Flea market/thrift store
Lasse Brundin
there is some distinction between the two, but what?
Cheers!
Lasse of Sweden
Brian Cubbison
<bpn...@tninet.se> wrote:
A flea market is usually a one-day or weekend gathering with many sellers,
usually private individuals. A thrift store is an on-going business that
specializes in second-hand goods.
Brian Cubbison
Syracuse, NY
Evan Kirshenbaum
> What is the difference between a flea market and a thrift store. I
> assume there is some distinction between the two, but what?
In both, the commodities for sale are typically used items, but in a
flea market, many vendors bring and sell their own goods, generally
paying rent for table space to display them, while in a thrift store,
the store itself sells the goods, generally having purchased them from
(or, more often, had them donated by) the former owners. Some thrift
stores are "consignment stores", which means that the store doesn't
pay the owner, but takes a percentage of the sale price if the item is
sold.
Another difference is that thrift stores are generally normal stores,
with walls, roofs, and regular business hours, while flea markets tend
to be outdoor affairs that take place less frequently (often weekly or
monthly).
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |It's not coherent, it's merely
1501 Page Mill Road, Building 1U |focused.
Palo Alto, CA 94304 | Keith Moore
Garry J. Vass
<bpn...@tninet.se> writes
>What is the difference between a flea market and a thrift store. I assume
>there is some distinction between the two, but what?
>
>Lasse of Sweden
>
>
Hello Lasse, thanks for visiting aue!
Your question gets quite pondian in nature, as you said 'store', I would
assume you meant in America. But I'll assume that you meant Britain
anyway.
Using 'Oxfam' as the archetype thrift shop; and 'The St Martin's Flea
Market' as the archetype flea market, let's have a look...
First we observe that the thrift shop has a high street retail license,
and is operated by a proprietor who performs the inventory, stockage,
display, and purchasing functions.
The flea market also has a proprietor whose function is to allocate
space to individual merchant-providers, and to receive a fee from them
for this space. The inventory, stockage, display, and purchasing
functions are performed by the individual merchant-providers rather than
the proprietor.
The thrift shop will carry goods of mainstream utility, clothes, linen,
CDs and records; whereas the flea market will have some of that, but
also 'specialist merchant-providers' who deal in single (sometimes
arcane) wares, such as Victorian era lockets.
I hope this helps.
Kind regards,
--
Garry J. Vass
Graybags
but
>also 'specialist merchant-providers' who deal in single (sometimes
>arcane) wares, such as Victorian era lockets.
>
>Garry J. Vass
Initially, I misread your penultimate word, and now find myself wondering if
there'd be a market for "ear lockets", Victorian or otherwise.
Graybags
N.Mitchum
------
> What is the difference between a flea market and a thrift store.
To me a flea market is a collection of second-hand merchants
collected in one area, each having a rather makeshift shop (an
open tent, a table, a board counter). They are all independent of
one another. The area may be permanently devoted to the flea
market, like that in Paris, but there is still a sense of
transitoriness in its lanes.
A thrift store is a single shop in permanent premises, under one
management, selling pretty much the same sort of goods as a flea
market -- or perhaps slightly better, cleaner, more respectable
goods.
----NM
Gary G. Taylor
wrote:
>Initially, I misread your penultimate word, and now find myself wondering if
>there'd be a market for "ear lockets", Victorian or otherwise.
You've never heard of an ear locket? Forsooth! It's what you keep your
ear wig in.
--
Gary G. Taylor 29 Palms, CA
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Freedom is the best revenge.
Frances Kemmish
I think most "thrift stores" that I have seen are run by charities
as fund-raising operations - at least in this area. There are a
number of stores locally that sell second-hand clothes, but are
commercial enterprises, but they tend to be called "consignment
shops", or have terribly twee names, like "Second Edition". Their
prices tend to be higher than the charity shops too.
I don't think (again just in my part of Connecticut) that "flea
markets" are run as fund-raisers. Of course, in Fairfield County, we
don't have fleas, anyway.
Fran
Richard Fontana
>What is the difference between a flea market and a thrift store. I assume
>there is some distinction between the two, but what?
