Big Union County flea market to close after 39 years
‘It’s Black Christmas for everybody,’ vendor says
The following article appeared in the November 27, 2023, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an email newsletter with smart and original information for Charlotte. Sign up for free:
Sweet Union Flea Market on U.S. 74, founded in 1984, had become a well-known spot to find goods and food; 600 vendors ‘shocked’
Sweet Union Flea Market — one of the region’s largest flea markets, where hundreds flock to buy and sell goods every Saturday and Sunday — will close Dec. 31 after 39 years of operation.
In a letter to vendors last week, the family that owns the market said it’s closing because of the ages of three of its owners, who are in their 60s and 80s. The market is owned by the Love family and sits along U.S. 74 west of downtown Monroe.
“None of the remaining Owners want to be responsible for the running of the Market. Nor do the grandchildren,” the letter said. A voicemail left for the Love family on Sunday was not returned.
Union County property records show the tax value for the 16-acre parcel the market sits on is $2.8M.
The flea market was started in the spring of 1984 by Vann Love, a Monroe plumber and contractor who also opened the Sweet Union Playhouse at the same location, according to Charlotte Observer archives. A tornado swept through the market in October 1990 and destroyed it, but it was rebuilt in the months that followed.
Former Charlotte Observer food writer Kathleen Purvis wrote in 2007 about the flea market’s changing demographics and Latin American food offerings as a result of the growing Hispanic population who did business there.
Vendor Luis Roberto Maestre started selling ice cream, popsicles and mini doughnuts at the flea market in 2008 under the business name “La Michoacana” and was able to grow the business to expand to a brick-and-mortar popsicle store called Paleteria La Michoacana in Concord in 2015 that still operates today.
Maestre told The Ledger that the 600-some vendors were shocked to get letters from the Love family on Nov. 19 with news that they’d have only weeks left to sell at the flea market. For many families, Sweet Union Flea Market sales are their main source of income, he said.
“Everyone cried. It’s Black Christmas for everybody,” he said.
He said vendors wished they’d have been notified earlier that the family intended to close the market, so they could have pulled together and possibly purchased the business. He said some are reaching out to local government officials to see if there might be another place where the flea market can operate. —Cristina Bolling
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