I am always glad to hear about things that support my idealistic idea of another world – a world without greed and materialistic manipulations.
Recently a shop opened in New York (a stone’s throw from Ground Zero) where nothing is for sale and everything is for free! The store was founded by local artists Athena Robles and Anna Stein, who set it up with a $9,000 grant from a cultural organisation and the September 11 fund.
There’s only one ‘rule’, which is that customers should only take what they need (brilliant condition!!). Passers by have been spotted carrying off all manner of items, from DVDs and posters to stained glass ceiling fittings and children’s clothes. For more impressions and details read the GUARDIAN report here.
(Photograph: Frederic Lafargue/Rapport)
Let’s see how long this idea will work and if something similar will be found elsewhere in the word – or may be even it would become a trend?
LOVE, axinia
axinia
1000 petals by axinia 
But A x i n i a,
this can never be a gift shop 🙂
swaps, actually what I read is that some people find nice gifts there (imagine!) 🙂
That’s a very surprising idea!! And I am liking it already. Quite brilliant. Imagine someone walking into it and returning empty handed because they didn’t find anything that is of use to them, or anything that they wanted or anything that has a discount on it!! 🙂 Brilliant!!
Sorry, but I think it should be an exchange shop – bring something that you want to give away and leave that in the shop against what you take. Value of items need not be similar. but you have to leave something to take something. That ways, we can be sure the shop will never shut. Are they giving franchisees? 🙂
Raman, you see the West is OVERLOADED with goods. There are plenty of people who have so much that they dont know what to do with it…so mostly people are happy to give something nice but what they dont really need away, especially for such a good purpose.
What a brilliant idea! 💡
So I guess it’s some kind of a barter for things that one may need for something that one may not need. I believe it is going to instill some sense of the barter system in people. Which is a good thing because we are going to see some real bartering in the not-too-distant-future, when all the trillions of money printed out of thin air by the Federal Reserve (and other crooked central banksters who control the system) causes severe hyperinflation 😐
Yes, Raj I am also pretty sure that people will come back to barter soon…
I agree 3 😀
Very interesting!!!
Raman, in Milan they are becoming very trendy exchange shops
There was once an article in a Tamil magazine on the title ‘Gandhi Kadai’ meaning Gandhi Shop. There, they set up shop in the sideway of a main road and they kept all the items for sale (Over a table) with a small box to deposit the money nearby. The catch is: There is no one near the shop and it was just exposed to the public (Yeah the journalists were taking photographs from a distance!). They kept it from morning to night and surprisingly they reported that people had bought a lot of articles from that shop and deposited the money promptly in the box (The accounts were almost tallying – is what the magazine reported). Was glad to read that article!
Destination Infinity
thank you DI, that is another good example. I tell you, people in generall are much better than we think they are. Or WE ARE? 🙂