Well, do you? If you do shop at thrift stores, do you ever buy anything?
There is a thrift store near where I work that I like to go to once in a while. I buy my work pants there and once I got about 40 pieces of china for my mom. She has a dining set in a pattern that is no longer made so that was a good find.
Yes, to both questions. I get some of my work clothes there (I’m a farmer) and often find something else I can use.
If I find something I need/want at what I consider a reasonable price, sure.
(glares at Goodwill) I do NOT define “reasonable price” on used items as about what I would pay to buy the item new.
I proudly shop at second hand stores. I believe I haave a better than average ability to find neat bargains there.
90% of my jeans and 60% of my skirts are from thrift stores. Yes, of course, and used bookstores too.
Are you saying there are people who don’t? How’d they get that way?
Yes, there is at least one person I know of that won’t even donate to thrift stores, let alone deign to shop at one.
We are not friends, not even pretend friends.
I donate to thrift stores. I never shop in them.
My view, to push back gently at @DorkVader, is that there are people other than me who depend on those bargains to make their budget work. I don’t get a new Rolls when the ashtrays fill up; far from it. I’m comfy; not rich.
But if I can leave some [whatever] on the shelf for some working single Mom to find later I’d much rather do that than have e.g. 5 extra bucks in my pocket versus buying the same thing new at Target down the street. Or some older person struggling to juggle rent, utilities, and food on an inadequate SS check.
Leave the savings for them; I can do without. They maybe can’t.
Never clothing, bedding, stuffed animals. Nothing cloth.
Bedbugs scare me.
I love used book stores. I like the odd item. I used to do junk art. Took me years to buy up enough old keys to cover a wooden box.
Take my word for it it’s very cool epoxied. Epoxy-ing 5 sides took about 6 mos, with curing. People come here they ask 2 things, “Where did you find all the keys?”
And “Are those real license plates?” I have a bunch of stuff made with plates, too.
My other favorite thing is little talavera tiles made into wooden frames. You would not believe the odd ones I’ve found at thrifts. Naked ladies, rats, weird animals, weird fruit, eyes, skulls, strange symbols.
The other thing I wanted to say is their are now high end thrifts.
The Lil’wrekker found some dress at one. Mary Quaint or something? From the 60s. Paid over $100 for it after talking them down because it had holes in the seam inset pockets.
I used to shop at thrift stores, because I found good bargains in jeans there. But when bedbugs started getting to be a thing again, I stopped. I was paranoid that I’d bring some home in clothing.
No. I found clothing for the same price at Walmart.
There’s a Goodwill just down the street that I donate to and occasionally shop for glassware (wine glasses, clear glass coffee mugs, pint beer glasses).
The counterargument is that many thrift stores exist to raise money for the charitable purposes of the organization, rather than to provide cheap goods to the needy.
I donate to, and shop at, thrift stores with my wife. There’s a lot of sad crap, and I don’t often buy anything, but sometimes an amazing bargain can be found. There is some wheat to be found among the chaff. The hunt is kind of fun.
Years ago, like back around the early aughts, when the popped tech bubble recession hit, my old school auto supplier company cut everybody’s salaries by 30%, and my wife and I were just starting our marriage, I wanted to get a killer job interview suit, but money was tight. We went to a resale shop and I looked at maybe a dozen suits that were either cheap, worn, or not the right size until I found a brand-new looking Perry Ellis suit that fit me like it was tailored. It helped me get a great new job!
I do donate. It’s getting harder to find places to donate. The places are overflowing with the same junk you have.
They won’t take shoes unless they are like new.
The Goodwill here has stopped taken in person donations of bed linens. You can still toss them in their off site bin things.
When I was in college, and didn’t have a lot of spending money, I bought a fair number of clothes at a thrift store near campus.
The only time I’ve shopped at one in recent years has been for bits for Halloween costumes.
We donate a lot of old clothes, dishes, etc. to the local Goodwill store.
I do. Things like an air fryer, when I didn’t know if I wanted to jump on that bandwagon. For $15 at Goodwill - I’ll give it a go. A $350 Zojirushi bread machine for $7? Sure - I mostly use the dough cycle, then shape it into the loaf pan I prefer and bake. Used books - if I buy new books these days, it’s on my Kindle, but a used book at the fraction of the Kindle price is great. I don’t have the patience to look for clothes at the thrift stores, but I do buy my coats there.
StG
A bag full for $5?
Mary Quant. So-called inventor of the miniskirt.
Oh. Did not know that.
It’s a mini-dress in what I call color blocked pattern. Aqua, green and yellow.
I shop at thrift stores all the time. Today: an unused vegetable spiralizer for $6. A bocce set (in the new section, not used), and a mantel clock I’d been looking for. Also, an Ikea chair I’d been meaning to get, for only $10, and I didn’t have to go to Ikea.
There’s a Goodwill over in the wealthy neighborhood between Bill Gates’ home and Microsoft that gets really nice stuff, often still new. A few weeks ago I ran into a friend there who was buying a rug to use in staging a house she was selling.
I got 3 lawn chaise cushions because I wanted the fabric, which was super cool. I reupholstered my dining room chairs in that fabric. And now they’re washable.
I’ve found pieces to my china to replace broken/chipped ones.
Walking through the thrift store is often like a trip down Memory Lane (for better or for worse).