Thrift Shopping

A few weeks ago, Zach, Jeff, and I went to our local Savers and bought 20 ties each for around $4.50. Each of the twenty cent ties were likely originally priced upwards of $20, and some of the high-quality silk ones could have easily been $40 at any other department store. I don’t think any more evidence is needed to show you guys why I’ve embraced thrift shopping.

Last November was when I first started shopping thrift. The first thing I bought was a nice leather jacket for $10, which I wore on the coldest days of that winter. It worked wonderfully, and will probably be with me for a while. I bought a shirt at a Goodwill a few weeks later, and then forgot about thrift shopping for a few months. In May, I revisited it, and really got into this summer, buying pants, shirts, shoes, ties, jackets, and clock parts regularly (some of you readers may already know of my hobby of designing and building clocks).

This fly guy probably shops at Savers.

But the price isn’t what really keeps me coming back. I don’t really need that many clothes. What keeps me coming back is the restocking of quirky new things and discontinued fashions. Department stores these days are, by far, more reliable in terms of size and selection: when someone walks into a J. C. Penny, he knows exactly what he’ll find and where. At a store like Savers or Goodwill, you really have no idea what you might find, which means that in addition to saving hundreds of dollars on an entire suit, that suit might look like the one to the right there (Zach actually found a red pinstripe zoot suit jacket the other day, higher in quality than the one pictured, for about $10. But alas, it was too large).

As a reference, here is everything I’ve purchased from Savers or another thrift shop: Four pairs of pants (green corduroy, white formal, white informal, and blue/white pinstripe), three dress shirts (silver, black, and brown plaid), a plaid vest, a leather jacket, nine old clocks, 22 ties and a red paisley neckerchief, a white pair of shoes, a stereo amplifier and two speakers (which are actually pretty good), countless books (which will be covered in another post), and a plush unicorn. I’m sure Jeff and Zach could add to this list significantly, as the three of us frequent Savers about once a week (one of our better finds has been a four-foot tall plush bear).

Only a handful of my Savers tie collection.

If you aren’t buying from thrift shops, you are seriously missing out. I suggest finding a Savers near you and going there immediately. And let us know what you’ve found! Commenters, feel free to discuss your thrift shopping adventures.