Saturday, May 23, 2009

The gorgeous greenflea - greenflea market review

I 'm such a lucky girl. I get to live in New York City AND have a charming flea market two blocks away from me. I can get a flea market fix every Sunday - by walking two blocks to the Greenflea - conveniently located in the Upper West Side on Colombus Avenue and 76th street.
It is now part of me and my boyfriend's laundry routine - we drop the clothes at the laundromat and stroll up to the flea market for a quick look. The Greenflea however, is well worth leaving your clothes to wrinkle in the dryer for - give yourself plenty of time to stroll and soak it all in.

What I love about the greenflea is its size and variety. The market is located in a school and gets very large in the Summer - with tons of stalls in the school playground- and has an indoors as well as an outdoors part.
Near one of the entrances is a large stall with vintage fur coats. Wearing fur is Oh so wrong so I don't tend to hang around there. I walk past the stall that sells only chandelier crystals, all light and sparkle. Opposite the chandelier stall is 'junk man' - with a big bushy moustache and a lovely laid back attitude. He has a table crowded with assorted random things - and if you dig deep - treasures. Oh yes, we've got all manner of things from junk man - and all at super bargain prices.
The Greenflea has several furniture stalls: one selling beautiful chunky wood tables, one selling formica 70s style furniture and a recent beautiful vintage furniture stall - among a few others. The prices are not those of thrift stores and reflect more the Upper West Side crowd the market gets - ie expensive. Humph. In the outdoors market you can also find rugs, handmade clothing, loads of jewellery stalls (new and vintage), crafty things like soaps and decorative pieces, photohgraphs, thrift clothes/shoes/handbags, china, antique lighting, and tons of other stuff.

The Greenflea is also a farmers market - selling local fruit, veg, flowers, eggs, cheese, honey, juices, pastries, etc. Last week one stall had fresh elederflower cordial! There are also great plants stalls for all you greenfingers - sometimes located two blocks up opposite the Natural History Museum.
The indoors market also has lots to see - antique stalls, from stamps to postcards to clothes to everything in between, new designer clothes and collectibles.
What are you waiting for? Drop your laundry and get to the greenflea quick!


For the love of thrift rating (from 1 to 10):
Market location: 10 (loads of other things to see and do around there)
Presentation: 8
Bargain factor (ie pricing): 7
Stall variety: 10
Approx number of stalls: over 50

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for the review! It's great to have dedicated shoppers from the neighborhood. The GreenFlea Market is such a cool place to find the best vintage clothes and antique furniture. Right in the heart of NYC!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm visiting your neighborhood from Berkeley, CA in November and am looking forward to seeing the Greenflea. I take photos of vintage clothes at both flea markets and at vintage & thrift stores, featuring them on my vintage fashion blog - Toni's Vintage Trips. I'm going to be photographing stores in NYC for the blog and would love to include the flea market. Can't wait to see it! Toni

    ReplyDelete
  3. Loved it! Loved it! Brought home to the Bay Area 2 vintage Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. They love California, but so miss NYC and I do 2. Cheers! Toni

    ReplyDelete