Man gauges recession through yard salesBy TAMMY JOYNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Tom Zarrilli descends the stairs of a Druid Hills home into a dark, dusty basement strewn floor to ceiling with stuff. Lots and lots of stuff.
To the uninitiated, it looks like one big mess. To Zarrilli, this is a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” moment.
An old Royal typewriter next to a spittoon. Old gift wrap. Shelves of college math books. A Burl Ives album mixed in with a Nat King Cole record. A 1949 Emory University yearbook. An ashtray from “occupied Japan.” A hand-crank popcorn popper circa 1935. A couple’s life accumulated over 40 years, now ended by the death of a spouse.
“This is much more of an archaeological find,” he said excitedly, grabbing the camera around his neck and snapping his way through the clutter.
Zarrilli has spent most of his Saturdays for the past 20 years in other people’s basements and backyards, sifting through, documenting — and now blogging — about people’s castoffs. He sees himself as an anthropologist of sorts, not as a bargain hunter, since he rarely buys anything anymore.
His observations offer a glimpse of America’s decades-long march to material excess. And now with the recession, yard sales offer a peek at what consumers are doing to rein that in.
“In America, people are normally very private. You can’t see inside their homes,” Zarrilli said. “They take it out on the street where they have yard sales. There’s books they read, clothes they wore, videos they watched. It tells us about them and also what they don’t want anymore.”
Or what they can’t afford to hang onto anymore. ........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2009/03/01/yard_sale_atlanta.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
