Smiley’s Flea Market

Awesome place. Lots of vendors and stuff for sell. You can also sell here and make some good money. The outside vendors are the best. You can find anything here from antiques, books, jewelry, to fresh vegetables .
My husband and I met here in 1991 and were married less than a month later. We have been married for almost 25 years now.
We go every weekend and always come home with something.

If you want junk, go visit Fred Sanford. Your second best bet is this flea market. Believe me when I say it’s not worth it. Also, let me warn you about the food… don’t eat it. It’s overpriced, overcooked, and not worth it. You pay a lot of money and barely get anything on your plate. Especially at the barbecue joint in the front of the flea market. Go next door and get yourself a funnel cake. That’s the only thing worth eating out there. Even the Spanish food is disgusting. I ordered chorizo tacos and they burnt my tacos. Char and crust all over. That’s both of the Spanish food stations. Never again will I eat at Smiley’s and I won’t be shopping at that dump either.

This place is great you can find just about anything you want for a good price new stuff (and some used) but it’s awsome. Than when your done you can go to the Air Musum

Be aware this place is funky, but it can also be fun. There is an absolutely crazy mix of stuff for sale, as well as services. Let’s see, they sell… furniture, coins, jewelry, electronics, clothes, military surplus, groceries, candy, office supplies, produce, appliances, oils/​incense, small livestock, puppies, shoes, fresh citrus fruit, plants, trees, motorcycle wear and much, much more There is even an Asian grocery store in the building in the middle, which is actually open all week.
You can also eat yourself silly, get your haircut and ride a carousel. Don’t get me wrong, some of the vendors sell total junk and there are quite a few unusual characters floating around, but just like their tagline promises, «You never know what you’re gonna find at Smiley’s».
Another thing to keep in mind is that speaking Spanish will give you an edge. The flea market is very popular with the Hispanic community and I’ve run into a handful of vendors who don’t speak English particularly well. The flip side of that is that you can get some killer Mexican cuisine from a couple of the food trucks.
The other nice thing about Smiley’s is that it is an affordable place to sell your own stuff if you want to have a garage sale without using your own garage. They rent out these cement picnic tables for cheap that get more foot traffic than most people will get if they hold a regular yard/​garage sale.
If you’ve never ever been it’s worth going at least once because it’s fascinating place.

This place looks like it’s just one step away from full certification of becoming a landfill. Great example of how to explain urban sprawl to a kid.
It’s large and sprawling. Parking is a problem because people trying to get in, get out and the way it’s set up. It has a Bibb County deputy on duty there so there must be something going on causing problems or they wouldn’t have an office there.
They have expanded this place a lot. They’ve built a few more barns with the sliding, pull down garage type doors. There’s that carousal in the middle that is nice. There’s a couple of food venders but not sure if they have that inspection sheet from the state. I’ll have to look next time I go out. If not, that’s a violation of state law.
Not only have they built barns, but then, open pavilions on concrete pads with a roof. Then, they built concrete tables. Beyond that I believe there’s an area where you just set up your own table. At the edge of the property are ramshackle buildings, some with a little porches.
On the open pavilions, it’s clear that the same people have rented it, taken over and leave their junk there week to week and month to month. I mean, it’s mainly junk. I didn’t want to buy it last week, don’t want to buy it this week and unlikely to be interested next week.
I talked to a few of the vendors that set up there and I got the impression that many people who get into this are unhappy and trapped. One older man told me it was hard to make a go of it out here. An older lady complained that she was charged extra for the porch shelter and that business had really dropped off in the last six months. It’s like that their social security checks supplement their flea market income and not the other way around.
I visited on a Sunday and it was very, very hot. I asked the older man can’t you put in an AC. He said, yes, for extra money. At this point, due to the heat, no one was trying to sell anything and I didn’t see many people buying, either.
My theory is that it’s cheaper to rent a space here, bring your junk you want to get rid of and just abandon it rather than take such trash to the dump. The barns take a while to tour. But, once you’ve seen them, you really don’t need to come back for about six months. It’s the same old, same old, same old junk. The open pavilion area is like going into little Mexico. I don’t think some of the sellers even speak English.
The temp tables where people actually have to set up and then take their stuff back home is likely to be the best area to visit as I think the stuff here will be a lot different week to week than in the sheds or that open pavilion. To be honest, it was so hot that day, most of the regulars were there because they had already paid for setting up and were just going through the motions.
If I had to put a number on it, I’d say about 65% or more of it is just junk. No one wants a computer cable for something that was obsolete 20 years ago. A few places had tee shirts. One had half-​dead plants; I can only guess that they put these plants inside a dark garage space there during the week. Some furniture, veggies and odd stuff. If you’re lucky enough to find someone who set up selling stuff from their garden, you’re lucky and could find fresh food at a bargain.
About two visits are enough to last you for six months through most of this stuff. I’ve seen other flea markets but this one seems to have more unk than the average one.