At Durango’s Indoor Flea Market, the antique toy trucks, angels crafted out of hankies, restored furniture, turquoise jewelry and other eclectic items must go.
After 18 years, the store at 701 E. Second St. is closing on May 31, in part because the rent is going up, owner Wade Zufelt said. It’s also tough on Zufelt, who recently turned 60, to keep the store open seven days a week and full of everything from cheap furniture to oil paintings. He manages most of the space, but he has consigners and six vendors who work on their own spaces.
Linda Stuart from Aztec was perusing the shelves last week when she heard the store she loves is closing.
“This place is just original, it’s not out to make a big deal of profit,” she said.
After a career building custom kitchens and cabinets, Zufelt bought the store six years ago with a loan from Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado.
He thought it would a good business during the recession and he’s seen some success.
“It’s worked, we’ve survived and made a little bit of money,” he said.
The store was a good fit because he started as a kid collecting Hot Wheels cars and baseball cards and he is still a treasure hunter.
La Plata County is a good place to run a second-hand store because you can find items from all over the world at estate and garage sales, he said.
“It’s like panning for gold,” he said.
On occasion, treasures have slipped through his fingers. Once he underpriced a sculpture because he didn’t see the artist’s signature until a customer brought it to the counter to buy it.
Over the years, the flea market attracted a wide client base, including loyal customers who came in weekly, visitors who came up from Albuquerque and crew members from The Hateful Eight film who came looking for saddles, coffee pots and items to help set the 1879 scenes.
“What they wanted was stuff that was old but looked pretty new ... They were pretty picky, but they found a lot of stuff here,” he said.
Zufelt and Lindsay Harmon, his only employee and apprentice, also restore rustic furniture in the store, and quite a bit of it sells before they can finish it.
Once the market closes, they plan to keep working on furniture and selling items on eBay. The two sell items online already if the items don’t sell in the store, and that may be the future of second-hand sales, Zufelt said.
“These places are going to be disappearing I feel, due to eBay and online garage sales,” he said of the flea market.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
