Brooklyn Flea’s D.C. Outpost Has Closed
District Flea. Image: Curbed D.C.
Brooklyn Flea may have gone too big, too fast. At least, that’s the news from Washington D.C., where District Flea, the city’s Brooklyn Flea outpost, has gone on hiatus–indefinitely.
According to the Washington Post, Flea organizers sent an email to their 100+ vendors on Tuesday announcing the market’s closing well ahead of its normal hiatus, which was scheduled for October.
The market was relatively new, celebrating its inaugural year in Fall 2013 and featuring many of the goods we see here in Brooklyn (i.e. antiques, furniture, jewelry, etc.), but created by D.C.-based artisans and retailers.
In the letter to the vendors, Flea head, Brooklyn Flea founder, Eric Demby, stated that, “The volume of vendors didn’t support our ambitious business model for a weekly market.” The market’s manager, Hugh McIntosh, also cited diminishing interest in the Flea. Overall, this is the second Brooklyn Flea extension to close, following last year’s shutdown of Brooklyn Flea Philly.
Meanwhile, some dude named Michael Sussman threw some serious shade, telling the Post that the Flea’s founders “didn’t understand the D.C. market because they weren’t from D.C. They were more interested in selling food and beer rather than attracting good quality antiques and collectibles vendors, who were selling actual things that people want to buy and take home.” Ouch.
Our only rebuttal is that you can’t eat antiques, Mr. Sussman.
There’s no word yet on whether the hiatus will eventually become a wholesale shutdown, but Demby said their well-located has “a lot of potential” and could possibly become something else in the future.
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