TikTok Star Puts Levittown's Tri-County Bazaar Back on the Map

Kim Schindler never set out to become the face of a beloved Long Island institution. She just wanted people to know it was still open.

Schindler owns KST Music inside the Tri-County Bazaar, the longtime indoor market on Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown. Her shop carries replica guitars and music memorabilia tied to some of the biggest names in music history. But over the past year and a half, she has become just as well known for something else entirely: her TikTok account, which has quietly turned into one of Long Island’s more unexpected success stories.

The account, @tiktoktricounty, now sits at nearly 19,000 followers with more than 685,000 total likes. One video has climbed to almost 3 million views. None of it was planned.

The whole thing started because Schindler kept hearing the same thing from people: they thought Tri-County had closed.

“I kept hearing people say ‘I used to shop at Tri-County,’ or ‘I thought Tri-County was closed,’” Schindler said. “But now we’ve got the word out. I get people that have never shopped at Tri-County coming in to say hi to me and shop. It has been amazing.”

Her first video was simple. She stood outside the building and recorded a short clip explaining what the market was, showing viewers the entrance. No script, no production crew. Just Schindler and her phone.

“My first video was outside of Tri-County, just showing people what it actually was,” she said. “After that, every week I started to post videos meeting new people, talking to new vendors, and trying to build us up.”

From there, the videos took on a life of their own. She began filming everyday moments inside the bazaar, chatting with shoppers, introducing different vendors, and capturing the casual community feel of the place. The format was loose and genuine, and viewers responded to it.

“After a few months, it just kept growing,” Schindler said. “More people wanted to meet me and talk to me.”

Now, regulars and first-time visitors alike often recognize her before they even make it to her shop. The TikTok account has essentially become a word-of-mouth engine for the whole market, not just KST Music.

“We have a good time just meeting new people, finding out what they want to shop for, what they want to do, and getting more people to come in,” she said.

Inside KST Music, the inventory spans decades and genres. The shop carries officially licensed replica instruments connected to legendary artists, each one produced through agreements with the artist, their estate, or a publishing company.

“I sell replica musical instruments,” Schindler said. “From The Beatles, to Elvis, to Jimi Hendrix. We have heavy metal guitars, country ones, really any genre’s instrument is here.”

The accuracy matters to her. Each piece is created to match the original instrument as closely as possible.

“We get a contract from each artist, their estate, or publishing company, and create the replica based on that,” she said. “They are all completely accurate and legal.”

For the Tri-County Bazaar itself, the attention has been a welcome boost. Indoor markets like this one have faced plenty of headwinds over the years, from changing shopping habits to the rise of online retail. Schindler’s videos have helped reintroduce the bazaar to people who had written it off years ago and introduced it to people who had never heard of it at all.

There is something fitting about a vendor selling pieces of music history finding an audience through the medium of short videos filmed on a smartphone. The tools are new, but the impulse is the same one that has always driven small business owners: showing people what you have and hoping they walk through the door.

For Schindler, it started as a practical fix for a persistent rumor and turned into something she clearly enjoys. The camera comes out every week. The followers keep coming. And somewhere on Hempstead Turnpike, a market that plenty of people thought was long gone is welcoming new visitors who arrived because of a three-minute video on their phone.