A few weeks ago, Theo was looking for a desk and took us to a used office furniture outlet he had found. The store was located in an old warehouse district and used to be some kind of a factory. The building had four floors each filled with buyouts obviously from offices that had closed. There were desks, chairs, file cabinets, and every other thing that could have been in an office. Interestingly enough, it was also an art gallery. Around the high ceilings, sagging steps, and brick walls were hanging paintings from local artists for sale.
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The store had one employee who greeted us when we came in and said that we could explore on our own. I don't know if that was because we looked trustworthy or that she didn't want to leave her space heater because the building had no heat. We began our way up the stairs and discovered that each floor was dark until we turned on the lights. We spent our time winding among the mazes of stuff, calling out when we found something interesting. Some of it was interesting because it was really old or seemed out of place like the panty hose we found, and sometimes it was interesting because it might be a potential item for purchase.
Theo eventually did find a desk to fit his needs and Ward and I found two office chairs we wanted. Now how to get them to the car from the fourth floor? After we found the store employee, she got the building's old freight elevator working for us. When we got them to the first floor, the desk and chairs were awkwardly loaded from the old loading dock to our car.
It turned out to be a fun and interesting couple of hours. We were happy that we shopped there because we felt we got a better bargain than we would have at most other places. Later I wondered if that was because we had to work for our purchase in a place that appeared to have a very low overhead. Of course, a smart shopper knows their prices no matter where they are shopping, but I wonder if sometimes we can get caught in the idea of a good deal in a place where we think we should be getting one?
Are you ever influenced by the place you are shopping whether it is really fancy or just bare bones?
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| This sign assured me that we were getting good prices. :) |
