by Al Porotesano

Every Thursday of the week, A block of L Street at the intersection of Avalon and L Street is closed for the Wilmington Farmers Market. On Sundays, The Wilmington Swap Meet is held weekly at the Los Angeles Harbor Community College parking lots. They’re both good deals for an unemployed penny pincing survivor like myself and the closest to good organic foods without going to some yuppie establishment like Whole Foods or Bristol Farms.

The Wilmington Farmers Market

I like the Wilmington Farmers Market. I can get four nicely-firmed and ripe avocados for $5 while nibbling on free samples of variations of Oranges and Grapefruits. Food booths can be a bit inconsistent. The Papusas and tamales booth is a mainstay of the market, but the bbq booth or the hawaiian food booth is sometimes there. It’s not that crowded except at the start of Lunch time for most workers between 11am to 1pm.

The Wilmington Swap Meet

Anthony Bourdain proposed a Cyberpunk-themed Farmer’s Market in New York City based on the movie Blade Runner and it’s underground market. It’s comprable to describe that atmosphere of the Wilmington Swap Meet. The convergence of chaos, economics, and fantasy. It’s where details matter and having streetsmarts of the market is a competitive advantage if you can haggle the price of 40 pounds of legos at a starting bid of $50.

The Wilmington Swap Meet opens every Sunday (except Holidays on a Sunday, like Easter or Christmas). Admission is Free. Parking is free by the football field and it’s competitive for open spots as parking fills up fast. There’s a paid parking lot at the park across the swap meet.

Caveat Emptor

Some vendors sell groceries well beyond their expiration date. There’s a booth selling 3 candy bars for one dollar. That’s typically too good to be true. I bought two snickers bars and it was blooming after I opened both of them. They didn’t melt in 85 degree heat nor feel squishy from the outside. I had horror experiences eating expired candies and You’d best not experience them by watching out for perishables sold beyond their expiration date.

Speaking spanish is an another advantage here. My spanish doesn’t have an identifiable accent. It’s more spanglishbonics without using Rosetta Stone. That advantage added to my repertoire can get me to haggle for prices with vendors. I managed to buy one Large Haas Avocados each for a dollar with a vendor whose english is very limited. This also helps build up spanish speaking and socializing skills.

Be suspicuous and vigilant about buying things that may be stolen. If a vendor is selling a carbon-framed road bike well below $500, then that’s too good to be true. If that bike is in the stolen bike database, you could give it back and take plea bargains with the police or you can ride as fast and far as you can. You may get caught if a GPS chip was embedded in the stems of those handle bars, but that police chase may be a fun chance of a lifetime event (unless you’re caught).

Always Be Closing

Here at the LAHCC wilmington swap meet, I find vendors selling heavy trash bags of legos per pound. “What’s the big deal about that?”. If you used your price haggling skills to negotiate a price, You can sell those lego parts at bricklink.com. I’ve found some rare lego blocks and sets on those trash bags sold for $200. If you negotiate a deal to buy a 40 pound bag of legos for $80 and sell a fraction of those blocks at $200 with leftovers to collect and sell, I’d say that’s a good margin.

Automobile parts, medical equipment, and electronics are almost half the price less than the stores they’re sold at. I found the price of a walker for $50, lawnmower gears at $5, automobile headlamps for old cars at $10, and SATA hard drives at $10. Sure, I could get them on amazon or ebay’s network of buyers, but at the wilmington swap meet, I know what i’m buying is price negotiable.

That’s a sour taste in my mouth

There’s this food booth at the corner of one market lot selling quesadlillas, tortas, and bacon-wrapped hot dogs. I wouldn’t eat the quesadillas with Al Pastor. They make decent bacon-wrapped dogs, but the quesadillas with Al Pastor was terribly greasy. I ate more grease than the cheese there. If the grease concerns you, there’s a food truck that makes decent quesadillas next to the booth.

There’s this Wilmington Hotel hosting registered sex offenders and i’m sure they’re at the swap meet. I saw one guy feeling up a mannequin wearing laced panties between the crotch in front of kids and disgusted mothers. That’s really gross and the guy looked scummy enough to do that in broad daylight.

They sold What!?

There was a booth selling surveillance kits. That’s kinda odd at a swap meet, but it attracted buyers. I browse under the tent to find they’re selling mini-cameras disguised as teddy bears and tiny microphones.

There’s a vendor selling Cakes and taking orders for all kinds of occasions. Wedding Cakes and Quincenera cakes look like they’re the big sellers here.

There was this booth selling sham-wow and car paint. A salesman demonstrates how his bottle of paint covers car scratches over the hood of a shiny Toyota Supra. It’s like seeing Billy Mays without the screaming with the persuasion of the Most Interesting Dos Equis guy in the world. It’s a sideshow to see good sales pitches being done.

You can buy Furniture there. The booth next to it, you can buy a foreclosed house listing homes in Wilmington, San Pedro, and Harbor City. It’s fitting those two booths can compliment each other.

Shopping here is a chance of a lifetime

I prefer the Wilmington Farmer’s Market on a Thursday over the Carson Farmer’s Market. What wilmington lacks in Food booths completely makes up for it in Fruits and Vegetables. It’s conversely true for the Carson Farmer’s Market where they make up for that in Food booths. When the Carson Farmer’s Market moved to California State University, Dominguez Hills from the South Bay Pavillion (It’s Carson Mall to me), the number of grocer booths diminished to make room for food booths. Plus there’s one or two food trucks at the Wilmington Market to enjoy a $5 lunch.

Travel westbound on L Street toward the LA Harbor Community College on a sunday is the Wilmington swap meet. Just go there. It’s a new experience you’ll never find in gentrified neighborhoods of Los Angeles, and it’s a reminiscience of the old secret economies us old schoolers of Wilmington, Harbor City, and Carson still hold on to that made this town great.

  • Al Porotesano