January 29, 2010|By Sandra Pedicini, Orlando Sentinel

When Evelyn Littuma lost her housekeeping job, she decided to open a booth at a flea market to earn some extra income.

But she quickly learned that the business isn't as easy as it seems, especially in today's tough economic times.

She opened her booth at Bella's Marketplace, which started in a Rooms to Go Outlet that closed last year on the Orange Blossom Trail in Orange County. The market is about 70 percent empty.

"It's very, very bad," said Littuma, of Hunter's Creek, who sells shirts from New York's Chinatown in one tiny booth. "There's so many people who leave."

She said she has been paying a little less than $500 a month in rent – down from the $750 she had paid previously for a more high-profile location, closer to the front.

On a recent weekend, she sold $96 worth of merchandise. Weekdays are even slower.

"I have to pull money from my pocket to pay the rent," she said.

Avee Heifetz, whose family owns the shopping center that includes Bella's, said the rough economy played into the decision to open a flea market. Heifetz said he "figured smaller spaces and month-to-month would attract quite a few people."

Heifetz said he has gotten more aggressive in wooing customers and vendors. He has slashed rent and is advertising heavily.

Other Central Florida flea markets are struggling as well.

The I-4 Flea Market that started up late last year in the old Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, plagued with difficulties almost from the beginning, has shut down. Attendance was slow, and much of the building was empty.

The flea market did not properly maintain a pump that supplied water to sprinklers in the building, so the Orange County fire department closed the building. Dixie Stampede, which still owns the property, filed an eviction action against the flea market, terminated the lease and now has the building up for sale.

Flea markets exist on the fringes of the retail environment, so much so that the National Retail Federation does not keep statistics on them.

Historically, flea markets have attracted lower-middle-income shoppers, said Britt Beemer, Orlando-based chairman of America's Research Group.

"They can't do well if their customer base is being strangled economically, which is what's happening right now," Beemer said.

The way people shop at flea markets also has changed, Beemer said.