My First Thrift Town Experience
December 28, 2010, Submitted by: Ken TweetPermalink
My following experience is a perfect fit for the recession-proof-household category, and anyone looking for bargains.
I have been living in the same area for a little more than a decade and have probably driven past a particular medium size building storefront on the main drag about 5,000 times, and had never stopped in to check it out. Until the other day.
This store is called “Thrift Town“. My wife had stopped by there many times and had been trying to get me to check it out, while my neighbor visits the store regularly and is always returning home with amazing bargains. The store itself is mostly filled with racks and racks of clothing, men – women – kids – all sizes – all types. There are also a fair number of miscellaneous items that are not clothes.
I finally gave in the other day, and checked it out. You see, all along I had this idea in my head that the clothes at these type of bargain stores, being “used”, were for other people, not me. I’m not sure why I had this mental block, especially being one myself to look for bargains. For some reason, the thought of wearing another persons clothes, didn’t sit right with me – as if the clothes would be dirty or have “germs” on it or something. I was wrong.
When I started browsing through the mens racks, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Most of the clothes were in excellent condition, many of them hardly showing any signs of wear, while a surprising number of them were brand name labels. They were perfectly clean, and if I didn’t know any better, many of them could have been on racks in “real” clothing stores.
Now here is the best part. Talk about a bargain… every single mens shirt in the place had a price tag of either $1.99 or $2.99! What? Really?
The pants, the shorts, the sweaters, almost everything was priced the same, pretty much the most you would pay is $2.99!
After sifting through the enormous quantities of clothes, all very well organized by sizes, I walked out with a handful of shirts and shorts that cost me about $25. One of the shirts was even a Nordstrom polo shirt, in near perfect condition. These same clothes were probably worth at one time (not too long ago), about $150 or more.
The store appears to have a great business model, was very busy, and they appear to have about 15 locations in 4 western states. I have no idea if the other stores operate similarly (I assume that they do), and this isn’t an endorsement of the company itself.
However, it made me think about how there are probably other similar stores in the country, just waiting for you to stop by and pick up some deep bargains.
Even though most of us can afford to buy new clothes at the big name stores, you might be surprised at what you might find at a bargain outlet like this one, especially when looking for casual wear.
Why not look for a store like this in your area, and Save Some Cash by buying “almost new”?
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Hello everyone…just wanted to share my own experience at living (more or less) debt free…I use a site called debt free wannabe, and its been a great support.
I decided to live to a budget, cut costs and made really big changes, ie I started living the way my grandparents had, saying if I cant afford to pay for something, then I cant have it…and started using a debit card, instead of my credit cards (even tho at that time, lots of shops didnt even accept my card, so I would just pay cash) four years later ALL my monthly money comes to me…I no longer pay for things I dont need, and I even have some savings!! It takes time, but I honestly believe being debt free sets you free and I’m much happier without all the stuff I didnt need!! Good Luck!
I had what they call my “light bulb moment” about four years ago, when I realised just how much debt I had, and how much of my money each month was being used to pay for things I had actually bought three or four years previously…one example, for furniture I didnt even have anymore
i don’t go to the thrift stores a lot but when i do i can come out of there with about $400 plus dollars of clothing for about $30 to $45. if you go to the right thrift store on the right day you can get 50% to 70% or more off of certain items. most of the thrift stores do sell a lot of used or worn out items but as you said in the article there will still be a lot of new or very gently used items as well. i have been to the salvation army thrift store, goodwill, and other local thrift stores in my hometown and all have very good bargains, especially clothes. a store i recommend going to if you have one near you is name brand clothing, actually called 1/2 of 1/2 on the signage. to find one near you just google 1/2 of 1/2 clothing stores. they get items in every week around tuesday or wednesday. an ofen overlooked necessary survival item is clothing: undergarments, pants, shirts, shoes, coats, etc…
another way to find bargains is to go to garage or estate sales, if you are inclined to.
anything that you find at a thrift store or garage sale, that has multiples of get as many as you can. i don’t want to plug another blogsite because this is a very good blogsite but James Wesley, Rawles of survivalblog.com has stated many times: if you have 3 you have 2, if you have 2 you have 1, if you have 1 you have none. what he is saying with that is something will eventually break. as murphy’s law states if something goes wrong it will go wrong at the worst possible moment. this is the reason for getting multiples of the same item. also any extra items that you know you will not need can be used for barter.
just thought i’d put my 2 cents worth in on this article. the next time you go shopping for something go to a thrift store, you might be surprised at what you can find and how much less expensive it is at a thrift store.
Thrift stores in my area are goldmines. Not just for clothing either. I find all sorts of gear at dirt cheap prices, and a lot of it new or ‘close enough’. Oil lamps, candles, coleman stoves, etc.
I can’t afford to spend $40 on a campstove, so $4 for one that’s been used a couple times is perfect for me. And then I can afford a second one as backup.
I agree entirely. While not everything is a good deal, it is amazing how often you do find decent products for next to nothing.