fast forward to my FIL’s recent visit, he tried to do a nice thing and pick up some Pokemon cards for my boyfriend and myself. He said he picked up a bunch of packs for $20 which sounded odd to us considering prices are VERY high for packs. Sure enough we pick them up and they’re the worst fakes we’ve ever seen- from the “addiyional” on the front to the pathetic attempt at a description on the back that seemingly came straight from a first grader, it was obvious he got ripped off. We opened a pack and of course it contained a bunch of fake cards with horrible blue backings and weird cut lines. These came from some older woman, or rather scammer, so I wanted to post this to warn potential buyers to stay as FAR away from the Pokemon cards sold here as possible. There was a couple of legit people selling them but I won’t ever buy from anyone here again. I don’t understand why people love Trader’s Village so much… I will always despise everything about it. Just a bunch of horrible prices, fake items, crammed animals in cages waiting in extreme temperatures to be sold, loud obnoxious kids running in every single pathway, people with dogs even though there are signs that say NO DOGS, the list goes on. It’s just a weird place that doesn’t bring me even one...