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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   3035 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 17, 2025

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I've been to LA recently and I wonder if anybody here knows the answer to this: one thing I noticed there is a lot of people selling clothes (and other things but mostly clothes and shoes) on the street. And I mean right on a random street (maybe not random, but looked random to me), not even a tent, nothing, just some hangers or tarps and clothes and shoes on them. A lot of those.

Who are they? Why are they doing it on the street? Where these clothes come from - are they stolen? I have hard time imagining legit wholesaler giving people their goods to just sell randomly on the street - but maybe I'm wrong? What is the basis for this business, how that works? How people wouldn't just steal all the clothes if they steal massively from regular retail shops - are the criminals providing security for them? Or maybe corrupt cops? No regular cops for sure since I haven't seen a single policeman around for all the time I've been in LA.

I've never seen such a thing in any other major city that I can remember. I've seen kinda grey marketplaces or genuine street markets, but those are always in certain designated places and usually have at least some infrastructure, not just randomly deployed on the street. Why this is specifically in LA?

Yea I remember a fair amount of this clustered west of Skid Row in a neighborhood called the Toy District I think. Not just toys though, just about anything that can be mass imported from Asia wholesale can be found there now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_District,_Los_Angeles

The article discusses the economy of the area a little bit. Looks like this: https://maps.app.goo.gl/1XyjCRMusLzY5SGBA

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