Gifts are the best part of weddings, especially for the bride. It is one thing for it to work the Western way, where the couple gets to choose what they want to be gifted, but it’s almost a nightmare the way it works here. Truckloads of flowery ceramic dinner sets, old-fashioned flasks, cheesy photo frames and who can forget the tacky porcelain figurines?Chennai-based sales and marketing consultant Sarah Natasha’s garage sale is the perfect answer for victims of such unthoughtful gifting scenarios. “I have a lady who says that she got so much stuff for her wedding that she’ll never be able to use some of them. So, she’s going to be displaying them at the garage sale,” explains Sarah. “Somebody else may find them interesting.” The garage sale is the brainchild of Sarah’s Facebook community, Chennai Shopping. “I have always been passionate about two things – food and shopping. There is the Chennai Food Guide for foodies in the city. But when I was looking for a pair of white trousers, I searched all over Facebook for a shopping community in Chennai and I found none,” she says, summarising the story of how the Chennai Shopping community came about. When she began the community a month ago, she and the friends decided that when they hit a membership of 500, they would organise a garage sale. “But in just under one month, we got over 2,000 members!” Sarah gushes, so the garage sale was only inevitable. “A garage sale is the perfect foil to the consumerism of today, when we embrace green philosophies of recycling and reusing once-loved products. How many times have we made an impulse purchase only to regret the expense later? Or how about we buy something, try it on in the confines of our bedroom, only to learn the particular shade of green makes us look like a leprechaun in need of a diet?” reasons Sarah.There are going to be about 25 stalls where people will be selling clothes, footwear, accessories, books, home décor and other knick knacks. “In the beginning, it started out as something where people will sell things that they already own. But now, we will also have people who have their own stores displaying their wares,” informs Sarah. “The used stuff will definitely be heavily discounted,” she assures, but the same does not apply for the things from the stores. “There might be small discounts because they are sold to members of Chennai Shopping,” she hopes. Sarah vouches for the quality of all the products that will be on display. “We were clear that it was not going to be a junk sale,” she emphasises. “We are talking about absolutely new things that are a result of impulsive purchases or almost new things that you don’t need any more.” And if you were thinking that she has forgotten about her other passion while planning this whole affair, you were wrong. “We will also have food stalls where people can sell homemade food. We’ll have cupcakes, muffins, ice golas, channa among other stuff,” she says. Finally, has Sarah found those white trousers? No, she has not. Those interested in putting up a stall can contact Sarah at facebook.com/groups/chennaishopping. The sale will take place from 12 noon till 6pm on February 26 at the Bamboola Play School, R A Puram.
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