Boxing for Bargains
One of the benefits to working downtown is proximity to the Bargain Box, the second-hand goods store run by the Junior League of Greensboro. Clothes are the main staple here, but there's always a wide selection of odds and ends, some of which are odd and some of which should have met an end long ago. But for the most part, the place rocks when it comes to finding good-condition things.
We've both subsidized and patronized the Box over the years. Sometimes, walking into the store is like walking into our closet from a year ago. About half of our daughter's closet cache came from the Box.
Got qualms about wearing other people's clothes? While the line might reasonably be drawn at monograms and ring-around-the-collar, I've worn many a shirt that bore someone else's name on the collar. Think the clothes won't hold up or are in poor condition? Last week, my 10-month-old son was sporting a red Talbots Kids cable-knit sweater that looked familiar. Turns out I bought it from Bargain Box for my daughter a few years ago. A Brooks Brothers dress shirt I bought four years ago is holding up well.
Then there are the Box's sales, which prompts this posting. The store hosts sales several times a year, and these are not piddly sales. The one today is 40 percent off. I've been to sales where discounts were 60 and 75 percent.
Don't take these sales lightly; think rugby without the manners. Getting in the place today required three "excuse me's." If you haven't started your holiday shopping at the stores yet, going to the Bargain Box sale will prep you for crowd management.
"I'm surprised a fight hasn't broken out in here yet," said the woman in front of me.
My haul this trip: three sweaters (one of them cashmere) and an Abercrombie and Fitch casual shirt. I paid $18.