Pinson Main Street holds first community Parking Lot Yard Sales

By Crystal McGough, Associate Editor

PINSON – The first Parking Lot Yard Sales event on Main Street, Pinson, today brought out a variety of both sellers and shoppers to enjoy the beautiful weather and take advantage of some great deals.

Patti’s on Main Street Flea Market and Consignment Shop (Credit: Crystal McGough)

Visitors not only had access to multiple yard sale and market-style booths in one location, but also had the opportunity to support some of the local small businesses of the Pinson community, such as Price’s Ice Cream, Barking Bee Coffee, Love Life Naturals, Celina’s Boutique and Patti’s on Main Street Flea Market and Consignment Shop.

Parking Lot Yard Sales was birthed out of Pinson Trade Days, an event founded by Patti of Patti’s on Main Street Flea Market and Consignment Shop in November 2021 to help bring Main Street, and the local businesses there, back to life.

“The pandemic killed the whole street,” Patti said. “We didn’t have much business anyway on Main Street. Most everybody knows that Main Street was dead, but the pandemic just polished it off. … That’s why we do Trade Days … We’ve got to help people.”

Pinson Trade Days took place eight months of the year last year, with the City of Pinson helping out by hiring police officers to shut down the street and paying for portable restrooms for the event.

However, at the Dec. 8, 2022, meeting of the Pinson City Council, the council voted to reduce their support of Trade Days from monthly to quarterly.

“We’ve gave them a year, mostly every month, except for CityFest, Butterbean (and) certain months we couldn’t do it,” Councilor Glenda Kirkland said. “It cost us $18,000 last year to support them with the officers and port-a-johns that we furnished.”

As it is currently, Pinson Trade Days is scheduled to be held the first Saturdays of March, June, September and November, with Parking Lot Yard Sales taking place the first Saturdays of every other month. The primary difference between the two events is that, on yard sale days, Main Street will not be closed to through traffic and there will be no portable restrooms available for shoppers.

During Saturday’s event, Patti said the through traffic actually seemed to draw more shoppers, so she’s considering the possibility of the community yard sales replacing Trade Days altogether.

“Let’s get some feedback on vendors – and that the road was open – then after that we’ll know if the better event is Parking Lot Yard Sales or Pinson Trade Days,” Patti said.

For both events, vendors will continue to be offered free booth space, a rarity for these types of events. All vendors and sellers are asked, however, to sign up in advance by visiting Patti’s on Main Street Flea Market and Consignment Shop,  which is located at 4281 Main Street, Pinson, and open Monday – Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.