Who Shops At Thrift Stores?

[lucille]

I used to find some really good clothing items at thrift stores. Quality and selection has gone way down. I think there are fewer people giving away or even buying good clothes and some of these stores like Goodwill cherry pick the good things and sell them online instead. So what is left is lots of Walmart and Kmart clothing - yuk.

I sometimes find cool wood furniture pieces still but those are rather rare these days.

I seem to have better luck with clothes at one specific high end consignment clothing store and a couple of scratch & dent furniture outlet stores.

[frozemud]

I go thrift shopping just to find light blue button-down shirts. I need them for work and I don't care if they are men's or women's, I'll wear them both. My local Goodwill shop generally has stuff from the affluent suburbs, discarded because of a missing button or something equally fixable. Most of the time, though, nothing at all is wrong with them.

My co-workers tell me what great bargains they got from Walmart or a department store, "can you believe it, this shirt only cost $14.99! It was on sale at JCPenney's!".

Meanwhile, I get about 6 or 7 shirts for $30.00 total. They are usually great quality, with name brands, and I don't feel bad at all about putting them in the donate pile when it's time to purge my closet.

Am I weird? Because when I tell them my shirt costs $4.00 at the thrift shop, I get some strange glances.

[lucille]

Originally Posted by frozemud

Am I weird? Because when I tell them my shirt costs $4.00 at the thrift shop, I get some strange glances.

Some people have thrift store phobia. They can't deal with either the idea of used clothing or used furniture.

A friend of mine used to call Goodwill "Macy's" back before Macy's was in the midwest. People would ask her where she got some cute thing she was wearing and she would tell them Macy's. They had no way to really prove her wrong since they would have no clue what Macy's carried and she avoided the strange glance problem. It was rather amusing one time we were both out and someone commented on her outfit. When she pulled out the Macy's bit this other person started fawning over this outfit and how cool it was she bought it in New York.

[TexasOaks]

Originally Posted by frozemud

Am I weird? Because when I tell them my shirt costs $4.00 at the thrift shop, I get some strange glances.

I get the same look but I'm still proud.

[TexasOaks]

Does anyone have a situation like me... I am a big fan but my finance (who goes with me) but I'm still having to break her into the idea? I mean there are way to many bargains to not to go. I have read a lot of posts that say its hard to find sizes well... I am a lucky one in the clothes department because for me my sizes are pretty mainstream and I usally can find sizes that fit. What is sad is I have more jeans than she does but my total cost is clearly under hers by a long shot because of thrift stores.

[rstlne]

I ought to share this too. Plush Husky is a plush toy that I picked up for $1 at a Salvation Army store in Middletown, NY, years ago. He has been on many adventures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mortonf...7594310651437/

[amandajane]

I do, especially for clothes. The last time I brought something new was in a sale about a year or so ago, before that a year previous too. Living on a limited income makes the thrift shopping essential.

[hermione]

We don't shop at thrift stores for clothes (we always feel like it's a waste of money to buy clothes when we can make them ourselves for much less), but we do occasionally for books and furniture. When we first bought our house, we went to Goodwill and Salvation Army and bought a load of furniture - chairs, shelves, cabinets, etc. - that were in good condition - all for about $400 including U-haul rental to haul it home. We then finished them up with new paint and varnish and it all looks great and everything in our house matches.

[meliann]

I visit a couple of thrift stores about once a month - I rarely find clothes for me, usually because they don't have much in my size (short and fluffy ). I buy a lot of my DS's clothes from thrift stores though, and books for me every once in awhile. I also love looking for fabric remnants.

[Megan]

I love to knit and crochet, so I used to hunt thrift stores for sweaters to deconstruct. I could never bring myself to pull apart the nicest sweaters though. Just the boring ones with great yarn.