-- by OPENAIR-MARKET NET
This is the World Wide Guide to Farmers' Markets, Flea Markets, Street Markets, and Street Vendors. It is an all-volunteer research and educational project that aims to gather and provide information about open air marketplaces around the world, both formal and informal. This will aid (1) shoppers and tourists wanting to find out where inexpensive fun, good food, and bargains are all over the globe; (2) scholars, professionals, and planners who are interested in studying marketplace phenomena; and (3) vendors and farmers looking for places to sell or needing assistance. Every open air market related resource on the internet should be accessible from here.
An important function of this page will be to alert the world community about markets and their vendors in jeopardy of being shut down.
It is not necessary that a marketplace be literally out of doors to be covered here. Some markets are housed both outside and indoors; other markets are housed in sheds, tents, and under roofs of various kinds. What is important at this web site is that the marketplace function like an open air market: a location with little infrastructure providing low cost face-to-face buying and selling opportunities for the masses.
A downside of the internet is that it tends to further accentuate the divide between the haves and have nots -- information apartheid. It is hoped that this page works to counter some of that by providing assistance to this low tech sector of the world.
This site was conceived by Steve Balkin and Alfonso Morales with the aid of a board of advisors and the cyber help of Barbara Balkin. Steve is an economics professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago, director of the Self-Employment Research Project, a frequent visitor to open air markets, and an advocate who, with many others, tried but failed to save the old Maxwell Street Market in Chicago. This site is also managed by Alfonso Morales, a professor in the Sociology Department at the U. of Texas at El Paso. He has done extensive field research on markets and, likewise, was an advocate for the old Maxwell Street Market.
Open air marketplaces function as business incubators and survival safety nets for people at the economic bottom, are fun places to shop, and promote sustainable development. They lower the consumers' cost of obtaining goods and services because they are an inexpensive way for people to market their wares in a friendly but competitive business environment. In some areas they are the only source of fresh produce and discount shopping. For vendors, they are a low cost way to start an enterprise, exchange information, build a reputation for trust, and earn income.
Open air markets are on a human scale. It's enjoyable to conduct business face-to-face, purchasing from owner/operators who have direct ties and personal commitments to the products they sell. The atmosphere tends to be more spontaneous than other retail environments. There is the potential for the element of pleasant surprise. They are, in general, safe places because of the mutual surveillance from high customer traffic and the vested interests that vendors have to make them safe.
Because open air markets help small farmers, require little infrastructure, and recycle goods and materials, they promote sustainable development. This contributes to making the world a safer and saner place. Open air markets are an alternative form of retailing in the industrialized world but are the main source of retailing in the less developed areas. It is an arena where the industrialized countries can learn much from the less developed world.
This site is in its infancy. Coverage will expand more to places outside of the U.S. as we get more information. See We need your help. This site is now only in English but will eventually be multi-lingual. A forms questionnaire will be available for people to report to us about marketplaces. Until we get that, please send us information using e-mail.
A Usenet group on this topic (alt.culture.openair-market) has been created where discussions can take place. Important posts will be archived, categorized, and incorporated into OPENAIR-MARKET NET.
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