At Big E’s in Bordentown, the flea market carnival comes indoors
I love flea markets. Always have. When I was a kid, my parents would take me to the Chester flea market up in north Jersey. I still have Strat-O-Matic cards I bought during those trips, and I bet if I look hard enough at my parents’ house, there’s probably still a few pairs of socks I picked up as well. These days, my “home” flea market is Columbus, and on a pleasant Sunday morning I can happily spend hours roaming about. Doesn’t matter if I buy anything or not, just poking around the trash/ treasure is the reward.
One key word though in that Columbus reverie: “Pleasant.” Put me at Columbus on a 43-degree cloudy day and it becomes decidedly less-thanpleasant. It feels like punishment.
As a result, for about six or seven months out of the year, I’m flea market-less.
Until now.
Down in Bordentown on Rt. 130 is Big E’s Thrift Store and Antiques, which is basically Columbus under a roof.
“There’s nothing else like this in the area,” said Tony Gilmore, the owner of Big E’s. “When I was a kid there was a place in Philadelphia called Jerry’s Corner on 61st and Passyunk. It was similar to this. You could anything from clams to antiques. So I decided to try that here.”
Well, minus the clams, at least for now.
What it is is over 30 vendors many of them Columbus denizens - selling everything from coins, jewelry and antiques to … well, it’s basically an indoor flea market. There’s really no “bottom” to what’s being sold. Need a chin strap to help you with snoring? I saw one for $2. Classic Matchbox cars? Obviously. A $60 piece of driftwood? Step right this way.
“My fascination with this started with my mom,” said Gilmore (who, I found out as I was walking out the door, was a touring member of Kool and the Gang for 12 years, because of course) “She had a thrift shop in Philly in the 1960s. It stuck with me. So I started selling at Columbus out of my truck and then got a bigger truck, and then a box truck, and then I ran into everyone else and now we’re like family.”
That’s the one word I kept hearing when talking to the vendors - family.
“It’s all family, and there’s no other family like this,” said Larry Sindora, whose shop Sindora & Son Antiques and Collectibles is doing brisk business. “It’s like a carnival, under the big top. Everyone is friends here.”
And it makes sense. It’s like an “honor among thieves” thing, but without the “thieves” part. If you’re in the business of buying and selling, it’s not in your best interests to burn other vendors. Cooperation is the operative word at Big E’s.
“If you’re kind in this business the business is kind to you,” said Gilmore.
For many of the vendors, being at Big E’s - which is housed in the former Sportsman’s Center building - is a full-time job, buying and selling, travelling from flea market to flea market.
But for others, like Martin Mainzer, it’s become a profitable hobby.
Mainzer, who had recently retired from Hamilton Township, didn’t have much to do.
“My wife said, ‘you have anything to do?’ I said no. Next thing I know I walked in here, and grabbed the last spot,” Mainzer said. “I wasn’t doing this before. Now I’m buying and selling, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I’m in deep. It’s Tony’s fault.”
One bit of info you might be noticing is there’s not a “Big E” in sight at Big E’s. The reason is simple, if sad.
“My friend’s parents used to own this building,” Gilmore said. “He was my best friend. Eric. We were partners doing house cleanouts and such. He passed away seven years ago, and so I decided to name the business after him.”
See? Family.