> it was a real surprise those exist!

There used to be a store like that in Cambridge next to MIT where real estate was essentially free. We used to go to one where you just filed a plastic bag; the bag was weighed and you paid $1/lb. Great for parties and amazing finds.

Oh, I remember doing this - the Garment District? Looks like they are still around.

Oh yeah, that was their real name! I couldn’t remember as we always called it “dollar a pound”

The Garment District is the part upstairs that has cute vintage / upcycled ... Dollar a Pound is below.

No clue how they're handling post-covid but before they were still doing clothes by the pound as usual

One of my friends got jabbed by a used needle in a pair of pants he bought from Dollar a Pound. It was not a fun experience for him...

I liked the clothes I got from there though! I found a cool jacket once.

I used to go there in the 80s so that would have been considered “extra authentic”.

Yes, kids are dumb.

> next to MIT where real estate was essentially free

Is MIT built in/near a dump or something? Or you mean it was but definitely isn’t essentially free now? Or?

Basically yes. The very scungeiness and corruption of East Cambridge leant it charm. It wasn’t like Yale or Columbia, wealthy walled fortresses in poor neighborhoods. Nerds and blue collar folk lived tooth by jowl. And Kendall square was a wasteland of decaying industrial buildings and weed-filled concrete lots.

I went to high school in Boston (the city on other side of the river) which was much more dangerous. At MIT I never felt my life was in danger.

Yeah, that part of Cambridge was originally all industry. It’s been changing slower than you would think.

That was true historically but all of the real estate around MIT is now worth millions

It was literally called Dollar a Pound and it's where I got all my clothes as a teenager.

The big 500-2000lb bales of clothes will sell for 15 to 20 cents a pound, it varies some depending on the quality of the clothing and the transportation and storage costs. If it is really all undamaged high quality clothing it could be more than $1 a lb, but generally what is sold in these big bales is a combination of it not being worth the time to sort and sell, and being damaged and not desirable. What isn't sold is recycled into rags, or sometimes sent overseas where the labor costs and incentives are different.