VENDOR FAQs

Little City Thrifty is a ticketed weekend-long event that takes place indoors twice annually in Providence, RI at WaterFire Arts Center (475 Valley Street). Each event features 90 booths of vintage dealers from New England and beyond, a bar, food and treats, a vendor-created playlist, and more.

Each event welcomes around 4,000 enthusiastic attendees who are ready to shop small and support vintage dealers.

Our goal is to curate a selection of vendors where 50% are local to the area where the market is held and the other 50% travel in for the event, stay in local hotels, network with area businesses, and create relationships in a city that is new to them. We believe in the power of building community, and that we will all be more successful if we help each other grow.

Little City Thrifty is a positive and community-minded weekend-long party with people who love vintage. Our goal is to help you connect with a vintage loving crowd, and to introduce you to other vintage sellers that you can network and make friends with.

We are always looking for positive minded and professional businesses who are enthusiastic about promoting their own businesses, the events they participate in, and the other small businesses in their community. We strongly believe that a rising tide lifts all boats. By working together as a community rather than as competitors, small businesses grow.

We review the social media accounts and websites of our applicants - your ability and willingness to promote your work regularly and participate in your community is key! If your Instagram account is private, we are not likely to accept you - we can’t get the public excited about something they can’t see, and with a private account, you won’t be able to successfully help with event promotion.

Vendors at Little City Thrifty must deal in pre-y2k and older vintage and antiques. We do not accept multi-level-marketing, sellers of crystals, or makers to this event. If you're a maker, check out our sister event, The Good Trade Makers Market.

Little City Thrifty is an event for strictly vintage items. We cannot accept retro-style or reproduction items (new items designed to look old), crystals, crafts, artisan goods, multi-level marketing sellers, or vendors who sell mostly upcycled items. Upcycled items are occasionally permitted as part of a larger vintage collection. We do not allow the sale of firearms, weapons, or racist/offensive materials at our events.

If you are a maker or artisan, please visit our sister event, The Good Trade Makers Market.

Please note:

If you have participated in a past event but were not active in working with us and your fellow vendors to help promote the event, we may not select you to participate again. We notice, and your fellow vendors notice. When everyone works together, we all have success.

If you have been removed from one of our previous events for mistreatment, harassment, or harm to staff, other vendors, venue staff, or event attendees, we unfortunately cannot consider your application and will not respond.

If you have no-showed us at a previous event, we will not accept you for any future events.

If you have not completed the required tax paperwork at our previous events, it is also possible that we cannot invite you back. We are required by law, under the terms of our event promoter permit, to comply with State of RI event requirements related to tax. We’re here to guide you through the process and make it as quick and easy as possible for you.

Applications for the October 2024 Little City Thrifty event will open in March 2024.

Applications for our March 2025 event will be available later in 2024.

All applicants for the October 2024 event will be notified of their status by April 30, 2024. Be sure to add our email address, hello@littlecitythrifty.com to your contacts list, so we don't end up in your spam.

Upon acceptance, you will have ten days to fill out the vendor registration contract form and remit payment. All items must be received in order for us to consider you confirmed and reserve your booth space - so don't wait!

It isn't personal, we promise. The curation process takes us nearly forty hours to complete, it is extremely difficult, and we take it seriously. There are a number of factors that we take into consideration, in no particular order: your ability and willingness to promote your business (and your fellow vintage sellers) and promote the events you participate in, active public/unlocked social media accounts that give us a good idea of the types of things you sell and what your event displays might look like, the age of your business (we aim to make room for both very new and well-known/established businesses), location of your business (50% of our vendors are local to RI and the rest are from New England and beyond, because we believe networking and collaborating outside of your own local community can help businesses grow), and what you sell (style, age/era, price points, gender and size inclusive clothing and accessories, etc - we are always looking to expand on the items available at LCT, as LCT is not strictly a clothing show). While keeping those factors in mind, we are also always looking to create a diverse and equitable event and make space for vintage sellers who are members of the BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and disabled communities.

Little City Thrifty reviews up to 1,000 applicants thoroughly for each event. Due to space and capacity constraints, we are able to accept less than 10% of businesses that apply. We often cannot accept our own close friends and beloved former vendors in order to make space for others. We now hold the event twice a year due to demand, and may expand further in the future.

We retain your contact information, and if a spot becomes available in a category we think you would be a good fit for, we will reach out to you.

