In the spirit of the old proverb, "Nothing in life is free, unless you're dealing with an anarchist collective," is the Brooklyn Free Store, a store where everything is on sale for the low, low price of nothing.
Put together by the In Our Hearts anarchist collective, the free store has been running on-and-off for over ten years. For now it seems to have settled into a semi-regular location on the corner of Lafayette and Marcy in Bed-Stuy, and will be open from 12-5 every Friday this summer.
According to the In Our Hearts website, the "idea of the Free Store is simple: take whatever you can use, bring whatever you can give that someone else could use. It is a model for another way of living without money and without scarcity." It's like a clothing swap, but with total strangers.
Who knows what this exercise in a world outside the cruel market might lead to? If not a whole new radical outlook, at the very least, probably a sweet tank-top and a Michael McDonald Greatest Hits 8-track.
