Hello again and welcome back to America under the Microscope. 闲话美国 Hello, James.
Hello Lulu. Hey Lulu, I have a question for you.
Yeah?
What do people in China do when they want to get rid of their old things, like old furniture, books or things like that?
A good question actually, I don't think I was ever in that situation, but say when you move house, you might just leave your old furniture there, for the new owner to get rid of it. Or if you really want to get rid of it, perhaps find some you know like recycling man, garbage collector and then they will try to sort things out, or some people just check them out by the roadside down your building. Yeah.
That's very different than America.
So what do people do in America then?
Well, many people in America organize what we call garage sales.
Oh, I've heard of them, but I've also heard yard sale.
It's the same thing, just two different names for the same type of thing.
So what is it? Is it you're holding a sale event in your garage or in your yard?
That's more or less accurate. So what it is, is a family, it’s usually a family, have stuff they want to get rid of because maybe they're moving, maybe they just have too many things and they want more space, or they want to get some extra money. So they will sell off these products to whoever wants to buy them.
Oh, to be honest, there are a few words or a few expressions that I've heard that are related to selling used stuff, for example, garage sale, yard sale and I think in the UK they have car boot sale.
I know what that is where we sell things out of our car. But we don't call it that in US, we don't really have a name for it.
And there's also flea market which is just quite professionally people selling secondhand used things.
So a flea market, it'll be more of a community market and people will rent a space and they'll bring in and sell their stuff.
跳蚤市场 There is one question though, once I've heard the expression estate sale. How is that different from yard sale or garage sale?
Well, what they're selling is no different, just the situation is different. Estate sale is when a family has extra stuff that they got from a family member who had just recently died and they need to get rid of it, so they sell off all these, maybe old clothes, old furniture that they got when their grandparents or great grandparents passed away.
Oh so the difference between garage sale and estate sale is, garage sale is mostly selling your own things, estate is more like selling family member who passed away, selling their things.
Correct. That's right.
But how do we know? Obviously they are selling things; they want to sell it to other people. How do other people find out about these sales because they're not professional sellers?
One of the best ways in America is still the newspaper. A lot of people will put an advertisement in the community section of a newspaper, saying that there will be a yard sale. Also there will be community boards like in community centers, outside of schools or even in supermarkets.
Okay.
People can look.
I'm always very interested in the idea, in the concept of community. I know it’s translated into 社区, is it the same idea as a Chinese 小区？
More or less, I mean we would call it a neighborhood, but it's the same kind of idea, and also we find out about garage sale simply by driving around town and people putting out signs next to the road that says yard sale at blah blah address and we go there.
But I mean nowadays, perhaps people also put it on their social media may be.
Oh, most definitely you can easily send out a message on many different platforms and you can find out that way.
Early on you talked about the general concept of garage sale and also mentioned a few reasons why people would have garage sale, so what are some of the reasons? You said maybe they are moving to a new place?
Yeah, that's the most common, moving. Second is just they have a lot of extra stuff and they want to get rid of it. Third is maybe they need money like they're short on money or they have expenses and this is an easy and quick way to make extra cash.
Yeah, but I wouldn't imagine there will be a lot of cash to be made, would it?
Usually no, but if you're in a situation you need money, any little bit can help.
Yeah and I guess also depending on what you're selling, obviously with the estate sale is more selling off the things your dead relatives passed on to you. There's one thing I know this might just be from a personal point of view, when you're doing a garage sale, you're showing some of the very intimate side about your life. Wouldn’t there be nosy neighbors and say, oh, look, this is how they live.
No, not really. Because there's a good chance your neighbors have already been in your house.
Okay, they've already seen this stuff.
They may have already seen it. So not really, it's not anything we worry about, and plus this is our old stuff, not our new stuff.
Um, now here comes the more practical question. Is it, do they hold these kind of garage sales any time or just around, for example holidays or weekends?
Most commonly a Saturday and Sundays because that's when people have time, they're not at work, kids aren't at school. There are occasionally ones during the week, but they're fairly uncommon. You cannot get people to go to them.
Of course everyone's working. It sounds like garage sale is not just selling and buying; it’s almost like one of those weekend activities that people just enjoy.
Yeah, it’s kind of an idea in America that going garage selling is something that couples do.

Oh together?
Together. A couple will go on Saturday morning to go around the different sales and seeing if there's anything that they can buy for their home or maybe just meet their neighbors.
I guess, you talk to your neighbors, look at their stuff and then you don't have to buy anything.
You don’t have to, no.
By the end of the day, right. But if you truly have set your mind on buying things, what can you buy?
Well, sky is the limit to be honest.
Depending on what they're selling.
Depends on what they're selling. But from my personal experience I've bought furniture, I’ve bought books, video games, cooking utensils like pots and pans. My father once bought a gun.
Wow, this is very much with American characteristics; you can buy guns at garage sale.
It’s probably with questionably illegal, but …
Yeah, because there's the potential issue of a registration.
Yes, there's that. People like bikes, TVs and …
What about clothes?
Sure. But for the most part, clothes are not that popular because not a lot of people honestly like to buy used clothes.
That's true. That's true.
But the most popular for most people is the furniture and then cookware.
Oh so like pots and pans, any of your things you need to use when you cook.
You know because some people have really high quality cookware and which will be way better than things you can even buy in the store.
Oh yes. Some of the cookware can be very very expensive if you buy them brand new. And then let's talk about money. At these garage sales, I know you can bargain.
Yes, this is one of the few situations in America. Bargaining is socially accepted.
And encouraged?
I wouldn't say encouraged.
Do they expect you to bargain if they put up a sale, garage sale?
Not everyone, a lot of Americans will just pay the sticker price. Yeah you can ask, but make sure you have cash because they're not going to take credit card or anything else.
Plus a lot of the things that in garage sale they are not really that expensive.
No. You can get a lot of stuff for like a dollar or ten dollars. Even their furniture, you can get a sofa for twenty dollars if it's, you know, depending on condition.
So in the end let's talk about people's general attitude towards garage sales. I guess it's because I've been talking to British people for too long. So every time I see an activity I'm thinking, is this related to a certain social class? 是不是有阶级之分？
Well, America doesn't have that kind of strict social classes like the UK does. And you'll find garage sales in working class neighborhood in America and middle class neighborhoods and middle class people who have money, who can buy new things, will still go to garage sales to shop. And there are people who are trying to save money who will go to garage sales to see if they could buy something cheaper.
True, especially if it's a weekend activity. Why not?
So everybody will go, there's nobody looks down upon it. The only people who really don't are the wealthy.
Well, I guess there's stuff because it's so expensive that it just goes to auction. All right, so in the advanced episode, let us get more into this topic and let us talk about negotiation, you can give us a few tips.
Sounds great.
We will see you next time.
Bye everyone.
Bye.

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