Thrift Store Pet Peeves

It's easily the one person clinging like glue thing. When someone's in one section, I'll head to another one, then I see that person coming towards me in my section. There's so much store! Why are you in my way?!

My pet peeves don't appear here.

Peeve Number One: Shopping carts. They block the already-narrow aisles, and who on earth needs a shopping cart in a freakin' thrift store? It's not like you're going to find a dozen suits worth buying. It screams "amateur."

Peeve Number Two: Idiots who don't remove the hangers from clothing and so bog down the check-out line while the cashier does what their sorry asses should've done already. Usually, these are folks with shopping carts, and their carts are full of crappy clothes, with each acrylic Merona sweater still on a flipping hanger.

But I do like the music, actually.

Everything relating to pants. I can't blame thrifts, because the people working there aren't experts at matching suit pants with suit jackets. But sometimes the pants are put out days after the jackets, making you come back daily to search in vain for the pants to a $2,000 suit. Most of the time I just assume that a prostate surgery led to the donation of 1/2 of a suit, but there are times where you're driven crazy wondering what the hell happened to the pants.

 

 

Also, flippers. They're also the ones with the fookin' shopping carts.

There is that one piece you find every twentieth visit, the Italian gem that makes it all worthwhile.

I am not voting on this, but here are my thoughts....

Their disoganization is in your favour. Your competition will find it equally hard to find things too.


Women donate 20:1 over men because of fashion trends. Most men wear things until they have holes, then still wear them, then want to be buried in them when they die.


What are you expecting, the latest releases?


Most people that thrift have no car, job or money. Perhaps you have no need to be there in the first place.


Probably because at one time or another you talk too much and they remember you. Perhaps you are over-dressing on your thrift excursions. Never show the money.
Again, you are only teaching your competition.


Or the better items are priced the same as the crap. Either way, you win. Where is the complaint?


What were you expecting in a barn filled with other peoples trash? Courteous, knowledgeable staff? A complimentary refreshing beverage and Hors d'oeuvres?


When people cannot contain their excitement at finding a bargain and either tell the store staff the true value of the purchase themselves or boast on the internet in 'bragging threads' it is easy to see why the prices go up. You have only yourselves to blame for this. They have internet too and they are using it. If you don't like the price then don't buy it. If everyone would not buy an 'over-priced' item, then they will re-price it ar regular price...but there will always be that one person who will buy it so you lose there.


All the better for you that they have over-looked the gems that can be found on the main floor. You win! Or, they simply didn't have anything decent to put in their Boutique area at that time.


There are restrooms in every thrift store for the staff and in the larger stores there may also be restrooms that they have simply closed because none of their staff wants to clean the toilets that unappreciative thrifters thoughtlessly make and leave filthy.
You may want to check the laws in your state or province pertaining to restroom requirements per square footage of retail space. You can also contact your local government offices to have someone investigate the matter. If by law their floor space requires them to provide public restrooms, they will be forced to do so.

Thanks Klobber....and from another thread..I also enjoy your posts too.

The biggest problem with thrifting in my area is that the clothes all suck. I'm on a hot streak right now, but I'd say I go home completely empty handed on 98% of the time.

The smell. A ton of thrift places here in the city reek. Some are better, but really.

Yes, there are lines at other stores, but we're not talking Old Navy--there is no earthly reason not to bring your selections to a thrift-store checkout line ready to buy and bag. It is my theory that people don't do this at thrift stores because they're so used to not doing it at Old Navy/Gap/Walmart/Whatever, and they just sit there and watch the clerk do it while the line behind them grows and grows, completely oblivious. I really, really, really hate those people.

As far as disorganized and smelly, bring it. As others have said, the harder you dig, the more you find, and that's the way it should be. Around here, lots of folks who go to Goodwill won't go to Salvation Army because it isn't as spiffy, which is fine by me. Less competition.

There's a world of difference between thrift stores, even those within the same organization!

A classic example is the Salvos. It seems like they make up their pricing on the spot at times, and the pricing can vary wildly from one store to another. For example, my local Salvos is at least 20% more expensive on most items than many other Salvos Stores (e.g. shirts that may be $7 at another store would be $9 at my local store). Another one is the music: one of the big Salvos Stores in my city plays crappy local Christian radio station really loudly. It's not so much the fact that 95% of their music sounds like Nickelback and Maroon 5 vomited into a bucket with half a bible in it, and then some record industry fucktard has autotuned it into next week; it's that their announcers sound like Ned Flanders reading from a 1960s vintage joke book. The worst part is that this Salvos is one of the best ones I've been to for range, so I just have to suck it up.

Then there's the Red Cross near me. Huge store, with loads of really good quality homewares, ladieswear and children's wear ... but the men's section is relegated to 3 poxy little racks at the very back of the store. Usually full of worn out Kmart cargo pants with maybe the occasional Hurley t-shirt if you're lucky.

That said, it's not all bad news. There's a couple of really good smaller shops that regularly yield some excellent kit. I've copped some Zegna, Canali and Corneliani from a small church-based store in an upscale neighbourhood. My favourite one is the local Quakers Shop. It's tiny, and the menswear is variable quality, but it's the best organised thrift store I've ever been to: the clothes are arranged by size, and - in the case of kids clothes - each size has its own little box. So, if you know your son is a size 6, you just go to the Boys Size 6 box and it's all there. Not usually a lot, but I've never left empty handed.

The best thing about thrifting is that the people that work in the shops have no idea about what they sell - they'll mark up Hugo Boss or PRL to ridiculous levels, but Canali and Corneliani stuff is usually the same price as local Chinese-sourced department store stuff, such as 'Reserve' and 'Flair'.

I always inadvertently break the hangers. Not really something I hate about thrifts but there it is. I wish they had stronger hangers.

:shrug

Brah, that's thrifts. 99.99% of everything in there is either rubbish, or not your size. 99.999%.

The training is to keep your eye sharp, and not get bored or discouraged. When that golden piece shows up, be ready.