VOA慢速英语: 旅客在美国航空公司丢失的行李发生了什么
Most people who fly on passenger planes in the UnitedStates do not lose their bags -- called “luggage” or “baggage.” Even if the luggage is lost, usually it only isdelayed. Most “lost” luggage is found in a few days.Airlines search for the owners of unclaimed bags for upto three months. But when the owners cannot be foundor the bags are not claimed, they are sold to a store in the small city of Scottsboro, in the southern state ofAlabama. People who shop there often find goodproducts for low prices.
About one-half of one percent of all luggage passingthrough U.S. airports is unclaimed. Many of the missingbags, and what is in them, are sold at the UnclaimedBaggage Center. Seven thousand items arrive at thestore every day.
VOA spoke to Tom Barnes as he was shopping at thestore.
“I can go into any of the large shopping centers, like, like the internationalmalls and that. I can walk through there for an hour and come out with threeitems. I come in to this store, I come out with my car full of stuff.”
Brenda Cantrell works at the store.
“Well, (the) Unclaimed Baggage Center is the only store in America that buysand resells unclaimed baggage from the airline industry. So you would besurprised at jackets and eyeglasses, neck pillows, blankets, but (also) laptopsand Kindles, and iPads and, you know, all kinds of expensive electronics.”
Other items sold by the store include diamond rings, wedding dresses,musical instruments and old typewriters. The store says it once sold acontainer for flowers for $80 that was found to be worth $18,000. And it says apainting it sold for $25 was later found to be worth $25,000.
The store buys the luggage from the airlines. It does not examine the thingsinside before buying them. Only about half of the items in the bags aresuitable for sale at the store.
The store receives mostly clothing which is cleaned before being sold.
One young lady found some clothing to buy.
“(I’m) buying a black jacket. A ski jacket. (An) Express jacket. North Facefleece. And another black jacket.”
The Unclaimed Baggage Center is a huge store. And it has become one of thetop places for travelers to visit in Alabama. More than a million people visit thestore from around the world every year.
Elvira Southard has come from Colombia.
“What do you think about this one? Look good?”
Some people say it is not fair to the owners of the lost luggage to sell theirgoods. Customer Daniel Martin is not one of them.
“I feel like the airport may try to find the, the people that lose the things. So Iguess if, if, if they’ve tried and they can’t get a hold of them, I guess it’s betterthan, like, throwing it away, or just letting it rot in a warehouse somewhere.”
Kayla Wilborn works at the store.
“All right. So this is our unclaimed baggage experience.”
Ms. Wilborn says the store chooses a customer every day to examine a bagand decide what happens to items in it.
“We have a shirt. And we check for condition to see what kind of brand do wehave, to see if there’s any rips or holes or stains.”
Since the store opened in the early 1970s, people have come to look for lowpriced goods and unexpected finds.
I’m Christopher Jones-Cruise.
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