NATIONAL CITY, Calif. – Walking the alleys of the National City Swap Meet, visitors find many second-hand treasures from vendors. Mexican snacks, fabrics, clothing, and even household appliances fill tables and tents. Children run around, playing with their friends and family members. Customers try to negotiate for the best bargains. Cool, refreshing fruit waits at the fruteria on a hot summer day.
All this is what make the swap meet special for the people who attend each weekend.
The National City Swap Meet is the oldest flea market in the county. It was founded by Wally Derr and his son Terry in 1962. Since then, the market has been an important part of National City’s community becoming a trampoline for small businesses and supporting a culture of reusing and recycling.
The land was originally a defunct dairy farm before it was bought by the father and son duo to be turned into a trailer park.
During the process of acquiring permits, they used the space to host a swap meet to raise money on the side, Christopher Derr said, the great-grandson of Terry Derr and current operations manager of the swap meet.
The swap meet ended up being so successful that Terry Derr decided to use the lot as a weekly swap meet for the community. And it has remained that way for over four generations.
During the 60s and 70s, the swap meet was a place for Navy sailors to hang out. Over the years, it became a popular marketplace for the Latino community of National City.
Christopher Derr describes the swap meet as heavily Latino influenced as long as he could remember.
“Swap meets resemble in many ways the tianguis in Mexico, popular markets that have existed since pre-colonial time,” Magdalena Barros Nock said in her study about the socioeconomic effects of swap meets in the San Joaquin Valley.
For Christopher Derr and his sister Victoria Derr, marketing manager of the swap meet, it is a way they can connect with the Latino community and their own roots.
“Our mom’s Mexican and our dad is from California so being a border baby and growing up in a bi-cultural household, it is nice to have such a heavy Latino presence here,” Christopher Derr said.
Lots of folks from Tijuana, Tecate and other parts of Mexico come to the swap meet to shop, sell and socialize, Victoria Derr said
She described the psychological concept of a “third place.” For humans to have a balanced social experience, they need three places, she said. The first is a home, the second is their workplace and the third is a place of their choice where they choose to relax. A church, a gym, a local game store or even a marketplace.
“I feel like a marketplace is a very ancient thing for humans to want to gravitate towards and come to,” Victoria Derr said. “Not only for things they need. People come here and shop and sell. But also, for just that social aspect of it too.”
And for 58 years, the National City Swap Meet was open every Saturday and Sunday, with the exception of Christmas Day.
It is older than the neighboring section of Highway 54, it survived a redevelopment attempt in 1989 and, it outlasted the drive-in movie theatre that was across the street. Even with the emergence of online marketplaces such as Craigslist and Facebook marketplace, and the dwindling of other social places.
“We really have seen a lot of people come back here for the people, for the ambiance,” Victoria Derr said. “Just want to be in person, to be interacting and connecting with other human beings.”
That is until an unprecedented global pandemic struck the world in March 2020, forcing the open-air market to close for about three months.
When the swap meet finally reopened in June 2020, they had to abide by new protocols. This included mask mandates, vendors could only set up in every other space, social distancing, and limiting the number of shoppers at any one time.
But despite the heavy restrictions, the community was relieved to have their swap meet open once again. Even a global pandemic could not take that “third space” away. Now the swap meet has returned to a certain level of balance, Victoria Derr said.
In addition to fostering a strong community, the National City Swap Meet is a sustainable way to buy and sell goods.
“The majority of our field is second-hand items,” Victoria Derr said, “So we really are giving that space and that place for folks to come by and sell secondhand.”
People who shop at the swap meet are participating in reducing their carbon footprint by keeping goods out of landfills.
“If you’re a part of the community and come out here, then there’s a certain level of buy-in to reusing things, not wasting things,” Christopher Derr said. “And whatever trickle-down effects it has on greater sustainability is just good for everybody.”
But sustainability and connection are not the only benefits that a Swap Meet can bring to its community.
In his thesis about local swap meets in the Los Angeles area, Jeffery Edwin Juarez wrote about the non-vending activities that some swap meets offer, such as live music or playgrounds for children to play.
In addition, non-profit organizations can use swap meets as a way to spread awareness and provide services to the local community.
“The next step is to create opportunities for non-profit groups in the area to complement the entertainment aspect of the services and help address the problems or concerns in the local area,” Juarez said.
To Christopher Derr, the swap meet means family.
“The swap meet is everything to me,” he said. “For as long as I can remember, at family dinners, it was my grandpa and my dad talking about the swap meet to me and my sister.”
To Victoria Derr, it represents home.
“I see these interactions being had between vendors, between shoppers. And I just there’s something so special about human connection that can bring you to a feeling of home” she said.
The National City Swap Meet is a way for a community to connect and support each other.
One week at a time.