Funky little thrift shops

Funky little thrift shops

• 4.06.2010

I am very lucky to live in a place with many thrifting choices--Goodwill, Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul, and, of course, my favorite, the Goodwill Outlet.  But I do think it's fair to sometimes gripe about the ridiculous pricing strategies at Goodwill--it's obvious their items are priced by a mish mash of employees, many of whom do not recognize the differences between good and bad quality, new and old, vintage and old, and brand name and cheap name.  Sometimes it is more expensive to buy something at Goodwill than at Marshall's, or Dollar Tree (for small items), or even sometimes Target!  So I like to go to Goodwill Outlet, where everything that didn't sell in its overpriced state at the smaller Goodwill gets sent, where everything is equal (in bins) and priced by the pound.

But, I do love to shop at little thrift stores and buy things on shelves and hangers, so when we were out of town last weekend I had to stop by a small, local thrift store in the coast town of Port Angeles.  It seems like a small town to me, but I think there's something like 25,000 there, and it's on the peninsula with some other towns, including Forks.  Actually, several scenes in Twilight and New Moon were filmed in Port Angeles, and the rainforest feel outside town is very Twilight-ey.

But I digress.  I wanted to show you all the stuff I found at this little thrift store in an old church building in Port Angeles.  Run by volunteers, stuffed to the brim with clothes, housewares, books, etc., this place was very fun for a selection of items way cheaper and more diverse than the suburban Goodwills I frequent.  Here's my haul, to show you:

I got seven embroidery hoops (I have plans for the circles of cute fabric hung on the wall), a very cool 60's vintage plate (the words mean "Thanks so much" in some Scandinavian language, nice blurb on the back), a cute real leather belt, nice quality, and a pair of real kid leather gloves (for my mom's historic reenacting business and fashion shows).  Here's my receipt:

That's right, I spent $9.54.  Including tax (Oregon residents don't have to pay sales tax in Washington, but I didn't have the heard to ask the volunteer behind the counter to hit the right cash register button to remove it).  All that stuff at Goodwill would have cost waaaay more!  All those embroidery hoops were $0.10-0.50/each, and the kid gloves were the most expensive, at a whopping $2.50!  Those are at least $20 in antique stores, especially if they're large enough to fit modern human hands.

Anyway.  My advice to you all is to check out the little neighborhood thrift shop that looks sort of sketchy and depressing, because it will likely have super duper deals on random, unique stuff!

After last weekend's thrifting success I'm tempted to visit the nonprofit thrift store down the street from me, which I somehow haven't been to after living here for more than 6 months already...  but their hours are like 10-4 Tuesday-Saturday, and I'm never in the right mood...

Do any of you have any great thrifting stories?  Have you had similar experiences or good or bad luck at the smaller places, or do you prefer paying a little more at a more organized place like Goodwill?