"This has been an incubator for side hustles and small businesses, a staple in shopping adventures and, for better or worse, long traffic lines that were part of the experience for so many years." That is how the owners of Rice's Market described the place in the closing announcement Patch reported on October 6. They added: "Some vendors stayed for a season, some for decades, and many grew from a small table or booth here into thriving businesses of their own."
That line explains what is closing. The barns and fields at 6326 Greenhill Road go quiet after Tuesday, December 29, 2026. The businesses that used those barns as a starting point are now splitting three ways. Some will continue somewhere else, some will change form, and some will end with the market. The remaining Tuesdays and Saturdays are the last chance to find out which tables you will be able to follow after the gates close.
The calendar from here
The market sits in Solebury Township and uses a New Hope mailing address. Rice's own homepage now carries a short banner: "We will be open Every Tuesday, saturday & black Friday- our last day is dec 29, 2026- thank you for so many memories!"
Counting from Saturday, November 7, that leaves:
- Saturdays: November 7, 14, 21 and 28, then December 5, 12, 19 and 26
- Tuesdays: November 10, 17 and 24, then December 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29
- Black Friday: November 27
That adds up to 17 market days if the posted schedule holds through the holidays. The homepage gives shopping hours of 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., while the Rice's FAQ page lists 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Arriving close to opening covers you under either set of hours. Parking costs $1. Black Friday is listed as an open day on the market's special openings page, so check that page for hours before you go.
The owners' announcement singled out Black Friday as the day people would remember most, calling it "the great chaos that was a Black Friday." November 27 will be the last one.
Who is packing up, and where they are headed
The Bucks County Courier Times was at the market on the day of the announcement. Its reporter, Michele Haddon, talked with vendors as they packed up that Tuesday afternoon. Vendors told the paper they had learned about the closing that morning, and each received a letter from market staff thanking them for being "an essential piece of what has made Rice's Great for so many years." Office manager Kathy Bowland confirmed the closure to the paper. Their plans fall into three groups.
Continuing elsewhere
Wanda Detweiler's Wickey Wackey Wicker World already has a permanent storefront in Perkasie, and the Courier Times reported that the business will carry on there. If you have bought wicker from her at Rice's, the Perkasie shop is where to find her after December.
Changing form
Supa DeRose, the chef and owner of Supa Thai, told the Courier Times that her takeout stand will end when the market closes. She will keep offering the Thai cooking classes and culinary tours she already runs, and she plans to schedule pop-up dinners. The takeout window has only a few weeks left. Her cooking will go on through the classes and pop-ups.
Ending with the market
June Brauer owns Sweet Annie, a gift and home decor shop at the market, with her husband, Charles. Her mother opened the business about 45 years ago. "We have a lot of customers who are regulars and they're like friends," she told the Courier Times. "We'll probably just retire when this closes."
Mike Barnes has sold old tools, keys and other antique collectibles at Rice's since 1974. Nancy Simon began in the 1970s, helping at her mother's table as a teenager, and has sold there on and off for about 50 years. Kevin Shattuck sells fishing gear. None of them told the paper about a next location. If a particular table matters to you, the remaining Saturdays are the time to ask the person behind it.
WFMZ spoke with more vendors, including Phyllis Lambs, Andrea Wall Bank and Robert Palmer, who remembered how large the market used to be.
How a farm auction became the county's flea market
The vendors' plans make more sense once you know how the market started. According to the Bucks County Herald's History Lives column, A.L. Rice settled the farm in the spring of 1860 and auctioned his own produce and livestock. Other local farmers and artisans soon joined him. The business later passed to brothers John and Reoloff "Junior" Rice. By the 1940s it had grown into a combination sale of livestock, produce and many other goods, and by the 1950s it had become a bargain-shopping market. The Courier Times dates the market to the 1950s, when it began mainly as a produce market. The owners' announcement simply says "over a hundred years."
PhillyVoice reported that the Rice family sold the property in 1982 and that Robert and Barbara Blanche have run the market since then. Their time running it overlapped with its busiest years. The Courier Times reported that from the 1980s into the early 2000s, more than 400 vendors filled the barns and grounds each week. Rice's website still describes the market as 30 acres drawing more than 400 vendors and 8,000 shoppers a week. Barnes described those years to the Courier Times: "The tables were often filled all the way to the tree line. Some people would come on a Monday and camp out overnight to be here in the morning. I thought it would be here forever."
Shattuck described something different to the same paper. He said the number of vendors and customers has dwindled over the past few years. The owners' announcement said only that "the market and economy changed over the last few years." WFMZ reported that the Blanches had noticed more people buying items online. PhillyVoice noted that the owners have not said what will happen to the property.
A market that started as a sale where neighbors brought their own goods has run the same way ever since. People set up a table and some of them built businesses from it. That model is why the closing reaches so many separate small businesses.
Things to do before the last Tuesday
Some things at Rice's will not be easy to find again after December 29. The owners' farewell listed several of them: "Pork roll, egg and cheese sandwiches on a perfect Kaiser roll, the echo of 'pretzels … fresh squeezed lemonade!' throughout the market, and so many high school kids' first job selling sodas out of coolers."
A few practical ways to use the remaining weeks:
- Ask your regular vendors about their plans. Wickey Wackey Wicker World and Supa DeRose have said publicly what comes next. Many vendors have not, and a conversation at the table is the surest way to find out.
- Plan around Black Friday, November 27. It is the last one, so confirm the hours on the market's site before you go.
- Pick a December Saturday. December 5, 12 and 19 come before the holiday week, which makes them good days to shop for gifts from the people who made or found them.
- Go on the final Tuesday, December 29. That is the market's last day.
The market sits close to New Hope's own holiday events, which makes it easy to combine with them. The Greater New Hope Chamber of Commerce lists the Christmas tree lighting for Sunday, November 29, at 5 p.m. The New Hope Holiday Parade steps off Sunday, December 6, at 4 p.m. A Saturday morning on Greenhill Road and a Sunday evening in town make for a full holiday weekend close to home.
After December 29
For flea-market browsing within a short drive, the Golden Nugget Antique Flea Market across the river in Lambertville is open year-round on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. It runs on different days, so a Tuesday visit to Rice's has no direct replacement.
The owners closed their announcement with a request that goes beyond any one market: "As our doors close, we hope you will remember to keep choosing small. Find the local business and buy from them, stop at the farmstand, visit the independent shop, hire the person who turned their hobby into a business." For Rice's regulars, that can start with the Perkasie wicker shop and the next Supa Thai pop-up dinner.
The Walton-Winn Team believes the small businesses that grew out of places like Rice's are a big part of what makes New Hope and Solebury feel like home. If you would like to talk about which local places matter most to you, or about how they fit into your next move around Bucks County, we are glad to have that conversation. Let's talk about your Bucks County home.
