SALT LAKE CITY — Call it the battle of the swap meets.
Since the Redwood Swap Meet closed last December, many vendors have shifted to a location on Salt Lake City’s west side that ramped up operations when the West Valley City site ceased operations. Separately, one of the key figures who had rallied opposition to plans to close the Redwood Swap Meet, Cristian Carbajal Gutierrez, is hoping to open a new swap meet for displaced vendors in Grantsville.
“I just hope it works for everybody because at the end of the day, there’s a lot of vendors that rely on the income from the swap meet,” said Monica Acuña, who helped organize El Suami del 801. El Suami operates each Sunday at the 801 Center at 1055 W. North Temple in Salt Lake City and it launched in earnest following Redwood’s Dec. 22 closure to permit the development of the land into housing.
Carbajal, meanwhile, says the open-air initiative he’s pursuing in Grantsville is in cooperation with former Redwood vendors, many of them immigrants from Latin America and around the world. The aim is not only to create a new space where they can sell goods but also to help teach them the particulars of operating a business in the United States, including how to get a license.
“On mine, it’s more community-based rather than business-driven,” Carbajal said. “We’re trying to uplift our local community.”
Carbajal had helped lead opposition to the planned sale of the privately owned 26-acre Redwood site, also home to a drive-in theater. The efforts ultimately stalled and the site has been cleared with plans afoot to build single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums on the land at 3688 S. Redwood.
For the vendors, one of the key issues in light of the Redwood closure has been finding a place to sell, and as Acuña describes it, many have flocked to her location south of the Utah State Fairpark. The 801 Center is a vast, warehouse-like facility that typically features live music geared to the Latino community on Saturday nights.
“The first weekend, I had like 180 vendors. Right now, I’m over 300 vendors,” Acuña said, with hopes for even more and an expansion to Saturday operations by June.
As at Redwood, the vendors — most of them Latinos — sell everything from tools and clothing to toys and produce, with more space to open outdoors around the 801 Center. Entry for adults is $2 and Acuña, who also helps run a digital Spanish-language radio station, La Mas Picosita, says Suami operators plan to keep it open year-round. More than 5,000 visitors come each Sunday, according to the most recent tallies.
Carbajal Gutierrez said vendors have also set up operations at other area swap meets since Redwood closed though he’s hoping many travel to Grantsville when the site there starts operating, perhaps by early May. It’s to be an open-air operation, with more space than Suami, and, unlike the Salt Lake City operation, with no alcohol sales on the grounds. “It’s all family driven,” he said.
His hope is that the Grantsville operation can serve as a business incubator of sorts, helping vendors so inclined work toward creation of brick-and-mortar locations. “We’re trying to involve the vendors directly,” Carbajal Gutierrez said.
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