Published On : Sun, Mar 8th, 2015

Apeksha Munde brings concept of flea market to city

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Nagpur: In an exclusive chat with Nagpur Today, founder of Agora Flea Market in Nagpur, Apeksha Munde said that she wanted to provide a platform and a portal to the artisans, artists, craftsmen of Nagpur to showcase their unique talents and skills.

She said that she has made an attempt to bring all the cultures, skills, crafts both local and foreign (other states) under one roof. She has attempted to promote natural talent which does not have any brand-name. They are either doing it from home as a hobby or just for the heck of producing something unique.

The debut of Agora Flea Market in the city as Apeksha put is tremendous response. On a scale of one to ten, she would definitely rate 9/10. They have 28 stalls of which 20 have a brand name or have a shop where they sell their goods for commercial gains. The remaining 8 are pure art or craftsmanship.

Apeksha claimed that she has kept the cost of renting the shop as reasonable as possible so that one can get confidence that their products too, have a good market and that they can become commercially viable. Apeksha claimed that the stall owners are selling goods costing as low as Rs 5/- to Rs 3000/-.

While explaining about the concept of flea market, she said that a flea market is a type of bazaar that rents space to people who want to sell or barter merchandise. Used goods, low quality items, and high quality items at low prices are commonplace. Many markets offer fresh produce, unique products, old clothes, and plants from local farms. Renters of the flea market are vendors. In Greece, the ancient Agora in Athens was one of the most important sites for the ancient Greek society. It was the center of political, social, religious, and commercial activities. In Greek, the word “agora” means “a gathering place” or “market place”. As the name says, it had actually been for centuries a place where merchants and sellers sold goods to those who gathered in this place. This market place was also used to sell slaves and women.

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After witnessing the response, she said that she intends to have three such ventures every year. Once before the Summer Season starts and two in Winter Season. She claimed that next year, she will host one during Diwali, one during Christmas and one during the Valentine Day.

Apeksha claimed that once the response starts getting bigger and better, she would like to go for a bigger venue. She said that this concept is fairly new and would take time to catch on.

In a day, when people feel that they can sell anything on OLX, just as a Garage Sale in USA, a Flea Market too will catch on and one can sell anything. While explaining that she said that a young man has a shop that was selling old gaming CDs. She asked that what would one do with the CD once you have played the game. Similarly, unique goods that she displayed the stalls to Nagpur Today which included, a store that was showcasing the talents of a lady named Shruti Rathore, whose products are under the title, Everyone Loves Sparkle. She had made art-pieces out of plastic, shells and thermo coal. She had painted them with bright eye-catching colours and had sprayed colourfull shiny powder on them that sparkled. This included caps, bottles, pen-cases, flowers, leaves etc.

This was followed by a stall hosted by Imaan and Aditi. They were selling lemonade with fancy straws and summer funk goods.

The stall Asim’s Pet Store had beautiful small birds and fishes.

Next stall was hosted by Shagufta Mehdi and her brilliant paintings. The same stall also showcased another brilliant concept of painting old liquor bottle and putting LED lights in them to bring out a unique table lamp.

The next stall had Papier-mâché lamps which are pretty affordable and available in unique shapes and sizes. The stall owner calls them the Glow lamps.

In her appeal to the citizens of Nagpur city, Apeksha Munde requested people to come out and see the local talents and craftsmanship of our own city which is showcased in this Agora Flea Market. She has appealed to the citizens of Nagpur to encourage local talents while acquiring really appealing and unique pieces of art for one’s household.

Apeksha has thought off everything while organizing this Agora Flea Market. There is a food court too where she has given opportunity for Bhelpuri stall, coffee and ice-cream stalls too. In the evening, she has made arrangements for live-performances with excellent sound system.

While speaking about her husband, Swapnil Munde, she said that she has a very supportive husband who is a businessman into Manufacture of Flexo Printing and Packaging material. She claimed that she could succeed in venturing out with this Flea Market only because of his constant support and encouragement.