I would use "thrift shop" rather than "thrift store", even though,
as an American, I think of a thrift shop as a store rather than as
a shop. MWCD10 has an entry for "thrift shop" but not for
"thrift store". Altameter suggests that "thrift store" may be slightly
more common. Perhaps there is regional variation.
A thrift shop is a store -- an enclosed commerical space, offering
things for sale, operated in centralized fashion like any other store.
Thrift shops sell secondhand (used) things, nearly always clothing
but often other things like furniture and books also, at relatively
inexpensive prices. Most often they are run by a charitable
organization (such as Goodwill) or a religious institution.
Many of them were at least historically designed to raise money for
the poor and perhaps to provide inexpensive clothing, etc. for
persons of limited means. When you see something you want to buy,
you take it to the cashier, as in any other retail establishment.
Thrift shops should be distinguished from antique clothing stores.
These were especially popular in New York when I was a teenager in the
1980s. Here the secondhand clothing items are marked way up in price.
I suspect that these places aren't as popular as they used to be,
because many of the best-established ones seem to have disappeared
sometime in the 1990s.
Flea markets are held in large spaces, often open to the air or
else inside large public spaces. At a flea market there will be
many individual merchants, each given a certain space in which
to sell particular goods. These goods will often be secondhand
items, antiques, etc. Sometimes you have to pay a fee to gain
entry to the flea market. You go around from merchant to merchant.
When you see something you want to buy, you pay that particular
merchant. Flea markets are usually held occasionally rather than
daily, while thrift shops are generally open for business
regularly.
RF
Stephen Toogood
<Ga...@gvass.demon.co.uk> writes
>>there is some distinction between the two, but what?
>>
>>Lasse of Sweden
>>
>>
>Hello Lasse, thanks for visiting aue!
>
>Your question gets quite pondian in nature, as you said 'store', I would
>assume you meant in America. But I'll assume that you meant Britain
>anyway.
>
>Using 'Oxfam' as the archetype thrift shop; and 'The St Martin's Flea
>Market' as the archetype flea market, let's have a look...
>
>First we observe that the thrift shop has a high street retail license,
>and is operated by a proprietor who performs the inventory, stockage,
>display, and purchasing functions.
>
>The flea market also has a proprietor whose function is to allocate
>space to individual merchant-providers, and to receive a fee from them
>for this space. The inventory, stockage, display, and purchasing
>functions are performed by the individual merchant-providers rather than
>the proprietor.
>
>The thrift shop will carry goods of mainstream utility, clothes, linen,
>also 'specialist merchant-providers' who deal in single (sometimes
>arcane) wares, such as Victorian era lockets.
>
have you come across it? You describe most nearly what I know as a
'charity shop', but there are differences. Would you say, for example
that an Oxfam shop has 'a proprietor who performs the inventory,
stockage (whatever that may mean in English Usage) display and
purchasing functions'?
I don't want to appear huffy, but it all seems so un-British to me. Flea
markets we have of course.
But there is also the 'nearly new shop'. Is this solely a British thing?
I imagine it being covered by Thrift Shop in Leftpondia. The difference
is that a charity shop is run by volunteers, occupies at a low rent
premises that would otherwise remain unlet, and donates nearly all its
revenue to the charity in whose name it operates, while the 'nearly new
shop' is a commercial venture.
--
Stephen Toogood. "The small, frenziedly eager, hyperactive, lonely,
fuzzball, brown, cocker spaniel, thumping his tail on the parquet floor
and dripping saliva from the corners of his mouth, with tongue lolling --
Lieblich -- has screwed the pooch again." D. Spencer Hines.
Ray Heindl
<DGdMAIAm...@stenches.demon.co.uk>:
>But Garry, I have never heard the term 'thrift shop' in the UK.
>Where have you come across it? You describe most nearly what I know
>as a 'charity shop', but there are differences. Would you say, for
>example that an Oxfam shop has 'a proprietor who performs the
>inventory, stockage (whatever that may mean in English Usage)
>display and purchasing functions'?
>
>I don't want to appear huffy, but it all seems so un-British to me.
>Flea markets we have of course.
