Thrift stores are expensive...I doubt it

Thrift stores have become trendy. I don't like it. With the advent of a lack of economic prosperity, all the hip rich kids who wish to show that they are one with the lower class have ventured to the places of thrift.

Now this has been happening for ages. Kids who have wished to look like crap realized that crap costs a lot less in thrift stores. After they get their allowance pulled from $100 to only $50, how else are they going to keep getting high and drunk on the weekends. I mean, torn jeans cost an arm and a leg these days.

The original owners of these jeans were killed by a bear. Oh well, I look GOOD

Now with a rush of the frugal rich, some people are challenging that thrift stores are getting more expensive because of the increase in demand.

Now I ain't no economics professor, but...

"Economics is something that I've never really understood"

I do believe that markets as a whole do not change simply because of one variable, that being new thrifters. I've been going to thrift stores for years. Maybe not for decades, I only have two under my belt, but it seems to me that thrift stores are still cheap as hell. I don't understand how they could be so much more expensive. Maybe the whole inflation thing is catching up to thrift stores and people have started to notice it after years of being oblivious to economic progress. Whatever the reason, I still can buy a ridiculous wooden picture of cheetah for a only dollar and that's fine by me.

He's currently residing on my living room wall.

For everyone else who has money to go to places that aren't thrift stores, go to those places and leave me alone. Go buy your torn jeans. Or I could sell mine to you for only $100.

And for those who are too old and have a cheap and non-loving heart towards the poor old thrift store, go live with your cats. I've got better things to do than to listen about the good ole-days and how Reagan was a good-looking young fellow.

(pics from gonomad.com, insidesocial.com, and thesinsider.com)

What about the students?

After continually spurting out my opinions to the world, I decided to see how integral thrift stores may be to a college population. So I talked to a few members of the OU student body to find out just how important they may be.

For the most part, there are three groups of college-aged thrifters: people who have never been thrifting, Halloweeners, light thrifters and heavy thrifters.

People who have never been thrifting are just that; they have never been to a thrift store. Maybe they never had the want or the need to stumble into a thrift store. Whatever the reason, this type of college student makes up the minority of the population.

Halloweeners are more of an Athens oddity. As you know, Halloween is kind of a big deal and thrift stores are often spread thin during that time of year. Sometimes, Halloweeners are shown the thrift store light and become light and heavy thrifters.

Light thrifters are people who only go to thrift stores when their friends do. A couple of my friends are light thrifters. Light thrifters are ambivalent towards thrift stores. They neither love or hate them, but go to them for something to do. Kyle Teders, one of my light thrifter friends commented on his general indifference, "They're okay. It depends on the thrift store."

Heavy thrifters are actually pretty common. Maybe half the people I spoke to were heavy thrifters, or people who go to thrift stores maybe once or twice a month. "They always have great deals. I mean it's obviously not the smell." said Johnothon Tenwalde, a junior. "It's an adventure"

Heavy thrifters realize the good that thrift stores do. "It's kind of genius," Sallie Christian, a senior, commented. Christian tends to visit once a month and look at the random stuff and the vintage clothing at local thrift stores. "I dig 'em." She prefers Re-Use Thrift Store.

David Miklos, a senior, often forgoes the local scene and checks out the larger thrift stores in Dayton. Miklos also brought up the guilt he sometimes thinks about as he checks out his thrifting oddities and clothes. "These clothes are meant for poor people."

Sallie Christian commented, "I'm guilty of giving clothes to thrift stores and then shopping there." I think Johnothon Tenwalde put it best. "I would feel like an absolute dick if I would buy a Christmas tree." He doesn't feel guilty about buying useless oddities but does when it means buying something that will light up a child's holiday."

I personally would qualify as a super-heavy thrifter considering I go about once a week. I'm the only one I know, which probably just means that I'm crazy. Considering I took the interview notes down with a foot-long pen I found at a thrift store, I'm sure my sources would agree.

These people I talked to brought up some good points that I may comment on in future posts.

Tis November the 14th

You know what November the 14th is?

'Tis my birthday!

Yeah, this doesn't have to do with my blog at all. In reality, thrift stores have kind of been left on the wayside because I've been so gosh darn busy. Also, the whole going to the same ones kind of gets repetitive. I just need some more choices. I can't go to Columbus either to visit some more thrift stores because my car broke down. After doing some fact-checking, the repairs could cost me up to $400. I don't have $400. I'm poor as they come.

So after driving around East State with some of my friends recently, I saw Mac's Thrifty Store. Now, I don't know if this is a thrift store. I couldn't go to it because it happened to be late at night and closed. The sign under it read "Carharts, books, and"...something else. I'm drawing a blank. I want to say that the word had two e's. This store needs further attention drawn to it. I can't believe I missed this.

With that in mind, I wonder. Is there any thrift stores that I may have missed that readers would like me to review and check out? I know one friend of mine insists on me going to Rag'o'rama in Columbus. I have yet to check it out though I swear it will happen someday.

