Philly Doesn’t Have Any Interest In The Brooklyn Flea, Thanks
Right on the heels of 3rd Ward’s closure—supposedly brought on by its expensive, failed attempt at getting a Philadelphia branch off the ground—comes the news that the Brooklyn Flea’s Philly branch, which just opened up in June, will be heading back from whence it came. The reason, Philadelphia Magazine speculates, is that Philly residents weren’t really that into something with the name “Brooklyn” plastered all over it.
“I refuse to support anything in Philadelphia that has some New York thing in their name,” one commenter said of the flea, which actually seems pretty reasonable, if we put ourselves in their shoes. Of course, the market was set up at what was apparently a particularly hard-to-find location, had little marketing support from the actual venue, and seems to have been selling (and renting out booths)at the kind of prices that only New York’s bonkers market can actually accommodate, all of which likely contributed to its closure more than a nebulous sense of belligerent civic pride. Hard to really quantify.
Still, Philly Mag notes, “those New York transplants that have not boasted their New York roots, such as Shake Shack and Joe Coffee, seem to have had an easier time winning acceptance from Philadelphians.” So, a gentle (or not-so-gentle) reminder: not every city wants or needs to be Brooklyn. Who knew.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.