>
>But there is also the 'nearly new shop'. Is this solely a British
>thing? I imagine it being covered by Thrift Shop in Leftpondia. The
>difference is that a charity shop is run by volunteers, occupies at
>a low rent premises that would otherwise remain unlet, and donates
>nearly all its revenue to the charity in whose name it operates,
>while the 'nearly new shop' is a commercial venture.
If I understand your meaning of "nearly new shop", I (in the US) would
call that a "second-hand store", meaning a store that sells previously-
owned items for profit.
--
Ray Heindl
Stan Brown
>What is the difference between a flea market and a thrift store. I assume
>there is some distinction between the two, but what?
A thrift store is a regular business establishment, at a fixed
address that is always used for that purpose. It buys and sells
used items. Sometimes it buys items outright and sells them like
any other store; other times it holds them for the actual owner
and *if* they are sold pays the owner a portion of the proceeds.
This latter practice is called "selling on consignment", and some
thrift stores that sell only on consignment call themselves
consignment shops.
A flea market is a collection of casual vendors, who are usually
selling their own stuff and usually do it once or a few times a
year at most. Flea markets tend to use temporary quarters (such
as a county fairgrounds or an open field). The operator of the
flea market rents the space, and then makes a profit by charging
a fee to the vendors and possibly by selling food and drink.
--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
http://www.mindspring.com/~brahms/
alt.usage.English intro and FAQs: http://go.to/aue
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more FAQs: http://www.mindspring.com/~brahms/faqget.htm
Garry J. Vass
<ste...@stenches.nospam.demon.co.uk> writes
>>
>But Garry, I have never heard the term 'thrift shop' in the UK. Where
>have you come across it? You describe most nearly what I know as a
>'charity shop', but there are differences. Would you say, for example
>that an Oxfam shop has 'a proprietor who performs the inventory,
>stockage (whatever that may mean in English Usage) display and
>purchasing functions'?
>
Oxfam definitely has a proprietor who engages in these activities.
Without such, they could not engage in retail activities on the high
street. Because they are volunteers doesn't obviate the need for a
license, insurance, accountancy, and fiscal reporting. Plus the shop
manager, who does all the inventory and etc... That's a proprietor of a
legally incorporated business entity.
That person is also registered with the police, along with all the other
proprietors on the high street, in case they want to get in touch with
them (fire, health hazard, and what not).
>I don't want to appear huffy, but it all seems so un-British to me. Flea
>markets we have of course.
>
Did you check prior to feeling un-British? I looked at...
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shops/index.html
The annual reports and so forth can be reviewed by backing up the
hierarchy. As to 'thrift shop' versus 'charity shop'?
--
Garry J. Vass
Mike Page
<Ga...@gvass.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>Oxfam definitely has a proprietor who engages in these activities.
>Without such, they could not engage in retail activities on the high
>street. Because they are volunteers doesn't obviate the need for a
>license,
Don't think you need a licence to trade.
> insurance, accountancy, and fiscal reporting.
Fiscal reporting not required of proprietorships.
> Plus the shop
>manager, who does all the inventory and etc... That's a proprietor of a
>legally incorporated business entity.
Business entities don't need to be legally incorporated. Most
aren't, even in Britain which has more companies per head of the
population than anywhere else. Accountants use the word
'proprietorships' to describe businesses which are *not*
incorporated (or run by charities).
I wouldn't use 'proprietor' for an organisation like Oxfam. To
me, a 'proprietor' is the human owner of a small business trading
for profit, usually applied to a sole trader but could be a
partnership - definitely not applicable to a company or a charity
which are distinct kinds of entity.
I guess you could just about use the word 'proprietor' to
describe 'What's his face' who runs Harrods, even though it is a
sizable company, but only because of his high personal profile
and the fact that it is a single shop. There would be an element
of English snobbery in so-doing since it would emphasise that the
man is in trade and not out of the top drawer.
Mike Page
Let the ape escape for e-mail
Noah Claypole
news:DGdMAIAm...@stenches.demon.co.uk...
> have you come across it? You describe most nearly what I know as a
> 'charity shop', but there are differences. Would you say, for example
> that an Oxfam shop has 'a proprietor who performs the inventory,
> stockage (whatever that may mean in English Usage) display and
> purchasing functions'?
>