Smack-dab in the heart of Silicon Valley, the global center of technological innovation, sits a bustling 120 acre land bastion of "no tech" business that host 80,000 visitors a week, more than 4 million people a year! Largest open-air market in the country, some say in the world. The popular San Jose Flea Market flourishes in apparent contradiction to Silicon Valley's high tech image. And yet, as the product of one man's entrepreneurial drive and passionate commitment to an innovative concept, the Flea Market represents the very essence of Silicon Valley.
In 1959, George Bumb had the seedling of an idea. He was in the solid waste, landfill business, He kept seeing all these wonderful things getting thrown away and felt there had to be a profitable way to sell them to people who would want them.
Hearing of the success of swap meets, which were just getting started in Los Angeles, Bumb traveled to Southern California and saw how the meets were organized and held at drive-in theater lots. Bumb took the swap meet approach and expanded it to encompass individual merchant stalls, with on-site product storage. That way the merchants could keep their product at the market during the week, even though the market sales at first were conducted on weekends only.
This grandaddy of U.S. flea markets opened its gates in March of 1960, with 20 sellers and about 100 curious customers on what was once an abandoned cattle feed lot. With $7,000 in Cash, Bumb started the Flea Market on farmland on Berryessa Road, then a narrow country lane surrounded by orchards.
It was a cautious beginning. The first office, staffed part-time by family members, housed the only restrooms and snack bar on the original 35 acres. The spartan menu offered homemade sandwiches, basic beverages, and some candy.
Today, The Flea Market averages more than 6,000 sellers each week and is home to 30 snack bars, street vendors, and sit down restaurants offering a delectable variety of international and American classic foods, plus more than 60 roving snack and beverage carts specially designed by the Bumb family.
From its initial handful of family members and part-time employees, The Flea Market has grown to encompass 500 service employees carefully trained and supervised by Bay Area Food Services, along with a direct Flea Market staff or 150 people who work in management, construction, food service, and maintenance.
The Flea Market property encompasses about 1,000 small buildings, 1,000 open-air stalls, and all sorts of amenities. One thing Bumb is fanatical about is having an adequate number of restrooms that are extremely clean and maintained.
The Flea Market is completely self sufficient, building everything here ourselves, we have generators, water pumps, sewage holding tanks,everything needed to sustain the market through a weekend if there's a failure of power, water, or sewer services.
And what draws the hordes of visitors Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday all year long, from dawn to dusk? A better question might be what doesn't draw them. At this flea market, you can find anything from toys to tires. The Flea Market's quarter mile long produce row is the busiest outdoor produce market in California and features produce from local farms and around the world.