My First time flea market Experience (Full time IT guy)
I work full-time in IT, but last weekend I decided to do something completely different. A friend of mine had put up a stall at a flea market in Amanora Mall, Pune, and I volunteered to help out for 3 days.
This was my first time actually working at a stall, and honestly, I didn't expect it to be this much work 😄
My job ended up being a bit of everything:
Packing and loading the raw materials
Standing at the stall and talking to people, getting them interested in the business
Helping pack the final products
Making custom designs for customers using Gemini
Setting up the stall, putting up printouts and the flex banner
Maintaining a ledger of customer orders and calling them once the orders were ready
And finally, packing everything that was left and taking it back home after the flea
You're basically on your feet and on your toes for 10–12 hours a day. By the end of the day, you're tired, but there's something quite satisfying about seeing customers actually buy something that you helped put together.
I got paid ₹3,000 for the 3 days. Not exactly a life-changing amount 😂, but that's not really why I did it.
I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to put up a stall of my own someday. So this was a great way to get a first-hand look at what actually goes into running one — the good, the bad, and all the little things you don't think about until you're actually there.
Also, one small hack that saved me a surprising amount of money: I packed my lunch every day, and my wife would bring dinner on time. 😄❤️
Mall food for 3 days would've probably eaten into a decent chunk of that ₹3,000. Extremely sweet of her to make sure I didn't have to worry about food while I was busy.
Overall, it was a pretty memorable experience. I also realised that there are probably quite a few small business/stall owners who could use an extra pair of hands on weekends.
So if anyone in Pune runs a stall or small business and needs a weekend helper, I'm actually open to doing this again.
For me, it's not just about the money. It's also a nice break from sitting in front of a laptop all week — and I'm getting to learn what not to do before I eventually put up my own stall. 😄