Anthropologie Buyer at Large, Keith Johnson shared a few etiquette rules with W Magazine on their Editors' Blog about flea market hunting. Johnson is the creative mind behind the store's famous market-inspired interiors and soon to be the face of docu-reality series "Man Shops Globe" on the Sundance Channel; the first episode is set to air on October 7th. In one of the clips we viewed on Sundance website he is in a Blair Witch Project-looking house, staring at painted tapestries and admiring "the sketchiness" of one. It strikes us as a "No Reservations" without the over-the-top personality of celebu-chef, Anthony Bourdain. Johnson appears far more pragmatic and clinical in his travels as evidenced by his flea market rules of etiquette, as told to W.
We're keeping these in our back pocket for our next trip to the Brooklyn Flea:
-"The classic one is you put your finger on some thing if you are interested in it, and you make sure your hand is on it while you are trying to get the dealer’s attention." It's like an ancient ritual of possession -- sadly this one seems relevant to flea markets alone. Try it at a sample sale and we bet you'll wish you'd clutched.
-"If someone is talking about something you never come along and say, “I will give you your asking price,” and trump it." Does this happen a lot? Isn't flea market shopping all about haggling? Oh there's so much to learn!
-"The last thing you want to do is stand too close and look too interested because inevitably that gets someone else excited and they think, 'Oh my god, this must be good because there are people behind me who want it also.' " Ahmen. We've been on both sides.
Man Shops Globe will air on Sundance on Wednesdays at 10:00pm. Premieres October 7th.
