Swap Meet Offers New Selling Points

The Paramount Swap Meet has completed the first part of a multimillion-dollar renovation that has added more vendor spaces, parking and a food court to the nearly 40-year-old marketplace.

During the past year, swap meet officials have spent about $3 million on the project. Improvements include 5 1/2 acres of additional land, an 8-foot-high wall with landscaping along Paramount Boulevard, increased security, new entrances and about 300 additional vendor spaces, for a total of about 800 spaces.

Swap meet officials said they plan to spend $5 million in the coming year to acquire more land and make other improvements to the site at 7900 All America City Way. Currently, about 630 vendors sell a wide variety of new and used items, including clothing, cleaning and auto supplies, toys, music, fresh produce and baked goods. The swap meet is open seven days a week at the 32-acre, open-air site. The atmosphere is festive, with vendors hawking their wares above the steady beat of Mexican banda music.

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The city’s Redevelopment Agency provided $800,000 toward the renovations, an amount that city officials said they will recoup in about four years. With the expansion, the swap meet is expected to generate an additional $200,000 to $280,000 a year for the city, said Richard Leahy, assistant city manager. The market had generated between $400,000 and $500,000 a year, he said.

The swap meet was founded in 1955 at the old Paramount Drive-In movie theater by the late Joseph Bianchi.

Bianchi clashed often with city officials, who complained that the swap meet was bringing more traffic problems, crime and litter to Paramount. Bianchi’s son, Glenn, took over the marketplace after his father’s death in 1992.

Glenn Bianchi has been more responsive to the city’s concerns, prompting officials to provide some financial help, Leahy said.