Somers vintage market rated top 25 in U.S.
It’s 10 a.m. and the line for the Vintage Whites Market stretches halfway around the market.
Pink tape wraps around the 30 or so booths in the field across the street from Del’s Bar and the Somers Post Office. Each one is filled with antique sellers peddling their brand of unique wares and the sellers have arranged them just so.
Romantic Homes magazine put the market in the top 25 vintage markets in the U.S. this year.
In its third year of existance, the Vintage Whites Market has grown from the garage and yard of co-founder Vanessa Pleasants to what it was last Saturday, during the second market of the summer season.
“We had a following,” Pleasants said. “We didn’t really know what to expect the first year.”
Pleasants and her life-long friend Jana Roach started the market as a way to sell the items they already collected and loved.
Roach saw something similar to the market advertised online in the form of a blog, and together the two thought it was something they wanted to give a shot. So far, it’s been a success that continues to grow.
“I feel like we have a pretty loyal customer base,” Roach said. “The people who have always shopped it are always the first in line.”
People like Carrie Row from Kalispell haven’t missed a single market.
“I’m their number one fan,” Row said after perusing the No. 14 Antiques booth. “The whole vintage trend is really big and it’s fun to have it all in one place.”
One thing the market is not, is a huge garage sale. It’s a mishmash of things one could find in any antique store in the Flathead, but the vendors bring their items to the Vintage Whites Market from all over Western Montana, Idaho and Canada. No. 14 Antiques brought their stuff up from Darby.
Born in a Barn LLC owner, Annette Hidalgo, hauls her stuff down from her Columbia Falls Stage Road shop, and also hasn’t missed the market since its inception.
“I love doing vintage sales and this is a good one,” Hidalgo said. “The sales are always good.”
One of the reasons that sales are good is because the market for quality second-hand items and the vintage look has expanded in the last few years. And also there’s nothing else quite like the Vintage Whites Market anywhere near it.
Roach and Pleasants picked their vendors because they want the items sold at the market to be high quality and affordable. The ladies like to shop the market too, so the standard is high.
Pleasants said it’s the light colors that drew her into vintage antiques.
“Since I was little, I always liked white, I always decorated everything in white and it slowly turned shabbier and shabbier,” Pleasants said. “Then I loved taking something that I bought for next to nothing and making it really beautiful.”
Pleasants has a spot at Station 8 in Columbia Falls and is trying to start a vintage wedding rentals business.
For Roach, the search for something unique makes buying vintage that much better.
“It’s such like a treasure hunt,” Roach said. “It’s so much fun, just the finding of it.”
Vintage Whites Market happens around Christmas time and three Saturdays each summer. Cost of admittance is $2. The next market will be Aug. 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.