Forest Hill C-MART location comes back to life as a weekend Flea Market

The empty C-Mart store on Rock Spring Road has been looking forlorn all these years after the new owners up and moved it to Joppatowne, then closed it for good a couple of weeks ago. But now, in a fit of nostalgia, the old store is about to spring back to life. An ad in last Thursday's Baltimore Sun, which looked remarkably like the old C-Mart ads done in their hand-written style, announced that starting Nov. 8 & 9, "The Big Tarp Indoor Flea Market" would be coming to the old site at 1503-11 Rock Spring Road every Saturday and Sunday. Vendors can rent space for less than $100 a weekend in the 35,000 sq ft facility. According to their website (www.thebigtarp.com) vendors have already booked half the spaces. Click here to see who they've lined up so far. The website says the folks behind this were just tired of seeing so many empty C-Marts:

"THIS IS :  the "Troubled Asset Recovery Program" for the PEOPLE - its not exactly a $700 Billion check, but its an opportunity to ride a wave of PR and big

ad dollars as we establish "The Big TARP" Flea Market as not your everyday FLEA....make some money, save some money, at the Big TARP! - see our ads

coming at you VERY SOON in The Baltimore Sun, and a BIG radio partnership to be announced - basically, we were tired of seeing the old C-MART empty - and since the

"new" C-MART is now empty, we decided that it was just too many C-MARTs...well...empty - This is a family affair, a seed...if you will...planted to resurect a building into

something more than just an empty space - its no C-MART but its where it all began, and its a chance for YOU to be a part of the action (us to, just on a smaller scale!)"

Hours are Saturday (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and Sunday (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.)