Who needs the reality show American Pickers when they can find bargain basement deals in their own backyard?

Merchants can scour several blocks of Delaware Avenue in Palmerton to uncover their own hidden gems as part of the borough's 40th annual Sidewalk Sale.The sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and from 9 a.m. to closing time on Saturday.For shoppers, that means a litany of items to scroll through, as various businesses in the downtown showcase their wares inside and outside their stores as part of the sale.Cheryl Wiegand, owner of Pride and Passion Grooming Shoppe at 413 Delaware Avenue, said the sale is "great overall for the whole business community.""It helps to bring people into my store that may not have necessarily known that I was here, and brings other people into the community for a special event," Wiegand said. "Our goal is to meet new customers to let them know what we have to offer."A veteran of the sale, Jeff Hager, owner of Hager's Furniture at 242 Delaware Avenue, said it remains his favorite business weekend of the year."It is a big deal for us certainly, and for most of the merchants in town, because it gets a lot of people out on the street and a lot of people shopping," Hager said. "We want to keep business local, and offer lot of good deals to keep merchants shopping in town."Hager said it's his belief that "the more we can offer people outside on the sidewalk, the more people it actually brings inside the store.""If you just put stuff outside that is old stock and it's not real nice, people kind of walk by and give a little sniff and keep going," he said. "But, if you put nice stuff out there, it brings people in; we've done that and it brings more people in every year."