Above The Fray: Housing Works Warehouse Sale Ain't For the Squeamish

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Every few months, Housing Works has these 20-bucks-a-bag sales out in Long Island City. If you think thrift shoppers + warehouse full of clothing + ridiculously cheap prices = mania, you're right. Blogger and deal-lover Cheap Jap braved the madness this Saturday, and returned with a sack of clothing and a review of the slightly-icky conditions. Let's just say, you might want to arrived armed with a set of disposable plastic gloves. "It looked like something had tossed its cookies all over the place, except instead of regurgitating stomach fluid, it vomited up clothes. Kim and I have shopped our fair share of thrift stores, but this was a whole different animal. Baby onesies, Halloween costumes, stained sweatshirts and sketchy leisure suits seemed to obscure anything halfway decent. Plus, 75% of the stuff was on the effing FLOOR. We were totally icked out." The whole thing makes a trip to Goodwill look positively refined.
· If the clothes are on a dirty floor of a warehouse in Queens, is it still considered shopping? Fearless foraging at Housing Works’ $20-Per-Bag Sale. [Cheap Jap]
· RackedWire: Housing Works Warehouse Sale in LIC; A New CVS for the UWS [Racked]