Are garage sales typical in Anglosaxon North America?
The notion of garage sales and how common they are is a topic that I have had in my mind for a long while but for some reason, I never get around blogging about it. But as I was walking out of my house and heading to my office this past Sunday, I realized that there was a garage sale right in front of my household.
Growing up in Mexico, garage sales were never the places where my parents would go to furnish our house, or buy toys, or kitchen utensils, etc. When I became a graduate student in Canada, for the first time ever, I visited a garage sale to buy some second-hand items. I am addicted to good garage sales, I might add. Well, not exactly addicted but I love a good garage sale where I score items that are super useful to me.
My current apartment has LOTS of stuff that I bought second hand, and I love them. But I pondered for a while yesterday (Sunday) – are garage sales just exclusive or traditional in Anglosaxon North America? What do YOU think?
Yes, garage sales are common throughout North America, as evidenced both by what my friends in other cities do and by pop-culture references.
I don’t know if they’re a culturally exclusive thing. I think it’s more of a particular subculture: you might host a garage sale every decade or two to clear out a pile of cruft, but the shoppers tend to be a mix of your neighbors out on a slightly purposeful stroll, and the hardcore garage sale pickers that scour dozens of sales a weekend as either a hobby or a business opportunity.
Some people are definitely repelled by the idea of garage sales, and some, not so much.
(I love garage sales, and only other more important activities keep me from spending every Saturday out picking them over and low-balling the sellers).