2 Trends Hidden in Plain Sight (+ $1M ideas)

**Sam Parr** (0:00)
Screw Nick Huber talking about RV parks and storage units. We're going to be talking about flea markets. That's what I think is going to happen.
I wanna talk to you about a topic, and I think this is a topic, it's my passion, this topic, but it's also, I'm gonna bring it up because I think it's A, a trend, and that's what we're about, and B, it's sort of a prediction. I think I have a prediction here, and it's gonna be interesting in the next five or 10 years.

**Shaan Puri** (0:35)
Sweaters, denim, tobacco.

**Sam Parr** (0:37)
Yeah, you're in the ballpark.

**Shaan Puri** (0:39)
Media.

**Sam Parr** (0:39)
Yeah, we're in the zip code. The newspaper industry.
We're in the zip code. So years ago, this doesn't matter to you because you're not from the south, but if you're above the age of 30, a lot of people here probably remember this TV show American Pickers. Did you ever even watch that show?

**Shaan Puri** (0:58)
Never watched it.

**Sam Parr** (0:59)
Okay, two guys who go and buy junk and they tell the story of the junk and then we would-

**Shaan Puri** (1:04)
Are they from storage containers or that's a different show?

**Sam Parr** (1:07)
That's a different show, but again, same ballpark. But basically, they would drive around the south, they would knock on old people's homes and say, can I come and look in your barn? And they would find old, cool stuff, tell the story of it, clean it up just a little bit, bring it back to the store where I worked, and we would resell it. That's basically it. That's all it is.
But we would have lines out the door because at the time, this show, it was like David Letterman was number one and American Pickers was number two in terms of the most watched shows on TV. There'd be days where we would sell, I'm not exaggerating, $100,000 in American Pickers t-shirts because all these guys would come in and want to buy anything that was American Pickers related.

**Shaan Puri** (1:42)
How much revenue do you think that store did overall?

**Sam Parr** (1:45)
I would imagine $10 million, one location.

**Shaan Puri** (1:49)
One location. Big store or just like a normal shop?

**Sam Parr** (1:53)
It was so small that we had a script to let people, people would come in and be so disappointed at how small it was because they would think it was like this big, like because the cameras made it look huge. Sounds familiar to my life.

**Shaan Puri** (2:09)
I do had a script.

**Sam Parr** (2:13)
So it was like a tidy store, but we killed it. But the thing was is that it was all like hillbillies. It was like redneck hillbillies from like Alabama. For some reason, the picking culture, it's all like hillbillies in like rural Alabama.

**Shaan Puri** (2:26)
Like how you said, for some reason.

**Sam Parr** (2:27)
Yeah, I don't know, like because they like old shit or they like the reuse stuff. I don't know. It's just part of the culture. But this weekend, I experienced something that has totally changed my worldview on this topic. So there's this thing called Al Fargo's Marketplace. And I went to it the other day. Click this photo that I'm highlighting right here. So the story is basically it's these four guys and they look like they're 24 years old. And they started organizing this flea market in New York City. And they host it at this place called New House, which is like the hipper version of WeWork. So it's this like weird combination of like urban New York stuff, but like flea markets, which are historically like old people and southern like heritage. Like it's not like a New York cool kid thing. It is now though.

**Shaan Puri** (3:15)
All right, can I just describe what I'm seeing?

**Sam Parr** (3:17)
So describe what you see and who you see.

**Shaan Puri** (3:20)
Every photo looks like it's taken with a Polaroid, even though we have like 4K cameras. Everybody has a beard and a bald head. So a lot of hair on the face, no hair on top. I mean, the style is eclectic. There's a DJ. It looks like, is this a party in a Goodwill shop? Is that what's happening?

**Sam Parr** (3:38)
Dude, it's a high-end vintage flea market and it was packed. And I'm 35, I was the oldest person there.

**Shaan Puri** (3:47)
All the guys are dressed as girls and all the girls are dressed as guys.

**Sam Parr** (3:51)
There's a lot of weird stuff going on. And they're all wearing, it's all like 24 year old single guys wearing suits and ties. I went there with my daughter and it was just me and her. I was, I felt like I was the oldest person there. No one had children.