LOS ANGELES — For over 30 years, Maria Chavez has sold clothes alongside her son at the Alpine Village Swap meet near Torrance, six days a week. But today, she’s packing up her items for good.

Chavez is one of at least 200 vendors affected by the swap meet’s permanent closure. She said it’s tough saying bye to a place that’s sustained her for so long, where all the vendors are like family.

“I feel very bad. This is my life. I work for a long time. This is like my house,” she said.

Chavez started selling here when her son was just a toddler and now he’s an adult, helping her run the stall. The shutdown comes after vendors say they were initially told verbally at the end of December the market would close in mid-January before receiving a letter. But they protested against what they called an unfair, last-minute notice and were later notified Feb. 22 would be the market’s last day. They believe it’s because the property was sold.

Vendors such as Melissa Sanchez Vizcarra, who is the second generation in her family to work at the market selling food, said she was devastated by the news.

“I was sad cause not just for me, but a lot of people here are going to lose their income. They have no help. Some people are 75 years old so a lot of questions came to mind,” she said. “But also anger because of the short notice and it was just a verbal, ‘get out.’”

The swap meet’s owner did not respond to Spectrum News’s request for comment on the closure. However, Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell worked with owners to extend the closure date to mid-February and worked with the county’s Department of Economic Opportunity, Office of Immigrant Affairs along with legal services providers to offer job and social service resources to vendors.

Chavez said she’s still hoping the market will reopen and protested with other vendors in the days after the closure. She said she’s already applied at the nearby Harbor College Swap meet, but it’s only one day a week.

“But you know, they say it’s already full. I don’t know where I gotta go,” she said.