By: Jhulianne Aggasid & Anthony Martinez, Website Contributors | March 1, 2023
Photo Courtesy of Instagram
Alpine Village, also known as German Town, located in Torrance, California, will close its swap meet after 55 years of service. According to Alpine Village’s official website, “Alpine Village was first opened in 1968 “as a destination for shopping, dining, and entertainment.”
Alpine Village is described as a location that includes 3 other sections: Alpine Market, a German Market that offers all sorts of European foods; Alpine Shops, which provide many different services and products; and Alpine Swap Meet, a market that offers all kinds of products sold by vendors .
Events and history that might have contributed to the closure of Alpine Village’s swap meet include: financial issues, disputes with a real estate development firm, and Torrance officially declaring the site a landmark.
However, no official reason for closure has been released thus far.
Zippia, a website that helps users find jobs by giving information and history about companies, states that in July 2019 Alpine Village was put up for sale and also potentially threatened with substantial demolition, however “local residents created the ‘Friends of Alpine Village’ Facebook page and a change.org petition to raise awareness about the site’s history and advocate for its landmark designation”, and they were successful.
According to Eater LA, Alpine Village Cafe, a German based restaurant most known for their beer and sausages and located within Alpine Village, was first closed in April of 2020 due to staffing shortage and also because the cafe had been losing money for many years at that time.
According to an informational article published in the Daily Breeze, “After half a century of Oktoberfest celebrations, South Bay landmark Alpine Village, near Torrance, was officially designated as a historic landmark, as expected, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Sept. 29, (2020)”
This action was to protect the historical site from a real estate development firm, Pacific Industrial.
Carson High School freshman Jose Delgado recalled his experiences at the swap meet.
“I’ve been to the actual stores before to go shopping with my dad, but I used to go there with my grandma for the swap meets,” said Delgao. “I think it sucks, and I wish it wasn’t closing.”
CHS freshman Daviella Casillas said, “[I have] gone a lot with [my]s family to buy flowers and things for [her] mom’s garden.”
Shoppers like Casillas are understandably upset about the closure.
“[I] did go there in the past. All [I] did there was walk around,” said CHS freshman Christopher Guiterez. “[I] honestly feel kinda disappointed since I haven’t been there in years and now it’s suddenly closing”
As expected, this has affected all the vendors at the swap meet negatively. Alpine Village has closed its door to the public permanently so there will be no more visits from now on.