“We take anything wearable, mostly vintage and modern from the last two or three years,” says Vashti Windish, a manager at Beacon’s Closet, a mainstay of the city’s re-sale industry. The store, which has locations in Williamsburg and Park Slope, evaluates items, prices them for their racks and pays out 35% cash or 55% store credit. Not bad for a thrift store where one can find a slightly worn American Apparel t-shirt for about $10—$5 off its price, brand new.
According to Windish, Beacon’s sees a steady income of clothes all year, but is busiest in the fall with the return to school, Halloween and the general tendency of its shoppers to update their closet with the turn of the leaves.
For those who have run out of hardcover copies of Freakanomics, Ramones t-shirts or spare Buffalo Nickels, there is always the lure of actually hitting the pavement.
A walk on certain stretches of Broadway on a nice day can reveal the city’s underground economy, sustained by college-age lackeys distributing pieces of paper to uninterested pedestrians. It’s a largely thankless job, but it pays.
“You’re handing them something for free and people still have a problem with it,” explained Malcolm Benton, outside of the Union Square Viring Megastore. He makes $14 an hour handing out pamphlets for Expedia.com. “We were handing out Fruit-2-0 and people were asking the ingredients.”
McDonough eventually landed a similar job promoting parties for Shaw Promotions. “I initially emailed [looking for a job] because someone told me that you can make $10 an hour handing out fliers.” With a year still left in school, he now helps manage the street teams that he started out on and might have stumbled into a career path.
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