Anthony Cody gained the nickname Tony Bargains after cleaning out a crack house on Boston Road in the Allerton section of the Bronx and opening Tony’s Bargain Basement Thrift Shop.

The shop is wedged between a shuttered Chinese restaurant and a closed carwash, and it is not much more impressive, housed in a vacant apartment, with handwritten signs and idiosyncratically displayed merchandise.

Shirts are hung on the telephone pole out front. Slightly worn shoes and pre-owned handbags are displayed on wood shelves built by Mr. Cody to stretch out to the sidewalk. Inside, unkempt racks of clothing fill the store, occupying the first floor of a two-story house. Mr. Cody, 48, lives upstairs.

“I can’t even afford to heat the store,” said Mr. Cody, who each morning takes the padlocks off the front door and pulls out bins of clothing and other items. He spends a couple of hours setting up his outdoor showroom and then remains a fixture out front, because his focus is not on sales but rather on those in need. His merchandise, priced low for the passers-by who can afford it, is free for those who cannot.