Joyce McNair

The Stereo

The women in my family (including me) are serious garage/yard/rummage/thrift/discount store shoppers. High-prices in fancy stores are not for us. Not that we don't like nice things--just not fancy prices. Bargains. That's the name of the game--like the 60 to75% off markdowns after Christmas. Now that's our speed. Besides being easy on the wallet, nothing compares with the satisfaction of buying something for little or nothing. That nice recliner in my mother's living room? Got that for $10 at a garage sale.

One of the sales that we look forward to every year is the one that Redwood City Discovery shop has every January 2. Now there are Discovery shops selling good quality used stuff all over the country. But as far as we're concerned, the one in Redwood City has got to be right up there at the top as far as sales go. For $1 a bag you can cram into a grocery bag anything for sale in the shop. That means dishes, books, lamps--you get the picture, don't you? Of course, there's a two bag limit.

In case you didn't know, Redwood City is right in the middle of San Francisco's suburban peninsula. A lotta people there have a lotta money and they spend it on--well, "things." Sometimes when they get rid of those "things," they're almost new. Peninsula thrift shops sometimes get those discards. People who are into bargain shopping know where the best buys are. A line has been known to form early on January 2 before the door's open for the Discovery Shop sale.

The year my sister Loretta, her teenage daughters Aisha and Jamila, and my other sister Jewel went to the sale, they decided to strategize so that they would know ahead of time

where everything in the store was. Jewel's assignment was to case the store beforehand. She even drew a diagram with arrows pointing to where the choicest items were.

Jewel and Loretta thought it made sense for each of them to work with one teenager, each team of one adult/one teenager taking 1/2 the store as their territory.

Both of my sisters are almost six feet tall. They were to clean out whatever they wanted from the upper wall shelves leaving Jamila and Aisha to go for everything below. Then they all would move to the middle of the store to fill their bags provided they weren’t already full.

Speed was the key. The plan was to fill the bags as quickly as possible. Later they could always give away anything they didn't want or need.

At 8:30am on January 2, the four waited in Jewel's vintage Pinto parked near the Discovery Shop along with several other cars of bargain hunters. At 9 o'clock sharp the doors opened and a group of about 20 women including my relatives entered and hurried down the aisles.

Quickly and carefully Loretta and Jewel on opposite sides of the store reached up and pulled down books, pots and pans, baskets, trinkets, etc., while Aisha and Jamila did the same thing below. It was like a giant vacuum cleaner was sucking up everything off the shelves.

In a few minutes all eight bags were stuffed.

After checking around to make sure they hadn't missed or dropped anything, they started toward the cash register. Just then, Jewel spotted something that had definitely not been around during her earlier trip. Near the center aisle behind a large cabinet stood a component stereo system with a record player, tape deck, and two floor speakers. The system looked like it was almost new.

"Anything you can jam into a grocery bag, huh? I still have my LPs,”
ran through Jewel's mind. Quickly she walked over to the stereo and dumped everything in her two grocery bags on the floor.

Standing one of the empty bags on the floor she picked up the record player at one end and tried to lower it into the bag. Her hand trembled from the weight. The bag fell over.

Stooping, Jewel stood the bag up again while hugging the record player to her body.
Then she put the record player on the floor, lifted the edge slightly and tried to pull the bag over it. The plastic dust cover flipped up. Jewel lowered the record player to the floor and the dust cover closed again.

Determined not to let this opportunity get away, Jewel called out to Loretta, Jamila, and Aisha who had been watching her with scepticism and amusement,
"Stop grinnin' and come on over here and help me."

They came willingly and dumped everything from their bags next to Jewel's pile.
Aisha grabbed one speaker, Jamila the other. Loretta had the tape deck while Jewel continued the struggle with the record player. Their pushing and pulling wasn't getting them anywhere but they kept at it.

"Aha! I got it now," bragged Loretta.

She stood the tape deck on one end and pulled her bag down over the machine. The bag tore.

Copying her mother, Jamila managed to pull her bag down about two inches over one of the speakers. She couldn't get it any further because her bag began to tear.

Jewel and Aisha were still at it with their components. Nobody was smiling anymore. In fact, they were all looking rather grim. Their struggles went on for a few more minutes.

Finally Aisha stood up and snorted in disgust the way teenagers do,
"Why are we doing this? This is so stupid."

At the same time one of the two salesladies noticed what was going on and came over.
"That stereo's not for sale. Somebody donated it on New Year's Eve and we didn't have time to take it to our storage space," she said.

"Ohhh," was my family's collective response.

Now very sober and rather pissed off each one restuffed her now damaged bag and together they rejoined the line at the cash register. It was now 9:15 am. A few latecomers picked over what was left.

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Cover Design: Joseph McNair