Don’t swap out Tel Phil

Members of the Orange County Fair Board this week will be faced with

a decision that calls to mind an old saying: If it ain’t broke, don’t

fix it.

On Thursday, the board is scheduled to decide whether to keep the

Orange County Marketplace in the hands of Tel Phil Enterprises, which

has run the event for 34 years, or consider a competing bid from

American Park ‘n Swap.

It is not an insignificant decision. More than 1,000 vendors fill

the 20-acre weekend swap meet. With space rentals around $50 a day,

vendors alone produce $100,000 a weekend for Tel Phil. The

Marketplace draws some 2 million people a year. And vendors estimate

sales for a weekend as high as $2 million.

As anyone who has wandered the swap meet’s aisles could attest,

competition is at the heart of the Marketplace. Which stall has the

best shirt for the best price? Are the baseball cards here priced

better than the ones over there? While competition is good, forcing

businesses to serve their customers better, in this case, another

factor would seem to win out: track record.

And with its strong track record, Tel Phil deserves the fair

board’s support.

For more than three decades, locals Bob and Jeff Teller have run

the Marketplace with a minimum of problems and with a commitment to

the community. In an environment in which much could go wrong, in

which many different people are coming and going, the Marketplace has

run remarkably smoothly and profitably. Unless, perhaps, there is

information we and the public do not know.

If so, and if the fair board decides that there is a need for a

change, such reasons need to be made clear. But from the outside

looking in, it certainly seems that Tel Phil has earned the right to

continue running the Marketplace.