On the border, buying clothes by the pound

MCALLEN, TEXAS » A mountain of clothes swallowed half of Juani Lira’s petite body, from the waist down. But the 67- year- old did not seem to mind. Lira closely inspected a pair of black shorts studded with rhinestones and tossed them behind her, unimpressed. Too flashy for her teenage granddaughter, she murmured.

Lira then spotted a longsleeved, pearl- colored blouse, still with a tag intact. Bingo. She looked around her, as if she were getting away with something, and tucked the blouse at the bottom of a duffel. At a price of 71 cents a pound, Lira was on her way to collecting a haul big enough to clothe most of her 13 grandchildren at Ludy’s Ropa Usada in downtown Mcallen.

The sight of people, mostly women, rummaging through large heaps of fabric inside sweltering warehouses is hardly unusual in the Rio Grande Valley.

While used clothing stores operate all over the country, in one of the nation’s poorest regions, giant ropa usada stores — sort of thrift shops on steroids — have been part of the cultural and commercial landscape of border life for decades.

With the added economic dislocation caused by the pandemic, the shops have become places to shop and part of the social and economic mix of El Valle, as locals call the region. Shoppers can spend hours digging, literally, for bargains, and may score the occasional Aeropostale or Polo garment. Some of them resell choice items at flea markets.

An endless parade of trucks with deliveries from recycled- clothes suppliers drop loads from all over the country.

The clothing is dumped on floors, some the size of basketball courts.

Whatever is not sold on the premises is piled into categories — winter wear, baby clothes, men’s shirts, women’s sweaters — and shipped in plastic containers and bales to bulk buyers around the world, as near as Mexico or as far away as Japan.

The businesses, which generally charge shoppers 35 to 71 cents a pound for whatever they find, are hard to miss. Just past the International Bridge from Reynosa, Mexico, the imposing warehouses appear on the horizon, heralded by towering painted signs that seem to scream “ROPA USADA” at motorists. Despite their larger- than- life presence in the valley, though, the shops operate in relative obscurity.

Because many transactions are in cash, a paper trail is often hard to come by, said Salvador Contreras, director of the Center for Border Economic Studies at the University of Texas- Rio Grande Valley.

Still, their popularity is evident in a part of the country where multigenerational families often live under the same roof and need to stretch modest resources. ( The unemployment rate in the Mcallen region recently soared past 8%, nearly twice the rate in the rest of Texas).

Longtime ropa usada shopper Angelica Gallardo, 64, felt there was no shame in struggling to make ends meet and doing the best you could to clothe your growing clan. Gallardo spends hours at a time meticulously inspecting an endless heap of potential purchases. “You have to dig in!” she said.

Gallardo said it made no sense to spend $ 20 to $ 30 for a single item of clothing at Walmart or Target.

“‘ Ta’ muy caro” — it’s too expensive — she said, gesturing with her hands. She does not have money to spare.

Gallardo makes $ 9 an hour working part time, cleaning offices in Mcallen.

Gallardo, who said she has been shopping at ropa usada outlets since the 1970s, has developed a keen eye for “the good stuff” from the “pila” — the pile.

Gallardo paid $ 24 for about 30 pounds of clothes. Lira settled for 8 pounds for about $ 6.

Not everyone who shops at ropa usada stores does so for economic reasons. On this day, a 29- year- old visitor from Austin, Texas, Christian French, said he shops there when visiting the border to do his part for the environment.

“There is so much waste in this world, you know?” he said, holding a stack of clothing for friends and family, including a plaid skirt, T- shirts and other items. “They have made enough clothes in this world to last us until the sun burns out. There is just so much here.”