Vintage Lovers Can Shop Over 35,000 Square Feet Of Retro Retail At This Mississippi Market

When you enter The Lucky Rabbit in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, you might wish you had a map to navigate its treasure trove of funky art, old arcade games, vintage clothes, fine china and furniture, goofy glassware, classic vinyl, and uncategorizable curiosities filling every inch of 35,000 square feet. The flea market trades in treasured antiques, mementos, and memories. 

But if “X” marked the spot and led you straight to some treasure, you’d miss out. The treat here is the hunt. And while owners Abby and Brandon Thaxton hope you leave with a home run baseball card, a 1970s kaftan, or a kitschy set of mid-century modern barware from one of the 150 vendors housed inside, they really want you to find fun.

Spreading the Luck

“We created The Lucky Rabbit as a place for people to escape the craziness of the world, to step back in time, and see things that make them smile,” says Abby. Reducing waste by preserving and recycling still-useful (and interesting) items also motivated the couple. “I love old things and wanted to make them cool again so they, and their story, could get a second chance.”

A former hardware store downtown was the perfect place to sell their own pre-loved and second-hand collections, but the Thaxtons didn’t have the money to take on the massive space themselves. Abby noticed local artists and creatives needing a spot to show and sell their work. “The model of renting and sharing space with vendors gave us the store concept: to give folks a chance to make money and other folks a place to find neat things and maybe save some money on them,” Abby says. 

Fortunate Finds

When it opened in 2013 on St. Patrick’s Day weekend (a nod the good fortune in its name), visitors tumbled down the rabbit hole into a wonderland of amusements, heirlooms, and everything in between sourced from flea markets, internet sites, and roadsides. “It such a crazy mix,” Abby says. “You can find all kinds of stuff and all these diverse perspectives on what’s cool and fun and valuable, so there’s something for everyone. Plus, it’s always changing.”

Only open on weekends, The Lucky Rabbit welcomes approximately 15,000 shoppers a month who rifle through stacks and shelves of retro goods packing its two buildings. They take a break in the courtyard, re-fueling with fresh-squeezed lemonade, street tacos, or a cold beer from the onsite bar and reclining in folding lawn chairs before piling into a pastel-painted school bus on the courtyard’s edge. Inside, the colorful vintage Pyrex dishes transport them to the days of wiggly congealed salads and warm casseroles. “Anytime I see a piece of Pyrex, I have to have it,” Abby says. 

Some of The Lucky Rabbit’s most entertaining items aren’t for sale; they’re part of elaborate vignettes handmade by Abby and Brandon and tailor-made for social-media-worthy photo ops. Beginning as holiday-themed displays, the scenes grew bigger and started incorporating pop culture. A replica of the Surfer Boy Pizza delivery van from hit show “Stranger Things” waits out front. They faithfully reproduced Wednesday Adams’ dorm room from “Wednesday.” Last fall, a flip-flop-footed Santa greeted visitors from a 3-D Hawaiian vacation postcard. A sculpture of stacked tube TVs playing favorite movies currently overlooks shoppers (instead of littering a landfill). “With everything we do, we try to be fresh and original,” Abby says, “and we want the sets to really touch people; they bring back moments or ideas that touched us.”

Plan Your Visit

Hop over to The Lucky Rabbit at 217 Mobile Street in downtown Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It’s open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

theluckyrabbit.com, 217 Mobile Street, Hattiesburg, MS 39401