Save Our Community was founded in the movement to resist Wal-Mart's development in Rosemead, California. Now, it has become a general site for news, information, gossip, talk, and blogging about Rosemead. We also have stories about South San Gabriel, San Gabriel, Montebello, and occasionally about Pico Rivera, El Monte, South El Monte, Alhambra, Temple City, and other nearby communities. Your host is Todd. If you want a blog just sign up, get approved, and start writing. Good posts will be moved onto the home page.
Rosemead yard sale report
The morning opened with a little drizzle. It was enough to get things wet and possibly to drive a few people into packing up and going home. But the rain stopped, and by late morning it was getting pretty warm out there on the blacktop. For both the drizzle and when it got hot, I was happy to have the pop-up canopies from my cousins to keep us dry/cool.
As I understand it, we had about 100 parking-spaces worth of selling space (but I think that included the food vendors, which occupied the entire eastern end of the lot). We also had about 100 people try to sign up after the slots had filled. (Just for the record, I waited until slots had been selling for 2-3 weeks and after announcements had been mailed to all the Rosemead addresses before signing up for mine, just to make sure everyone had a fair opportunity to get in on the yard sale).
We had a pretty steady stream of visitors and sold about 2/3 of the stuff we brought (mostly clothes and other things that we had collected from family members and offered at previous family yard sales). Since this was at a "remote" location, as opposed to someone's house, we didn't try to sell any large and difficult-to-transport items. No furniture, no large tv sets, etc. We did have a Nordictrack, but no one wanted that, even at $10!
Since we were mostly selling clothes, and the price on that was pretty low (initially $2 for most items, but eventually dropping down to 50 cents per item), this meant a lot of transactions for not a lot of money. Trac, Unlike at our previous family yard sales (which we held in South San Gabriel, Carson, or Torrance). In the end, we netted just $280. Brian, who sublet a small portion of one space, netted some additional amount. Don't know exactly how much, but I would figure maybe $40 or $50. I think he also made a lot of teenagers happy, since he was mostly selling comic books (and a few cds and dvds).
Of course, as with many things, we weren't in it for the money. We had a lot of fun chatting with our neighbors, friends, and relatives. And I could see by looking around the lot that others were having fun, too. I also know that a number of non-profit community groups were there having fun and raising money for their various causes. (I think the RYA baseball group alone made about $25 worth of pizza sales to my family and friends, and who ever it was that was selling the hot dogs, the taquitos, and the coffee and coffee cake made another $10 or $20).
And I'll say it again: This is something that didn't cost our city all that much money, but did provide its residents with a number of tangible benefits. 1) Our community groups raised a lot of money by selling food and drinks to both buyers andsellers. They'll use that money to give our youth something constructive to do with their time, or to provide for our less wealthy neighbors; 2) Many Rosemead residents got to "make" a few dollars by selling their cast-offs, and; 3) A LOT of residents from Rosemead and surrounding communities got a great bargain buying perfectly good (but outgrown or unwanted) clothes, toys, or other materials.