Dixieland

Dixieland is definitely the most interesting, unique, and dare I say weird, shopping location that I’ve been to so far.  As a flea market, it sells things that are out of the societal norm.  Upon entrance you can immediately tell that you will probably be experiencing some place unlike any other shopping venture you have had in the Metro Detroit area. 

The hours of Dixieland are very limited.  The only times it is open are Friday (4pm until 9pm), Saturday (10am until 6pm), and Sunday (10am  until 6pm).   While this may seem inconvenient, the unique audience that the flea market targets would probably not require typical hours such as everyday 10am-9pm of many malls.  The hours in and of themselves show how drastically different this flea market is from other shopping centers.

The shops within Dixieland have everything you can think of, that wouldn’t be sold in a typical mall.  From antiques to homemade crafts, it is a collector’s paradise.  Anything you could possibly think to collect is there.  Since so much of the stuff is interesting, I took lots of pictures. 

Though seemingly disorganized and sometimes lacking clear distinctions from shop to shop, each vender seems to target a specific theme.  For example, there is a cowboy shop that sells cowboy hats and vests in one half of the store and strictly cowboy boots in the other half.  In the same way, there was a store that sold handcrafted blinds.  As seen below, there were blinds with famous faces, cartoons, sports, and they would even specially make them upon request.  Personally, I would have never thought of having decorated blinds in my home, but I guess to each his own, maybe I’m just not that artsy.  In addition, there were grandfather clocks, classic coke merchandise, cards, car models, retro toys, and so much more.

In terms of prices, Dixieland was really all over the place.  For everyday items (like mattresses, toys, brooms, tables, food) they seemed to be lower than usual prices.  Conversely, for antiques or collectables you might be surprised by the prices.  One of the most ironic things to me was the money that was being sold.  I understand that rare, older money is worth more but it was just humorous to see a dime being sold for fifty dollars. 

All of the vendors were incredibly friendly. They really seemed to enjoy their jobs and had quite interesting sense of humors.  For instance, instead of typical mannequins they used skeletons to display their clothes, as seen below.  They were also able to answer any questions you could possibly come up with about their collectibles. 

Aside from the cluttered appearance, the biggest downfall of Dixieland is the controversial merchandise.  There were sexually provocative stores and inappropriate items scattered within many stores that would not be appropriate for children.  There are also a wide variety of weapons sold at this flea market.  In addition, some of the collectibles would be considered highly offensive to different groups of people.  For example there were Nazi items.  In addition, there was drug paraphernalia. 

Overall, Dixieland was quite an adventure.  I would not recommend it as a frequent shopping destination.  Yet, if you’re looking to step outside of your usual comfort zone and try new this, this is the place for you.