Yard Sale is an Entire Wholesale Shoe Store Scam

I live pretty close to a busy street in Sacramento called Watt Avenue. Last weekend a huge yardsale exploded onto the corner house with hundreds of shoeboxes, discount jeans, a sign-waver, mannequins and clothing racks and oppressive crowds of people. It was like an entire swap meet, jammed onto one front yard.



I'd seen this same sale elsewhere along Watt avenue, so I was curious to discover the circumstances where a shoe store like this could find a home at different lots along the same street.

I waited until the weekend was over, then approached the woman who lives there.



Here's what happened: A few days before the weekend, a pregnant woman knocked on her door and asked if she could set up a yard sale "on part of her lawn".

My neighbor agreed.

On Saturday morning, a white box truck arrived and three helpers began unloading inventory, scores of boxes. They covered her lawn, leaving room for thin aisles between the stacks of boxes. They put up two signs, erected the row of mannequins and started waiving down customers with a sign-spinner.

I couldn't have written a better scene for a prank show.

As the enormity of the situation unfolded, the woman who lives there felt tricked, but didn't have an easy way to get out of her approval. She'd already said yes.

Nothing bad happened, except for an extraordinary increase in vehicle traffic on our block. They did a brisk business. At dusk they packed everything up, and on Sunday they were back.

As thanks, the pregnant ringleader paid my neighbor $25 for each day. They cleared out and cleaned up Sunday at dusk.







The next night someone stole the battery out of their car, and another one out of our other neighbor's truck.

I'm a fan of Yard sales, and entrepreneurial hustle, but this was a scam. They probably started at their own house, but ran into problems with their business model when Sacramento Code Enforcement let them know about the "One Yard Sale per year" ordinance.

If they take this show on the road, I hope they are honest about the scope of their festival of footwear.