Swap till You Drop

Just when you thought it was safe to head for the beach, the siren's song of dirt-cheap bargain-hunting draws you to a sprawling, sun-baked patch of land where you can park free on weekdays, get in free, browse free, and load up with eclectic acquisitions or plain swell stuff for darned-near free.

From Barbie dolls to slightly used miter saws, here's a place where you can feel free to squeeze nickels until the buffalos moan. Fort Lauderdale's Swap Shop (3291 W Sunrise Blvd. 954/791-7927) is a 180,000-square-foot shopping-entertainment complex, on 88 acres and painted in screaming yellow, that makes it possible to find dollar-store items for a dime, hand-dipped mango incense for a couple of bucks, and fresh Florida produce on your way to the parking lot. Psychic readings are negotiable, and $15 buys you muscle-relief at the Chinese Backrub Booth, near a stall where you can get tailoring done while you wait. A small midway with a merry-go-round near the pedestrian walkway over Sunrise Boulevard houses a giant video arcade and eateries. You can hang around past dusk to catch flicks at the Swap Shop Drive-In, now with 14 screens.

Established in 1963 by Betty and Preston Henn, the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop stems from what originally was known as the Thunderbird, one of America's then-ubiquitous drive-ins. By 1966, Henn started farming out his land as a weekend flea market. As drive-ins went bust nationwide, the Thunderbird held on, propped up by Swap Shop revenues. By 1979 Henn had put up a building as an open-air food court surrounded by vendors. In 1988 he walled it in, adding air-conditioning and a stage where local bands jammed at no charge. Next came a free circus, later phased out in favor of a high-end auto display. In 1990 singer Ronnie Milsap kicked off a free-concert tradition. And the rest, as they say, is drive-in-movie-aficionado history.

Henn, a handsome devil now well into the un-sunny side of 70, made news some years back when getting into a scuffle with a tenant, after which Broward Sheriff's Office deputies took a notion to taser-gun the Swap Shop king. Henn bounced back with an ad campaign proclaiming "Crazy. Loco. Insane. Our Swap Shop prices are so low that they're tasering me."