BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE OBSERVER
LEE COUNTY — The Lee County Flea Market has created a space for community commerce for 40 years. A Lee County couple, Dawn Greaney and David White, bought the flea market in 2023 and have been working to improve it for continued community commerce and enjoyment.
Greaney said she and her husband have lived near Lake Harding for 25 years and would drive past the flea market every day on the way to town; these passings would spark a desire to purchase the market one day.
“We used to always think as we drove by, ‘gosh, it’d be great to own that one day,’” she said. “We would love to be a part of the community with the old-timey swap meet type of mentality. And we heard through the grapevine that it was for sale, and we inquired about it and got it pretty quick. We love the people out there. We have a lot of people who have been there for like 15 to 20 years, they are monthly vendors and they’re like family to us. We love them. There’s always rumors that we’re selling it to build a truck stop or condo high-rise or something crazy like that. I keep telling everybody, ‘No, no, no, listen, this is, this is like part of old-time South. We want it to thrive and continue.’”
With the recent upgrades Greaney and her husband have made, she said the response to the cleaner space has been positive. Also, to be more accommodating to those in wheelchairs or walkers, Greaney said ramps have been installed.
“I think everybody likes the flea market — they used to call it the dirt mall, and they started saying that we were ruining the dirt mall,” she said. “But the overwhelming response has been that people like that there’s not dirt flying up when cars are driving through, and now that we’ve got the concrete down, my vendors are saying they’re doing better than they’ve done in years. I think it feels a little bit more professional than it did before, and it feels more like an outdoor mall now.”
Greaney said there is no pre-registering for a table at the Lee County Flea Market, and shoppers and sellers can expect the market to be open year-round from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
“It’s rain or shine, year-round,” she said. “We don’t actually do table reservations. You can come out and pick an open table, and if you’re in the field, we walk around and collect the money. If you want to be underneath the shed, you’ve got to come to the office and we will assign you a table.”
Shoppers can expect to find a variety of items at the flea market, and Greaney said there are usually more than 400 vendors.
“It’s such a wide variety,” she said. “First of all, we’ve got livestock, so we have chickens, goats, eggs. We have rabbits, roosters. There were peacocks out there. There was a turkey last year. There’s just a wide variety of farm animals, and then we have antiques. There’s new stuff, a lot of clothes, a lot of household items. You can get lawnmowers, you can get posters and pictures. You can get purses, cell phone cases, Ray-Ban eyeglasses. There’s a lot of soaps, toilet paper, like bulk toilet paper, toothpaste — I mean, anything that you could think of at the flea market.
“There’s a lot of really cool stuff,” she said. “I try not to look down. I walk around out in the field, and I kind of look [around] because I can’t pass up a good deal, and everything’s a good deal out there. And I’ll see someone walking with something, and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, where did you get that?’”
While continuing to update the Lee County Flea Market to create a community space, Greaney said she enjoys getting to know the regular vendors and shoppers.
“We get new people in every week, but we see a lot of the same people week after week after week. You learn about their families, you learn about their health, you learn about their children or their parents or their extended families, and you just learn to love these people,” she said. “I don’t think it’s just me, as the owner, talking to these people. I think the vendors themselves have become close over the years, and so many of my vendors are just so warm and welcoming when there’s a new person that’s next to them.”
For more information, visit www.leecountyfleamarket.com. The Lee County Flea Market is located 201 Lee Road 379 in Smiths Station.
