Moore Market, which never quite recovered from the overnight fire that reduced its heritage-rich building to ashes 27 years ago, is actually drawing an impressive number of shoppers on a different platform. Built on the legend of the flea market — existing now in a less remarkable form on the Lily Pond Complex in Park Town — ‘mooremarket', a closed Facebook group, facilitates trade of second-hand goods among its members.
View a video of >Moore Market going online here .
Free for all
They post pictures of old furniture, air-conditioners, television sets, books, DVDs and a raft of other used items. Specific requests for second-hand goods are also put up on the wall — “I'm looking for a revolving book shelf”, “I'm looking for a refrigerator to store my beer” and so on. The large-hearted also use the space to give away goods — to cite two recent examples, a “slightly damaged guitar” and a stack of old books — for free.
The group, started this May 28, has around 1,900 members. “On a lazy afternoon, I created this group for two reasons. One, I had a few old goods to sell and a few others to give away. My customers at the online toy rental store I run also had caches of old items to do away with. The other reason was the curiosity to know if such initiatives really work on Facebook. I invited 50 of my friends that afternoon. To my surprise, the membership swelled to 250 by evening. Three days later, a thousand people were on board,” says founder Santhosh Kumar Subramanian, alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur. He says the initiative has no financial goals.
Membership has been made ‘by invitation only' to keep it spam-free.
“Anti-spamming rules have been laid down. New products can't be sold or services offered; nor can they be advertised. Members can't leave their numbers or addresses on the wall. But, despite clear-cut information, some do leave their contact details,” says Santhosh. Moderators have been appointed to curb such infractions.
Core players in the group have decided on a list of possible events, when a critical mass of, say, 3,000 members is reached.
One of the possibilities is organising a physical flea market where old stuff can be bought and sold. Another is “Really Really Free Market” where members can give away goods for free.
Given the pace at which the group is growing, a meet-up of this nature must be round the corner.
