What’s fair about stealing a family business?
Everyone knows the Orange County swap meet, but what most do not know
is that an Orange County family invented the market place idea 30
years ago. Before there was an Orange County Market Place, there was
nothing but a useless waste of space. A parking lot used for two or
three weeks a year for the county fair.
Bob Teller invented the idea. An idea that changed business and
made Orange County a hot-bed of entrepreneurs. Before the market
place, if you wanted to start a retail business, you needed a
storefront. Storefronts are expensive, and if you had one, there was
no guarantee that people would come find you. Thus the dilemma -- do
you give up your day job to pursue your dream or keep on working? The
answer to that question all changed with Teller’s idea. He created a
market place. You had a storefront twice a week and the rent was a
nominal fee. But with that rent, Teller would drive people -- 2
million a year -- past your front door.
Now, if you had an idea, you could still keep your job and have
your own business on the weekends. I know of two companies that have
millions of dollars in sales that started at a booth at the Orange
County Market Place. They all got their start with a booth at the
swap meet.
The idea is solid. And while there have been swap meets and flea
markets before, there was never a market place. Ask American Park ‘n
Swap. They are an expert at flea markets, but have never started, ran
or opened a market place. Here, reliably the same vendors show up
week after week. You can buy something at the market place and if you
want to return it, the return is guaranteed.
The fair board of directors this year -- 30 years after Teller
invented the idea -- stole his business. Now, the members of the
board are good honest civic-minded people, so I do not mean to claim
any impropriety on their part, but they have allowed it to happen.
The bid consideration and whoever recommended it are responsible.
You see, from the readings in the newspaper -- it sounds like the
board had every right to find a new operator of the market place, but
this is the deception. John Fernback, President of American Park ‘n
Swap, and his half page ad in the Daily Pilot does not set the matter
straight. It continues the deception. The fair board has land -- it
does not own the market place. It is truly Teller’s own invention. By
putting out to bid and limiting the bid to those interested in
running a market place, the fair board stole the Teller Family
business. There is no legal basis that allows any government to steal
your business. American Park’n Swap is simply trying to buy stolen
goods.
If the fair board said, “We have this land and we want someone to
come up with an idea to use it” -- then there is no problem. But to
actually put a bid out and call it a bid for a market place -- that
is theft.
As I understand the reports from the Daily Pilot, American Park ‘n
Swap has failed at every California swap meet they have ever
attempted. They are not local, they have nothing here but an
opportunity to steal the Teller’s family business. They failed to
follow the fundamental rules of the bidding process, so why would we
want them to run the market place?
The fair board now must make a decision. Having allowed the
authors of the bid to hijack the business, they have an opportunity
to correct this. The gall of John Fernbach to ask the question “Can
the market place be run better?” The real question is, whose market
place is it?
JAMES DAILY
Newport Beach
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