This is not for the faint of heart — garment sale shopping… One of the things to do in Dhaka is to shop for good bargains at a “garment sale.” A garment sale is hosted by one of the garment producers through a charity. For example, H&M donates “seconds” and other rejected garments which are then sold with the proceeds benefiting a charity. Basically, word gets out (via Facebook etc.) that a garment sale is happening at a certain time and place. People arrive up to an hour early to line up. Once the doors are open, people rush in and the melee commences. People are tightly packed crowd and they grab whatever they can sometimes out of your hands. The experienced have a bag and shove anything into it. Then they sort out and inspect what they want in a corner. The tables are labeled with “shirts” and so on but the piles are emptied within 30 minutes. Then folks toss back their rejects. Why join this insanity? Other than the fun of watching it? The clothes are 150 Taka per piece (about $1.90) so you can find a nice sweater or pair of jeans for under two bucks.
