Ropa

Linda and I went for the Ropa experience and it was very educational. Ropa’s is a cross between a clearance sale and a flea market or garage sale. Some of the clothes are second hand and some are new with price tags still on them. There are dozens of Ropa’s and they mostly look like a warehouse with garage doors. Some of them have clothes hanging on hangers and these ones charge per clothing like any store, these are not that cheap, while others the clothes are all in piles and you buy them by the pound. I bought one white top, looked new, for 10 cents. They also sell shoes and they are in a big pile and if you find one you want you have to search for the mate. There are also toys, purses and bags, etc. Most of the toys are dirty and broken, with a few new looking stuffed animals. Some Ropa's sell fur jackets, leather jackets, wedding dresses and formal dresses (these are hanging up).

There are dozens of workers at every Ropa sorting clothes and then they are put in big bales, they sell the clothes in Mexican markets and Mexican flea markets in Texas.

Most of the people shopping are Mexican and they take a sheet and pile the clothes on it and bundle it up and buy several bundles of them, I don’t know for sure what they do with either, but when driving have seen homes with clothes hanging on fences and yards like a yard sale
Some people in the park go every week and sort through the clothes and pick out clothes for the poor in Mexico, another lady collects blankets for poor people

You have to watch out for the fork lifts, which lift the clothes up to the top of the pile or move them from one area to another.
When the fork lift brings out a new load of clothes everyone jumps in and starts sorting, some people even start grabbing things off the fork lift
People climb to the top of the pile and throw the clothes as they sort them and can end up in a big hole almost as tall as themselves

Linda shopping