Green’s Dictionary of Slang

merchandise n.

[euph.]

1. women as sex objects.

[UK]Whores Rhetorick 114: Let her Frenchifie her Commodities, or, (to avoid ribbaldry) her Merchandize, not with that Country Pox, but with hard names, and Je ne sçaiquois.
[US]M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 98: I’m not after merchandise, kid. I’m after information.
[US]G.L. Coon Meanwhile, Back at the Front (1962) 141: Hey [...] where’re you taking the merchandise?
[Oth]L. Aparvary Legionnaire’s Journey 50: Let’s trade women in skirts for women in bathing suits. [...] Without our uniforms [...] we’ll be in a better position to stake out the available ‘merchandise’ .

2. (US) constr. with the, the real thing, the ideal thing, the ideal person.

[US]Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 171: The Young Man thought that Lutie was all the Merchandise.

3. contraband liquor.

[US]Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 231: merchandise — Any form of contraband; liquor.
[US]D. Runyon ‘The Lily of St. Pierre’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 136: We load a thousand cases of very nice merchandise.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 39: He would bank roll our venture if I copped the merchandise.

4. (drugs) drugs.

[US]D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981).
[US]‘Hal Ellson’ Duke 111: ‘Would you like a shot?’ he said. ‘Naw, I just want the merchandise,’ I said.
[US]J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
[US]B. Davidson Collura (1978) 172: If you got merchandise to sell, I’m lookin’ to buy.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 65: She laid her suction cunt and a sawed off shotgun on a snot nose heistman [...] to rip off their merchandise.
[US]ONDCP Street Terms 15: Merchandise — Drugs.

5. a man, often a male prostitute, as a sex object; thus damaged merchandise, one who was in some way, physically or mentally, ‘defenctive’.

[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 111: a male prostitute [...] merchandise.
[US]Maledicta IX 144: hey slip into [...] kit that shows off the merchandise and walk about on the bash, casually looking.
[NZ]W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 71: In New Zealand there have been many terms for a young male street worker. [...] merchandise was in generic use by male sex workers in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Merchandise was what one took to the street. If a prostitute was beaten up, drunk, stoned, or had obvious mental health issues he was called damaged merchandise .