Thrift Stores

I used to frequent thrift stores and bought the majority of my wardrobe from them. Then, the prices seemed to almost double and suddenly new clothes on clearance at Kohls, Old Navy, and Target became comparably priced. And while it didn't bother me that my clothes were used, I figured new for the same price was better.

On top of the price hikes, I also moved to a city with pretty pitiful thrift stores. Seriously, one Goodwill I went into had rows of housewares piled on the floor (I don't know if this was an in-process moment or what), rows of clothes so close together that you touched the clothes on both sides while walking down the aisle, and rather strong shoe/foot odor when you walked past the shoes. Needless to say, I don't go there.

But, of late, I've been dropping in at a couple thrift stores I pass on my trip to and from work. Mostly looking at housewares. Today, though, I went to look at clothes. In honor of July 4th, the local Salvation Army's are selling all their clothes for $1. Now, I can handle that. I popped in and looked through the shirts, found several and then stood in front of a mirror trying them all on over my own shirt. Wonderfully this eliminated 9 items and left me with 6. So, I bought $6 worth of clothes, which earlier in the week had I picked those same items out would have cost $21. Thrifty indeed!

Now I do have to say that thrift store shoppers (and sometimes workers) don't seem very aware of personal space. If they see something in front of you they want to look at, they just go for it often without so much as an "excuse me". Today I'm standing in front of a 2 foot section of shirts, systematically looking through them and a woman comes down the aisle and starts looking quite close to me (mind you we're the only people in the row!), then she goes around me and starts looking, still close. Then she stands right next to me and starts pulling the shirts in front of me towards her and her arm is actually touching mine! She says nothing as if this is perfectly normal. I finally looked at her with maybe not the happiest face and she says, "excuse me." But honestly, what is the matter with people?

Despite all of that, I am pleased with a few new shirts. And while I'll continue to drop in on occasion to look through housewares, I'll not be looking at clothes again until there is another sale.