RIP Eddie Bauer Salvage Store

For at least fifteen years, a trip to Columbus, OH included what we jokingly call our annual clothes shopping trip to the Eddie Bauer Surplus Store. We have found some incredible deals at this site. From $5 jeans to more recently a $20 lined raincoat that I have worn on three continents. I remember the first time we went to the surplus side of Eddie Bauer Outlet store in the warehouse district of Columbus on Fisher Road. We stopped by the outlet on a lark. We already liked their clothes, even if they were more expensive that we would have liked. We noticed people rushing to the back. To a "secret" room. We walked and and saw boxes of clothes labeled with unreasonably low prices. $5 for jeans selling for $50 in the retail stores (remember, this was in the early 2000s, the "naughties").

In recent years, the salvage side was only open on select holidays. Sometimes our trip coincided with them being open (like the time I bought my light blue raincoat), but more often they were either closed or we struck out. I did still have a lot of success on the warehouse side, which was still cheaper than the outlet side. I bought most of my long-sleeved shirts for $10-$15. My big score, though, was fleece lined jeans for $30 -- they retail for $110. With the polar vortex we are dealing with this year, I have worn them a lot.

This week Laura emailed me to say the site is closing for good. 

Don half-jokingly said "why go back to Ohio?" Um...because we have family and friends who live there? Spending $100 and filling a large trash bag with my new wardrobe is an experience I will miss.

Fortunately, though I have pairs of jeans I have not yet worn. I bought them because at $10, they were too good a deal to not stock up on.