NY Times: As Yard Sales Boom, Sentiment Is First Thing to Go

[marmar]

As Yard Sales Boom, Sentiment Is First Thing to Go


By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
Published: October 24, 2008


MANTECA, Calif. — As the classified ads put it, everything must go. Socks. Christmas ornaments. Microwave ovens. Three-year-old Marita Duarte’s tricycle was sold by her mother, Beatriz, to a stranger for $3 even as her daughter was riding it.

On Mission Ridge Drive and other avenues, lanes and ways in this formerly booming community, even birthday celebrations must go. “It was no money, no birthday,” said Ms. Duarte, who lost her job as a floral designer two months ago. The family commemorated Marita’s third birthday without presents last week, the occasion marked by a small cake with Cinderella on the vanilla frosting. They will move into a rental apartment next month.

An eternity ago, people in this city in northern San Joaquin County braved four-hour round-trip commutes to the San Francisco Bay Area for a toehold on the dream. Today, Manteca’s lawns and driveways are storefronts of the new garage-sale economy — the telltale yellow signs plastered in the rear windows of parked cars Friday through Sunday directing traffic to yet another sale, yet another family.

“You can get great deals,” said Sharrell Johnson, 32, who was scouting for toys in the Indian summer heat last Friday amid boxes of tools and DVDs and forests of little skirts and shirts dangling from plastic hangers on suspended rope. “Sad to say, you’re finding really good things. Because everybody’s losing their homes.”

The garage-sale economy is flourishing here and in many other regions of the country, so much so that some cities have begun cracking down. With more residents trying to increase their income, the city of Weymouth, Mass., limited yard sales to just three a year per address. Detective Sgt. Richard Fuller said it was now common to see 15 cars parked in front of a house. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/us/25garage.html?hp

[BlueManDude]

1. ..but Larry Kudlow said we were in the middle of a Bush Boom...

[marmar]

2. That man is an idiot of epic proportions.....

I watched about five minutes of him and didn't know whether to laugh or scream.

[BlueManDude]

3. he keeps saying the same shit - eventually he'll be right.

[midnight]

4. So will the Bush boom be synonymous with the Hoover flags?

When my grandparents were raising my parents, pockets were turned inside out because they had no money in them-hence hoover flags. Another symbol of what generations before us endured due to markets gone bad.