How much do these bales cost usually? How would an individual buy them? I've visited one of the "ropa" stores in south Texas, the ones where they have massive piles of clothes you literally climb over to dig through, it was a real surprise those exist!
There used to be a store like that in Cambridge next to MIT where real estate was essentially free. We used to go to one where you just filed a plastic bag; the bag was weighed and you paid $1/lb. Great for parties and amazing finds.
Basically yes. The very scungeiness and corruption of East Cambridge leant it charm. It wasn’t like Yale or Columbia, wealthy walled fortresses in poor neighborhoods. Nerds and blue collar folk lived tooth by jowl. And Kendall square was a wasteland of decaying industrial buildings and weed-filled concrete lots.
I went to high school in Boston (the city on other side of the river) which was much more dangerous. At MIT I never felt my life was in danger.
The big 500-2000lb bales of clothes will sell for 15 to 20 cents a pound, it varies some depending on the quality of the clothing and the transportation and storage costs. If it is really all undamaged high quality clothing it could be more than $1 a lb, but generally what is sold in these big bales is a combination of it not being worth the time to sort and sell, and being damaged and not desirable. What isn't sold is recycled into rags, or sometimes sent overseas where the labor costs and incentives are different.
