For some, it’s an environmental thing. For others, it’s economic. Swapping — exchanging your unwanted clothes and household items for someone else’s — is growing in popularity. A steady stream flowed into the Lower East Side’s Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center yesterday for the sixth Stop ‘N’ Swap organized by GrowNYC, a nonprofit that runs the city’s farmers markets and promotes recycling. Not all hand-me-downs passed muster — Japanese pill bottles, for example — but there was an array of other items, including a humidifier, unopened baby food and an Anne Klein blazer whose owner tried it on several times before depositing it.
“I trooped it out here from Jamaica,” said Otilia Paul, 23. “I brought orange high heel platforms that I bought six months ago. They were too high for me.”
Someone snatched them within minutes. Paul scored brown linen shorts. “I like thrift stores, but here it’s all free,” she said. “I’m always looking for a bargain.”