Alice Falcone grew up in a house just across the street from the new South Portland Flea Market on Broadway.

Even in the 1930s and ’40s, Broadway was a hub of activity, with the Jack o’ Lantern Dance Hall located where the flea market and Events on Broadway function hall are now.

So the 77-year-old South Portland resident – who deals in antiques – was among the first vendors to sign up when businessman Louis Maietta Jr. opened the market three weeks ago.

“I know the neighborhood,” said Falcone, a lifelong resident who normally drives to Arundel to sell vintage glass, paper and jewelry. “This area seems perfect for a flea market.”

Falcone sees the potential for the fledgling market to grow, since Broadway is a thriving commercial area.

“It has the parking and the traffic for it,” she said. “It should catch on.”

Her views are echoed by other vendors, who see the South Portland Flea Market, at 753 Broadway, as a way to earn income in a bad economy. Some are counting on the flea market to help support their families or launch new careers.

There are no other indoor flea markets in greater Portland, and this is the first one ever in South Portland.

Tables cost $45 per week to rent, or $40 a week for monthly leases. Booths cost $65 per week and $60 when a vendor signs a monthly lease. Vendors also need a city permit.

The hours for the indoor market are 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The market is located in the former Yerxa Lawn & Garden Center. The building was vacant for a year, with no businesses seeking the space, so Maietta decided to try a flea market.

“Every week, it is getting better,” Maietta said. “We’re bringing in more vendors each week. We have plenty of room. We can add more to accommodate everyone.”

Maietta and the vendors hope that consumers will see the indoor market as a way to trim costs when shopping in this recession.

In fact, Lewis Marston of Norway makes sure that the costume jewelry, video games and hooded sweatshirts he sells are priced below similar items at the Maine Mall.

“Ninety percent of the items I sell are under $20,” said Marston, noting that the body jewelry – from belly-button rings to earrings – goes for just $5.

“We buy as direct as we can to pass along the savings to customers,” said Marston, who has been a fixture at Maine flea markets and fairs for 25 years.

Marston said he is committed to selling at the South Portland Flea Market until Saco’s popular outdoor flea market opens off Route 1 at the end of May.

At the height of summer, the Saco market is open seven days a week.

“We have not done an indoor flea market since the Scarborough Downs market was closed three years ago,” Marston said. “We see the potential here because of the location.”

Selling items at Maine’s circuit of flea markets and fairs is a full-time job for Marston, who got started in the 1980s during a downturn in the economy. He lost a computer programming job when his employer went out of business.

Marston said he first started dealing in sports cards but branched out when sales softened. He named his business Magical Treasures and pretty soon had his whole family involved.

The company sells a range of trendy knickknacks that include jewelry, video games, decorative wooden wall hangings, pocket knives, cell phone cases and fleece blankets.

Marston, his wife Julie, and his daughter and her family travel to Maine’s fairs to peddle their goods. They visit fairs in Windsor, Skowhegan, Oxford and Farmington.

He has watched products go in and out of fashion, such as Webkinz charms and Star Wars figures. Body jewelry and glass-blown necklaces sell well now, he said.

“We do a lot of research and go to merchandise trade shows to get the best value and quality. We have to be able to buy and sell below the major stores,” he said. “We continue to try different things.”

Although Magical Treasures is like a traveling Family Dollar store, Marston said that people are counting their pennies in this economy. These days he is getting more people browsing tables then buying.

“People are more careful with their money,” he said. “We’re not sure what the summer will bring.”

Higher gas prices and higher toll fees on the Maine Turnpike may keep tourists from traveling as much and also may limit the number of markets and fairs that the Marstons visit.

Last summer, the strong Canadian dollar kept tourists coming to the Saco flea market.

Marston is counting on the South Portland Flea Market to fill with vendors and draw customers from greater Portland.

Marston said he is impressed by Maietta’s commitment to advertise and solicit people to sell their new and used items.

On a recent weekend, items for sale ranged from scarves and gloves from Peru to faddish items, such as the cell phone cases sold by Magical Treasures.

Travis Jordan and his twin sister, Tracy Jordan, sell handmade stained glass, flower arrangements in decorative glass vases, and scented candles in mosaic holders.

He handles the business end of their emerging company, 1 of a Kind Designz, and she crafts the items.

The Jordans launched their business when the flea market opened. Their prices range from $20 for a handmade picture frame with a faux granite finish to $150 for a wood table made by Ray Berube, Tracy’s boyfriend. She created the mosaic glass table top.

“Things are a little slow. But there are more vendors than when it just opened,” said Travis Jordan, who lives in Portland. “The momentum is building.”

Jordan has become an entrepreneur since being laid off from his job at American General Financial, where he worked as a branch manager in Auburn.

Jordan said that he and his sister will sell at the South Portland Flea Market and online. Just this week, they started a Web site, www.1ofakinddesignz.com.

Falcone notes that virtual flea markets, such as eBay, have taken away some of the demand for her vintage goods at hands-on flea markets.

But she has no interest in selling on eBay. Profits from buying and selling vintage and antique items helped put her daughters through college and helped pay for their first apartments, she said.

But Falcone notices that consumers at the South Portland market seem more keen on buying new items than the old glassware, dishes and collectibles she has for sale.

“I’m surprised at how well the new stuff sells – athletic shoes and socks,” she said. “People seem more interested in getting new items cheaply than buying a collectible from the past.”

Travis Jordan holds one of the stained-glass pictures that his sister, Tracy, created. The Jordans are selling stained glass and other handcrafted items at the South Portland Flea Market.Vintage Budweiser glasses are among the new and used items for sale at the indoor flea market, which opened three weeks ago on Broadway.