Every pound of clothes is a dollar? Yeah, this is my new favorite store.

Some of the RA’s on my floor took us little freshman on a little field trip one day. It was to a little shop located in Cambridge, right by MIT. It brought promises of clothing for the low, low price of one dollar a pound.

The basic concept? Everyday, the store dumps a pile of old clothing on the floor. Shoppers grab a garbage bag and start digging. When purchasing your clothing, you pay by the pound– there’s a scale by the register.

And when I say digging? I mean you need a shovel for this place.

Unfortunately, the first time I went there, our group left at 6PM. It takes 45 minutes to get there. By the Pound closes at 7. We were unaware of this. Thus, when we got there, the shopkeeper told us in irritation,

And the gamer in me reacted like this:

I ended up getting an inordinate amount of clothes that night, as you can imagine. But it was all so cheap! By the Pound is a great place. It fits very well in hipster Boston. You can find the most eccentric clothes, the strangest fashions, all sorts of weird stuff! And, if you dig enough, you might find relatively normal clothes! Though of course, there’s a chance that you’ll also find this:

Though the pile-of-clothes itself is called By the Pound, the building is also home to The Garment District, a sort of alternative-retro-clothes store, and Boston Costume, obviously a costume shop. They’re both a little bit pricy. But great if you’re looking for a Halloween costume.

You know you want it.

I’m hooked. It takes 45 minutes on the T to get to Cambridge, but it is SO WORTH IT. Of course, I was the one addicted to thrift shopping before I came here, so it’s pretty natural that I love this place. It really takes some effort to find normal clothes, though, so you have to be in the mood. Here’s some of the stuff I’ve bought so far: (click for animation if it’s not working!)

Heads up, though– go on Friday! Every other day of the week it’s $1.50 a pound instead of $1.00.

4 thoughts on “Every pound of clothes is a dollar? Yeah, this is my new favorite store.

  1. That’s it, I’m in love with this entire concept! A dollar a pound…my sister would be drooling, she loves thrift stores and I’m SO cheap. . .ahhhhhhhh!

    HEY, but in all seriousness, you might be in a position to help me out: I’m graduating from high school this year and I’m going to transfer to a four year next year (just getting some more college credits at the junior college to make my mom happy) and I wasssss wondering how likely it is for someone like me to go to Northeastern…I know they have the basic criteria on their website, but do you by chance have any knowledge of how many out-of-staters they have, how likely it is for transfer students (not freshmen) to get scholarships….etc? I admit that your blog is making me think about Boston…XD No stress if you have no clue, though. XD

    • I can’t say I know much scholarship-wise, but let me see what I can do for you.

      Firstly, the in-state and out-of-state fees and tuition for NU is the same, totaling nearly 50,000 a year. This is likely because Northeastern is OBSESSED (and I mean it) about getting students from all of the world to enroll. I’ve met more kids from California than from Pennsylvania, in addition to tons of international students, so being out-of-state is not an issue. Still, just out of sheer logistics, most kids here are from New England or a little southward towards my area.

      As for scholarships, I know that there are some minor scholarships for transfer students (http://www.northeastern.edu/financialaid/grants-scholarships/undergraduate-transfers.html) but they only total a couple thousand dollars a year and NU is fricken’ EXPENSIVE.

      Financial aid is always an option, of course, but NU does give out merit-based scholarships. I’m not sure how they apply to transfer students, so I suggest you e-mail the financial aid office (http://www.northeastern.edu/financialaid/) or maybe admissions (http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/) since your situation is rather unique! There’s the regular competitive merit scholarships (which look a little like: “Ooh, 35,000 a year instead of 50,000? Hooray, it’s still expensive!) and a couple of special ones listed here: (http://www.northeastern.edu/financialaid/grants-scholarships/undergraduate.html#merit)

      The one I happen to have, if you’re interested, is the National Merit Scholarship. I receive full tuition (but not room and board) for 8 full semesters. I’m not sure how your situation would apply to it, since you typically enter the competition by taking the PSAT your junior year, and then the top 16,000 scorers nationwide can apply to be a finalist, which about 8,000 kids receive. It’s a great opportunity if you score high and want scholarships, since many universities offer full tuition for finalists. But I’m not sure if it’s too late for you to go for it; the process usually takes about a year :/

      I hope that helped, if only a little! Let me know if you have any other questions! 😀

      One more thing: BC (Boston College) is deceiving… it’s not located in the city! It’s more in the suburbs! 😛

      • AH! Thank you so much for all of the info. Northeastern sounds really amazing and it’s way up there with my other east coast choices…American U is first on the list, Northeastern is probably second, George Washington U third? Haha. Then, of course, out here on the west coast is USF…which is private and Catholic, and they have a good International Studies program. . .hmmmmmm! SO MANY CHOICES.

        But thank you so much for all of the info! I won’t “really” have to start applying for transfer until around this time next year…but I want to have a solid plan as of right now. Even if I don’t go back East for my undergrad work (since I’ll only be 16 when I transfer to a four year and, theoretically, be 18 when I graduate) , I am MOST definitely going to go back east for my graduate work…law school…master’s degree…future job…etc. XD

        • Whoa-hey, you want to graduate college in what, two years? DANG! I won’t even get my undergrad degree for another 5! (The typical NU student does three 6-month co-ops and graduates in 5 years, though a two-co-op-4-year option is also available.) That’s awesome for you, though!

          There are indeed a ton of awesome colleges out there! I pretty much stalked CollegeConfidential when I was applying, and had sooo much trouble figuring out which ones to apply to… it’s rough! But I like your second choice there 😀 and good luck! Haha, ironically I’d like to go to the West coast in the future… XD

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