MONA’s First Offline Free Market

by Thai An Kim

MONA has officially gone from online only to offline! On May 13, 2023, Quinn P., founder of MONA, hosted the first MONA Free Market in person at Vegan & Beyond in Seoul. She said, “At MONA, we believe in sharing and community building, and this event is our way of bringing those values to life.”

People were able to drop off their donation, mail them to Vegan & Beyond if they could not make it to the event, and set up their own table if they had more than 10 items. Thanks to a group of volunteers, over 300 items were neatly sorted into categories like clothes, shoes, bags, etc.

From 2:00PM to 5:00PM, visitors freely browsed and took what they needed so that these preloved items could have a new home. There were over 60 Koreans and foreigners from 24 countries participating. ​

One foreigner who came to the event was an exchange student and she was ecstatic to participate, saying that “It’s quite difficult for me to find things because I’m quite tall.” Coincidentally, one of the shirts she found was from the university she is currently attending. What a nice surprise! ​

Quinn often says: “people say there is no such thing as a free lunch, but it does exist and you can find it on MONA.” MONA’s first offline free market shows that if people’s hearts are willing, things can be given away for free without any monetary exchange. ​

At the end of the event, Quinn donated the leftover items to an organization for people with disabilities. No item left behind! This step of taking MONA from an online platform to an offline event is going back full circle to how Quinn first started to connect people through local events before creating MONA. We plan to have more MONA offline free markets to share the love. Join us in our cause to protect the planet and solve the climate crisis one free item at a time!

Follow MONA's Official Instagram for more information about upcoming events and free markets.
Join MONA's Facebook Group to create a more sustainable environment through giving and receiving items for free.​