Monday, March 23, 2009

Shopping the Birthright Rummage Sale I

The annual Birthright rummage sale took place last weekend. Like most events, there is a lot of work behind the scenes. It begins the Sunday before when the Saint Augustine Church basement is prepped. Tables and clothing racks are set up and extra chairs are put away.
By Tuesday there was a fair amount of stuff in corner.
On Thursday a pack of people take the pile, sort it, and set it out on tables.
This year it was all set up by Thursday at noon. Compared to years in the past, there was not a lot of stuff. In the year of Katrina, the amount of stuff was noticeably down as people sent loads of clothing south (where most of it probably ended up in landfills). This year was the amount of clothing and stuff was as depressed.
Toys took a tremendous hit. Usually the piles of toys are much higher than this.
The same with shoes, most of which fit on the pie rack. In the past there have been twice as many shoes.
The pile of books may look impressive, but often there are many boxes spread out on the floor.
It is good to see at least one table where some of the stuff had to be put on the floor in boxes. This is what the sale looked like as the doors were ready to be opened at 9:00 on Friday.
Dozens of people were ready to start shopping. Many even brought their own bags to fill for $2.00. The price per paper grocery bag has not changed for many years.
At about 9:30 it was hard to walk around the basement because there were so many people looking through the tables. By the way, the different things are on different tables. Some have women's pants, other women's blouses, others men's shirts, etc.
By the end of the day the tables were much emptier. Below is what was left of the toy section.
Remember the books? There were still a few left, but they probably were not what most people would want to read.Tomorrow we will look at the end of the sale.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, lots less than in the past. The church basement looked clean even with all stuff set up and ready for the sale.

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  2. Keep the photos coming. I love them.

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  3. Keep the photos coming. They are GREAT!!

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