On a windy Sunday afternoon, over a hundred cars pulled into the vast parking lot off Wilkinson Road. Young parents walking with their children, shoes crunching on the gravel with each step, as vendors invited everyone to approach their array of goods: fruit and vegetables, clothes, jewelry, shoes, home appliances and other items.

A golf cart drove through the lot with a bright green sign taped to the windshield that read: “Unfortunately the Azalea Flea Market will be closing permanently, Sunday, February 9, 2025.”

Many of the stands were advertising special deals to clear out their inventory before the last day. A customer approached a table and asked how the seller felt about the closure. As the seller’s eyes welled with tears, she said that she’d rather not talk about it.

Nathan Nelson, wearing his Philadelphia Eagles cap that he purchased at the market, sighed. Nelson has been a regular shopper who visits nearly every weekend from Dinwiddie, but will likely not return to Richmond as frequently following the market closing.

“I’m gonna hate to see this place go,” he said. 

  

BWS Enterprises, run by the previous Richmond Raceway owners Billy and Wayne Sawyer, sold the land where Azalea Flea Market has been for decades on Jan. 16 for $8 million to DCB Richmond LLC, a company tied to data center development company, DC Blox.

Speculation of further developments coming to the area were raised in March 2024 when Amazon opened RIC4, a large fulfillment center, down the road from the Azalea Flea Market. In August, Richmond Bizsense reported that BWS Enterprises had filed for permission from Henrico County to build a data center on behalf of DC Blox. In October, the Henrico County Planning Commission recommended the plans be denied.

Bill Thomson, DC Blox’s vice president of marketing and product management, noted in an email on Feb. 3, “At this point, we are still relatively early in our process for exploring a potential project in the region, and thus have no information to report publicly at this time.”

Paul Raush, a longtime shopper and vendor at the Azalea Flea Market, said rumors of the closure had circulated at the beginning of the summer in 2024, but the news wasn’t shared with him until Feb.1, after returning from a break.

“I heard that the sale didn’t go through because the county wouldn’t approve it,” Raush said. “And then I’ve been gone for the last two months over the winter … came out and everyone’s saying ‘next week’s, last week.’”

Raush said he’s been shopping at the market for almost 30 years.

Leon Jones, a vendor, has been selling goods for six years and currently relies on the income his market sales provide him. He said he was given only two weeks’ notice in advance of the market closure.

“I just hate they’re closing… Everybody hates that they’re closing, but it is what it is,” Jones said. Jones also sells goods at another flea market held on Sundays at Bubba’s Bar and Grill on Williamsburg Road and plans to continue. Otherwise, he has few leads on potential avenues to replace the income he will lose as a result of the Azalea Flea Market’s closure.

Jones mentioned that a local flea market on Williamsburg Road has offered to open its parking lot to vendors, but he worries that there won’t be enough space.

“Everybody’s going to miss it out here because it’s a bigger area for people and a lot of people can get out here,” Jones said.

Meleasia Murchison, also known to the community as “Ms. Mel,” started coming to the market about a year ago to sell jewelry. She worries for her financial stability, as well as many of her friends who rely on the income from their market sales. She was using the income from her sales to help her son pay for his college tuition.

“No matter where you go, nothing will be like Azalea,” Murchison said. In an effort to look at the closure through a more positive lens, Murchison said she hopes the market closure will be good for older sellers who put so much physical energy into coming out to sell their goods. She believes a lot of people don’t know when to stop, and this will be a much-needed break for some vendors.

The Sawyer family, who owned the 30.8 acre lot where Azalea Flea Market was located, said this decision came from a number of factors.

After 35 years of ownership, a family member stated it was simply time to move on.