Bargain Basement

In Short

When Jack Hanshaw discovers a strange shop in a city basement selling impossible future goods for pennies, he and his roommate Ken seize the chance to buy cheap luxuries. Financed by bank deposits that compound into fortunes centuries ahead, the store operates through a temporal fault. But when Jack uses a future drug to win the woman they both desire away from Ken, he inadvertently alters history. The basement store and its marvelous wares blink out of existence, leaving Jack to unravel a dizzying grandfather paradox of his own making.

The Story

Jack Hanshaw buys a suspiciously cheap, plug-less television set for two dollars from a strange basement store under an ordinary restaurant on Gehannon Street. Brought home, the set fails to work, leading Jack and his roommate, Ken Adaman, to return to the store for answers. They find a brilliantly lit, spotless showroom staffed by clerks in color-changing spun-glass garments, including a handsome man named Edigo Adaman. The clerks cannot fix Jack's television without a technical manual from his era, so they offer him any item in the store for free if he can provide one. Meanwhile, Ken is enchanted and buys a futuristic wristwatch for fifty cents, depositing the money into a bank account under the store's name as instructed.

As days pass, Ken uses the store to secure a luxurious, high-speed sports car with a turbo-jet engine, paying a fraction of its true value. Ken deduces the store's incredible secret: the basement sits in a time fault leading straight into the future. Because future people cannot travel back to the past, they rely on antiquities like newspapers and books brought by Jack and Ken, while growing rich off bank deposits drawing centuries of compound interest. Unbeknownst to them, Edigo Adaman is likely a descendant of Ken's.

Desperate to win Lorene Shavely—the tobacco store clerk whom both roommates court, though Ken is clearly winning—Jack returns to the store alone. He purchases a specialized psychological drug disguised as chewing gum, intending to sway Lorene's affections. He succeeds, and Lorene abruptly dumps Ken to marry Jack instead. The couple spends a blissful evening shopping for trousseaus and planning a future built on stolen future wealth.

The narrative reaches its surreal climax on Jack and Lorene's wedding day. As the minister pronounces them married, Jack's clothes suddenly disintegrate into his underwear, and Ken calls to report that his luxury car has vanished. Jack and Lorene rush back to the Gehannon Street basement, only to find a solid wall of raw earth and an angry landlord complaining about someone filling his basement with dirt. Realizing the horrifying truth, Jack pieces together the temporal disaster. By manipulating history so that he marries Lorene instead of Ken, Jack has erased Ken and Lorene's potential marriage—meaning Edigo Adaman will never be born to build the basement. Consequently, all the future goods, the car, and the store itself never existed. Though left in his underwear and stripped of his ill-gotten gains, Jack remains married to Lorene, trapped in a self-canceling loop that somehow miraculously stops right where it stands.

How It Unfolds

The two-dollar television Jack brings home a remarkably thin television set that lacks a plug-in cord, purchasing it for a mere two dollars. When it fails to work, he and Ken visit the hidden basement store under the restaurant to demand a fix, agreeing to bring a technical manual in exchange.

The bargain hunter's paradise Inside the brightly lit subterranean showroom, clerks wearing color-changing spun-glass uniforms trade advanced gadgets for small cash deposits and old newspapers. Intrigued by the anomalous merchandise, Ken buys a futuristic 24-hour wristwatch that clings magnetically to his wrist for fifty cents.

The truth of tomorrow Ken acquires a custom-made, turbo-jet luxury car and uses clever deduction to figure out the shop's true secret. He realizes the basement sits inside a time fault connecting their present to a distant future that grows fabulously wealthy off centuries of compound interest.

The doctored romance Motivated by deep jealousy over Lorene, Jack purchases a specialized psychological drug hidden in a stick of chewing gum from the future clerk, Edigo. Giving the gum to Lorene instantly wins her heart, causing her to reject Ken and agree to marry Jack immediately.

The paradox collapses On the wedding day, Jack's clothes vanish and Ken's car disappears as the basement store abruptly reverts to a solid wall of raw earth. Jack realizes that by marrying Lorene instead of Ken, he erased the lineage of their descendant Edigo, thereby destroying the very store and items that enabled their entire adventure.

The People

Jack Hanshaw is an impulsive, slightly clumsy optimist who grows desperate in his romantic rivalry. Driven by a desire for cheap luxuries and the affections of Lorene, he resorts to shady tactics with future drugs, ultimately trapping himself in a profound temporal paradox where he loses his gains but keeps his bride.

Ken Adaman is Jack's sharp-witted, cynical roommate who works in a men's clothing store. Confident and initially winning the heart of Lorene, Ken uses logical deduction to uncover the store's temporal secret and treats himself to an impossible sports car, only to have his luxury stolen away by history.

Lorene Shavely is the pert brunette tobacco store clerk courted by both roommates. Though initially leaning toward Ken's undeniable charm, her affections are artificially swayed by a future drug administered by Jack, leading her into a whirlwind wedding and a bizarre reality check when the store vanishes.

Edigo Adaman is the handsome, black-eyed future clerk wearing spun-glass trousers who manages the basement showroom. Operating across a time fault, he trades advanced future items for antique newspapers and bank deposits, unaware that altering the past's romantic pairings will erase his own existence.

In Its Own Voice

Reflecting on the unbelievable pricing model of the subterranean shop, the narrative highlights the core absurdity of the enterprise:

How could it give away such buys? Very easy--by doing a business in pennies and a profit in billions!

While examining the strange merchandise during their first visit, Ken expresses his immediate skepticism about the suspicious establishment:

I smell a sucker game somewhere.

Confronting the bizarre reality of how the shop operates across centuries, Ken explains his mathematical deduction to Jack:

That's where our bargain basement is--in the future.

What It's Really About

The story explores the classic grandfather paradox through a satirical lens of consumerism, retail capitalism, and human greed. By examining how future inhabitants might exploit past compound interest to fund bargain-basement purchases, the narrative questions the ethics of manipulating time and history for personal convenience. It underscores the profound, unintended consequences of trying to force romance and alter destiny using technological shortcuts from tomorrow. Ultimately, the book ponders whether closing a causal loop can ever truly bring lasting satisfaction when the foundations of one's wealth and happiness are entirely self-canceling.

Why Read It Today

Modern readers will delight in this charmingly retro science fiction tale for its brisk pacing, witty dialogue, and ingenious spin on time travel mechanics. Reading it feels like stepping into a classic mid-century speculative fiction magazine where ordinary urban life bumps up against mind-bending temporal physics. While it reflects the standard social conventions of its 1959 publication—such as two male roommates casually competing for a female clerk's hand while sidelining her initial agency—the story remains immensely entertaining and light on its feet. Fans of clever causal paradoxes, sharp banter between mismatched roommates, and inventive economic satire will find it a delightful diversion. What stays with you long after finishing is the haunting image of a glittering subterranean wonderland quietly blinking out of existence, leaving behind only an awkward mathematical riddle, a pile of dirt, and a bewildered newlywed couple.