We appreciate the support and interest of the vintage loving/selling/buying community.

PLEASE NOTE:

Past participation in our events does not guarantee a place for your business at our future events. We love and appreciate you (and would love to have you back!), but we are also committed to providing opportunities for new businesses, too. If you’ve failed to promote the event as a past participant or failed to complete your RI state sales tax paperwork with us as a past participant, we are unlikely to accept you to another event.

Welcome to Little City Thrifty! We work with area hotels to secure discounted room blocks, and we will share the information with accepted vendors via email.

We completely understand that cash flow for small businesses can be unpredictable. We’ve been there. Reach out to us and we’ll be happy to work with you!

Bring anything you need to set yourself up for a successful weekend! This includes a table and chairs (rentals are available if you need them), a 20 foot extension cord and a power strip (please communicate with us about your electrical needs in advance), a reusable water bottle (the venue has refill stations), cash to make change with if you are a vendor who accepts cash payments (there are no ATMs on site), a back-up charging brick for your mobile device, a hand truck or wheeled cart to help the load-in and load-out go faster, and if you are participating in our RI event, you MUST bring a check to pay sales tax to the State of RI Department of Tax at the end of the weekend.

Please do not bring alcohol, pets, or musical instruments/speakers to play music at your own booth (we've got speakers everywhere and a great playlist).

PLEASE NOTE:

Vendors are not permitted to tape or affix any items such as banners, backdrops, or merchandise to the floors or walls with tape, nails, or tacks of any kind. Failure to adhere will result in the vendor paying for any damages caused.

We are family friendly and your kids are welcome! If they're under 12, they must remain with you at all times and cannot roam the event alone. Pets, emotional support animals, and therapy animals are unfortunately not allowed due to insurance restrictions, but certified service dogs who are specifically trained to provide medical assistance are welcome.

Little City Thrifty is run by two long-time communications-minded event-planning marketing professionals who love throwing big parties. We take the promotion of our events incredibly seriously.

Each participating vendor will be announced via a dedicated post on Instagram and Facebook, using a personalized digital flier (which we share with you, so you can help promote, too!). We send out press releases and communicate with media outlets for coverage online/in print/ on air, distribute thousands of event postcards, hang posters all over the states where the events are held, and we focus hard on digital marketing for the ten months leading up to the event.

We expect all participating vendors to actively join us in promoting, and we make our vendor selections partially based on our belief in your ability to do so. This means helping distribute postcards while you're popping up at other events and/or hanging posters in your community and at your own brick and mortar shop, as well as sharing promo material online.

If we all work together, the 90 small businesses in the room will have a great weekend!

All food and beverage vendors must supply a certificate of insurance with a specific list of entities included as "additionally insured". If you are participating in our RI event, you must also supply us with a RI Dept of Health certificate. If you don't have one - don't worry. We will point you in the right direction!

Yes, all vendors must commit to vending at both days of the event for the entirety of the event.

Yes, the venue is fully ADA compliant. If you have any questions or require any additional assistance, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Parking is free for all attendees and vendors. We have a designated parking area directly behind the venue that provides you easy access to your vehicle.

We do not recommend leaving your vehicle at the venue overnight.

Yes, we have an incredible security team who patrols the event area while monitoring all entrances and exits. We hire non-police security who focus on calmly deescalating any situations that arise.

While we do have security, we cannot guarantee that theft will not occur. We recommend all vendors to take collateral such as an ID of any attendees who try on clothes. If you see something, please find a member of our security team or staff to assist you.

Little City Thrifty nor the venue is responsible for any theft or loss of items at our events.

Yes! You are welcome to leave your displays intact overnight. The venue is locked and secured directly upon the close of the event.

However, we cannot guarantee that an unforeseen incident will not occur overnight such as a fire or break-ins. We recommend that vendors take any high-dollar items, cash, computers, tablets, phones, and POS systems with them.

We do not recommend leaving your vehicle at the venue overnight.

Little City Thrifty nor the venue is responsible for any theft or loss of items at our events.

Our most important rule is: don't be a jerk. We have a zero tolerance policy for rude behavior, and we will remove you from our events immediately (and permanently) if you are disrespectful to us, our staff, the venue staff, or fellow vendors. This rarely happens, but we have to say it - so please just don't. We're here to have a good time. Oh, and - we really need you to be on time for load-in! Late arrival may mean that we cannot let you participate in the event, as it is disruptive to your fellow vendors and our staff.