bargain basement

Definitions

1. 1

   An area within a retail store, especially an area located below ground level, where the…

   An area within a retail store, especially an area located below ground level, where the least costly merchandise can be found.

   • "Where will I find an aluminum cooking pot?" growled the elder Beagle unexpectedly. "In the Bargain Basement," said Gissing promptly.
   • To proper Bostonians […] it was not quite a riot: it was merely the first big postwar men's-wear sale at Filene's bargain basement.
   • But it’s also a sign of the ascendant state of clowning, which, not long ago, resided in the bargain basement of artistic respect, alongside ventriloquists, mimes and jugglers. No longer.
2. 2

   Inexpensive.

   • The Soviet Union is offering to send commercial satellites into orbit at bargain-basement prices.
   • An ebullient woman aswirl in colorful layers of bargain-basement clothes and zany hats, Barbara Siegel also happens to be chairwoman of the Drama Desk nominating committee.
3. 3

   Of poor quality

   Of poor quality; of little or no value; low-end, shoddy.

   • "This nation can't afford bargain-basement cops any more," says Oregon's Multnomah County (Portland) Sheriff Donald Clark […]. Almost everyone agrees that U.S. police sorely need more education.
   • "We are not going to ask the brave young men and women who defend this country to put their lives on the line using obsolete weapons and bargain-basement equipment."

The neighborhood