For me, it’s almost more of a society thing: we waste too much, throw too many perfectly good items away, so I feel it’s my social duty to buy something at a thrift store (or better yet pick it up in someone else’s trash) rather than put money into Walmart’s coffers. I bought a trivet last month, that I needed, for 50 cents and felt great about it.
I gfrequently look through their books and DVDs… I’ve gotten quite a few unusual and inexpensive books, and DVDs I’d never seen before.
I also go to find odd and unusual stuff for things I’m constructing. And I bought a square heavy glass that I use for my shaving soap.
I’ve also bought a pair of jeans that were right in my size. But it’s rare that I’ll even look at clothes there. I bought an inexpensive jacket for when I played the Frankenstein monster one Halloween. And I bought what I turned into an a=ncient Greek tunic when I played Perseus.
I’m visiting to drop off stuff. Occasionally do I drop in looking for high quality flannel shirts, and coats. I’m looking at labels, and quality of fabric. Sometimes the household goods have something g I need. I always go in with something in mind I’m looking g for and I often find it.
A couple other things I’ve found at Thrift and Goodwill stores are picture/poster frames and, once in awhile, pretty decent framed artwork.
The odds of finding just the part I need in a particular store when I need it are about the same as winning the lottery, & if I win that big lottery either I’ll buy a brand new whatever or hire people to do the searching for me. ebay would be a much better source to find a particular part as you’re doing a nationwide search for it in that case.
They don’t. I went looking for some for another photo op, was going to be hung from the line, one time, never worn, so I didn’t want to spend a lot of $ on a humorous photo by buying new ones. I looked around for new for a while; didja know that while underwear goes on sale it never goes on mega/clearance sale like end-of-season clothing does.
That’s pretty close to my take, too. Some folks find shopping to be relaxing and adventurous, and that’s awesome; but I find it stressful, to the extent that I sometimes am all “I have to get the fuck out of here right now or I will lose my everloving mind.”
Grocery shopping is different; I love grocery shopping, which I acknowledge is weird. But for every other kind of shopping, I have two approaches:
- Buy online, either from a trusted store (I get almost all my clothes from Land’s End) or after extensive research (I run my Consumer Reports subscription ragged); or
- Buy at a store by using a clear shopping list.
Thrift stores are adventure-shopping, and I’ll leave that adventure to someone else.
We used to haunt a local Salvation Army store when we lived in DC. Thing is, that thrift store was near a wealthy neighborhood and people would seemingly get rid of things just because they were dusty. I often wished we were in the market for furniture because they had some beautiful stuff there. As it was, I bought a whole set of Limoges china for a song.
I don’t get the aversion to clothing. It’s one of the few items that can be cleaned easily at home, with the washer set at HOT with plenty of strong detergent and bleach. Do you think new clothing is any cleaner than that?
I buy books and jigsaw puzzles at thrifts. It’s a bit of effort wading through all the Twilight series books and Harlequin romances to find something worth reading, but the hunt is part of the fun.
For me, it’s not about the cleanliness. It’s about my being an unusual size (fairly small for an American man). I can rarely find anything that fits at a thrift store, and when I do, it’s unlikely to be a style that I like. Online shopping is much more reliable.
That describes me exactly except Eddie Bauer.
I donate to thrift stores. There’s a local chain called Alpha Thrift*. They hire mentally handicapped people to sort through or fix stuff that is donated and the proceeds go to pay their salaries.
*formerly ARC or the Association for Retarded Children. A rebranding was obviously called for.
Oxfam (big UK charity with many stores) have become pretty smart with how they divide their stock. As well as setting up dedicated book and music shops, they also, many years ago, started setting up ‘designer’ boutique second hand stores, diverting quality donations from random stores to a dedicated designer store in an upmarket London location.
I think for me it just feels quite personal. And it’s hard to completely expunge some sweat smells and stains.
Stopped by a local thrift store a few weeks before my trip to Kenya. Found a like new Eddie Bauer shirt in my size, it was priced at $18. Checked on line, that shirt was till available at EB for $75. And just my luck, it was yellow tag 50% off day and the shirt had a yellow tag. I also received their senior citizen discount and another discount for making a donation. With tax, the shirt cost me $3. I just about lived in that shirt while in Kenya.
And/or bagging and deep-freezing the items for a week will also do it
The reason I don’t generally buy clothes in thrift shops has nothing to do with cleanliless - it’s just that I’m very unlikely to find something I want that fits me in a thrift shop. Now, if I was looking for 80s gym shorts or a tube top, I might buy that in a thrift shop.
I once lost the paddle to my breadmaker machine. My daughter who lived six hours away was thrifting and found the exact same machine intact and bought it for me. $7. It was in much better shape than my used and abused one.
Art work! Christmas time I found a really cool handmade Japanese print amongst a pile of other frames. I kept digging through the pile and found the companion piece. A section of a kimono, together both frames appeared to me to be college project perhaps part of a thesis project. Signed by a young woman dated early 70’s. Picked it up for my daughter who really liked it.
The clothes that I buy at used-goods stores are mostly fieldwork shirts; flannel for cold days, cotton or linen loose long-sleeved for hot days. I’m looking for the right kind of fabric and a loose fit in either case, and for light color in the summer shirts. I’ve learned to look for the flannels in the summer and the hot-weather shirts in the winter, and usually find a fair number in the men’s section. I’ve occasionally found a shirt I like for other purposes, but not always.
There are usually also a batch of men’s sleeveless shirts but I can’t wear those because men’s sleeveless are cut so they wouldn’t cover a woman’s breasts; and for work pants I want serious cargo work pants with large pockets, and apparently people who buy those wear them out past re-use because there are almost never any there. Those and underwear I have to buy new; also shoes, in which I’m an unusual size.
Around here they just changed the name to ARC – just the letters, not standing for any words.
They also stopped doing sheltered workshops and are doing assistance at work integrated with the community.
That’s kind of a shame for the people who live in downmarket areas and now can’t hope to find any of the quality stuff at a price they can afford in their own areas.
I have a collection of revereware pots and pans also, one a handmedown from Mom, a set that was wedding gift, several purchased from estate sales and a huge stock pot that was purchased brand new.
It is if you view these shops as a place for poorer people to get more for their money. Having worked for some of these major charities I can safely say that is not their goal - they want to maximise returns on their donations to fund the causes which they are established to serve.