Tri-County Bazaar's 'TikTok Queen' Kim Schindler draws an audience — and shoppers — to Levittown

Levittown's Tri-County Bazaar has found its social media queen.

Kim Schindler, 60, of Oceanside, who owns KST Music at Tri-County Bazaar, started the TikTok account "TriCounty" about a year and a half ago.

"It’s just something I started doing on my own just because I really felt like we needed it," she said referring to the small businesses. "I didn’t think it was going to take off."

She got the name "Tri-County TikTok Queen" from a vendor at Ariana’s Bridal Boutique after she posted videos of herself wearing a tiara and walking around Tri-County with a wand similar to the one used by Cinderella’s fairy godmother.

The flea market, located in the old Mays Department Store on Hempstead Turnpike, has multiple floors featuring dozens of stalls and sellers.

Schindler created the TikTok account to bring traction back to Tri-County Bazaar as more people shop online.

Her account has more than 24,000 followers, more than one million likes and one video has three million views. 

"I just said to myself and my family, ‘We got to get the word out that Tri-County’s open and there’s so many cool small businesses in Tri-County that need people to come in and just check it out and see what’s offered there,'" she said.

She posts a half-dozen videos each day from Thursday to Sunday, focusing on other vendors, interacting with customers and just being herself.

"I don’t edit anything," Schindler said. "I’ve fallen on the stairs in one video, I walked into a wall in a video and I walked into a sign because I was walking backwards."

"It makes me very happy that the word is getting out," Schindler said. "I know some of the other businesses are doing better because of people coming in, so it’s helping."

Although her social media fame has led to opportunities to do promotional content for products, Schindler feels it would go against her intentions for the account..

"I see people doing TikToks on promoting products all the time and I don’t know if that’s really something I want to get into," she said. "I think a lot of it that holds me back from that is the thought of, you have to order that online. And that’s kind of exactly the opposite of that I’m trying to promote."

She hopes her videos remind people of what it was like to shop at the mall and that those memories entice them to return.

"That’s what I wanted to do, make a difference for all of Tri-County, not just my store," she said.