Shopping Bargains in Eastern Massachusetts: From Christmas Decor to Discounted Goods

With the cost of gasoline and home heat skyrocketing, you're probably looking for ways to take a bit of the sting out of your holiday shopping bills. While the Boston area is known for some fine shopping - Newbury Street, Chestnut Hill's "Atrium," and the New "Natick Collection" for examples - there are also some great off-price shopping bargains as well.

The Christmas Tree Shops.

Contrary to what you may think when you hear the name, the Christmas Tree Shops are open all year. What you can expect to find there is off price and overstock toys, gifts, and foodstuffs. Also available is furniture, garden tools, picture frames and other items that could come from a variety of places. The chain offers an interesting mix of these overstock items and products manufactured specifically for sale at their stores. Unlike many other off price stores, the Christmas Tree Shops generally offer consistent products across the chain and stores that are generally quite similar to each other.

Customers can usually find seasonally themed décor, with Christmas being one of the biggest draws.

The Christmas Tree Shops began on Cape Cod almost 40 years ago by Doreen and Charles Bilezikian and the chain was purchased in 2003 by Bed, Bath & Beyond. The original location was a complex of three stores, and thus "Shops" as opposed to "Shop." Since the acquisition by Bed, Bath & Beyond, the chain has expanded more rapidly and has recently opened a new store in the New England Patriots' Gillette Stadium shopping complex called "Patriot Place."

While the chain is primarily located in Massachusetts, they have locations in 9 other states from Maine to Delaware.

Ocean State Job Lot

The Ocean State Jot Lot stores are a little lower end than the Christmas Tree Shops, but offer deeper discounts on a wide range of goods. These products are typically discontinued sizes or items, some items are meant for sale outside the United States, and some product is strictly overstock or remainders.

While there are the seasonal goods offered by the store, each location seems to have a staple of tools, cards, and outdoors/gardening. During summer, one will often find pool supplies; during winter, one will often find Christmas themed goods and snow shovels. There is a reasonable selection of international foods - one can often find soy sauce imported from China for Ocean State and a variety of juices meant for the Israeli market. Overstock items can include previous year NCAA Tournament t shirts (often from obscure events, such as Division III Basketball or Division II Women's Soccer) or even major league sporting souvenirs: this past summer, on a trip to the Ossipee New Hampshire store, a sun visor advertising the 2004 Major League Baseball All Star Game in Houston - the official visor, sold at the game - was purchased for $3.00. This author also bought a Montreal Expos cap and a Los Angeles Dodgers 39Thirty New Era Cap for $3 each.

While the Christmas Tree Shops have a larger corporate owner and more uniformity in their locations, "Ocean State" is much more a store-by-store affair, with layouts determined by available stock. Ocean State will typically occupy stores where another anchor tenant may have moved out, and their locations will often retain the features of the previous tenant.

Ocean State Job Lot operates stores in seven states - each of the six New England states and New York - but is primarily located in Rhode Island, as the name would suggest.

Building #19

Building #19 is an interesting chain in and of itself. It is a discount merchandise store even more bare bones than Ocean State Job Lot. Items found in a Building #19 store are often there because of overstock, retailer bankruptcy, fires/floods, mail order returns, customs seizures, and a host of other, rather interesting, means.

Unlike most retailers, there is no common store layout, no distinct product. A trip to any one of the Building #19 stores is an experience unlike any other Building #19 store. Building #19 is not typically a store at which one could visit once and find what was being sought. The savvy consumer visits Building #19 not infrequently to find a new selection from which to choose.

A warning, one will not often find a perfect "gift" at Building #19, but can frequently find interesting baubles - each location will generally have a large selection of local sports graphics framed and sometimes autographed. On a recent trip, a brand new Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl XXXVII locker room t-shirt and a brand new New England Patriots Super Bowl XXXVIII locker room t-shirt were purchased for $2 each.

Furniture and rugs are also available as well - although sometimes damaged or irregular in some way, the budget conscious consumer can save significant amounts of money. A brand new matching twin mattress/box spring set and a steel frame were recently purchased by this author for $250

The stores get their name from their beginnings in 1964 occupying a building at the former naval shipyard in Hingham, Massachusetts. Rather than go to the expense of re-signing the building, the company left the #19 on the previously numbered building. With each successive store opening, a fraction was added to the name - Building #19 ¾ , Building #19 ½, et. cetera. They operate 19 stores in three New England states - Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.