One person's trash - part one

Listen to this.

Welcome to commerce on the fringe - the thrift shop yard sale. It’s been called the last stop on the dumpster express. Donated items and things that can’t be sold at a regular retailer go to a thrift store. What can’t be sold at a thrift store comes here. Five mornings per week this parking lot is the auction site for tons of post-consumer jetsam. Dozens of people bid on rolling carts chock full of clothing, computer parts, stereo components, toys, tools – you name it. Some bins sell for as little as $10, others for more than $100. There are no guarantees here, no returns. Some of the items may work fine; but many will be tossed in dumpsters immediately as the bins are sorted. All that sorting goes on here in the lot following the auctions, and it makes for a lively, somewhat frenzied scene. Trucks piled dangerously high are loaded then driven south to Mexico where the items are resold in flea markets, antique stores, and yet more yard sales.

This place is both a salvage yard and a treasure chest; and to those who make their living selling merchandise that even thrift stores can’t move, it represents something even more profound - hope.

I’m going in... stay tuned.