TORRANCE, Calif. — Six days a week, Estela Navarez heads to the Alpine Village Swap Meet near Torrance, setting out a variety of candies and snacks for customers.

“I really love what I do. I really love it,” she said.

What You Need To Know

  • Vendors at the long-running Alpine Village Swap Meet near Torrance were given about two-weeks notice it will close in mid-January and potentially not reopen in February, with no explanation given
  • There are at least 200 vendors who sell at the swap meet, which is open six days a week
  • Some vendors said they’ve been selling at the swap meet for over three decades and consider other sellers as family
  • Vendor Estela Navarez said she has tried unsuccessfully to get answers from the owners on why the swap meet may close

This work has sustained her for the past 17 years. Navarez said selling at this swap meet has helped her pay for her house and raise three children, and that all the vendors are like family.

They even helped her get through a tough time when she faced a heartbreaking tragedy.

“My two sons passed away, and this is like my family. It’s not like work, get money from here,” she said. “We are all family. We all know each other for so many years."

So when the vendors were given an abrupt notice two days after Christmas that the swap meet would close permanently in mid-January, she was shocked and devastated.

“If there were to tell us six months before, three months before, it would be better,” she said. “Not like throwing us like we mean nothing to them. We are human beings, we are hard workers.”

The written notice states the swap meet will shut down from Jan. 16 through Jan. 31 and may not reopen again in February, giving no explanation for the closure.

 

But on Sunday, Jan. 15, Navarez got another notice that the swap meet would stay open for one more week and that “additional information will be provided prior to Jan. 22, 2023.”

Navarez said there are at least 200 vendors here and many have been selling goods for decades. Long-time vendors like Marisela Mora, who sells honey and health supplements.

“It’s very terrible when we received that news, in the new year, it’s very terrible,” she said.

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Walter Carpenter has shopped here for five years and said he’s disappointed about the last-minute closure.

“It sucks. Look at all these people here, so you can tell they literally have to go somewhere else,” he said. “It’s not like two people are here and they have to go replace themselves. There’s about 200 people in here selling.”

Navarez said it’s not that easy to just sell somewhere else because vendors typically apply to swap meets and many are not open six days a week. She believes this property may have been sold.

The Alpine Village Swap Meet management did not respond to Spectrum News' request for comment.

But Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, whose district includes this swap meet, said she takes vendors’ concerns seriously and told Spectrum News, “Many of these small and family-owned businesses have been operating at this historic landmark for over 30 years and have been given less than two weeks to find a new place to keep their doors open. Although this is a private sale outside of the county’s purview, my office is currently working to see what can be done to provide more time and support to our constituents that are impacted.”

Navarez along with other vendors have already held two protests against the potential closure. She said she will keep pushing for answers and fighting to keep the swap meet open.

“I do this with my heart. That’s why it’s so sad for somebody to just tell me they are closing,” she said.