This blog will probably continue to be updated as long as I have time. This winter break, I swear I will make my rounds to the big cities in Ohio and run some more thrift expeditions. Maybe that's how I'll do my Christmas shopping.

I've got some great ideas I want to try out for this blog once I take a much-needed rest. So whoever is out there, I would like it if they would stay tuned.

I encourage any thrift store ideas as well as anyone who wishes to accompany me into the thrift unknown. Maybe, they'll get mentioned in the blog.

Thrifters Unite!

Top 7 types of thifters...

I was going to do some interviews and make a nice audio piece and all that jazz, but then again I'm so tired and generally forget about this blog. Having more time will help and this winter break, I'm going to try to be more ambitious about this project. It's a fun idea and I know I need to write more. When will this damn quarter end?

Random side note: I think the word "bollox" should be used more in everyday speech.

Now, today I think I'm going to do one of this list things, so here is the top 7 types people who go to thrift stores.

1. The poor: These people need thrift stores to save extra bucks on clothes and other random items. If not, they couldn't pay their rent. Let's face it, $60 for a pair of jeans is ridiculous when you could buy some for $3. These are the most common people in thrift stores.

2. Down-on-their-luck-damn-it-I-have-to-thrift: These folks generally don't like to thrift because only poor people do it. They don't like to think of themselves as poor, instead, they are down on their luck. With the economy flat-lining at the moment, these folks are becoming more and more common.

3 Thrift store granny: This is the old grandma in thrift stores, walking around with a cart looking at the old linens. There's at least one in every thrift store. What she does with them is a good question. I don't really know. My own grandma would probably sew them together or something. I know she made rugs out of old jeans. Maybe there's some fraternity of old thrift store ladies who meet on Saturdays to quilt things. I don't understand woman, so I doubt I will ever know what exactly goes on.

4. Fashionistas/hipsters: These are the young folks surfing the clothing aisles, looking for something new or eclectic. They hold out for cheap brand names and are excited to find something they have never seen before. Thrift stores also are great for recycling old clothing, so the environmentalist hipsters can say that they care for mother earth. That's great by me. These people are generally pretty common near college campuses. In Columbus I always saw more the closer we got to the OSU campus.

5. The Dignified Black Man: I saw a great deal of these people in Detroit. Usually, young to middle-aged black men, these people stick close to men's suits and shoes looking for something sharp. It's hard to buy a sharp clean suit, especially when they are so expensive. Thrift stores are the alternative. There are nice suits out there. I once found a HUGE soft leather jacket but it was too HUGE for any of us to wear it. My one friend, Huck, tried it on but it went to his knees. Huck is probably around 5'9". Anyway, I've conversed with a couple of these fine gentleman and they do find nice jackets out there.

6. BORED: This is the group I fall in primarily. I'm bored. I want something to do. I haven't gone to the nearest thrift store to see the ridiculousness. So I do and I walk around and look at crazy stuff and buy somethings every once in a while. Women do this too. They walk around and try on the weird dresses and giggle uncontrollably. Whatever, it's fun.

7. Halloweeners: People who go strictly for Halloween for cheap costumes. They need a piece of clothing, they check out a thrift store. Simple as that. They come out of the woodwork every October and ravish the racks, so when I need something, say a white button down shirt, it is nowhere to be found.

So yeah, enjoy y'all's day.

Goodwill has failed me...

A thrift store has failed me.

This quarter, in order to look more hip and fresh (as the kids call it nowadays), the Singing Men of Ohio changed their uniforms from a tux shirt and button cover to a regular button-down and tie. Being a member of this esteemed organization, I was against the change but because majority rules it was decided nonetheless. So, after using my $160 current uniform for two years and, I now had to spend another $30 to buy a white shirt and tie.

This is where thrift stores come in. I am not buying another new white shirt for $20. I am poor. I have a broken car. I have bills to pay. I have college to pay for. I am not buying a new white shirt, so what do I do? I go to a thrift store.

BUT ALAS!

They had no white long-sleeved button-down shirts. It's really a sad day. We really need some quality thrift stores in Athens. I don't need to support the corporate nightmare that is Wal-mart or any other large stores in this town.

I am really just complaining at this point, but I hate when something I support so much not support my clothing needs. (It's hard to communicate sarcasm in the written word, so read that over with a different tone)

Anyway, my point...

Sometimes a thrift store doesn't have a whole lot in what you need, but a thrift store somewhere probably has it. If you live in a small town with few choices than you take what you can get. If not, keep looking around the surrounding area. Anything goes in thrift store-land. That's where the fun is.

Seriously...anything goes.

Thrift Store map...

Okay, this was a great deal more time-consuming than I thought. It took forever for the pics to upload so I could put them up, but anyway, it's done and it works.

This map shows the thrift stores I've been to since I've started this blog. I've tried to rate and take a pic of each store so far. I've color-coded the map icons to show the quality of thrift store: the darker the shade, the better the thrifting. If you look at the map, you notice that most of the good stores are in larger population areas. Athens is a much lighter area than population-heavy Columbus. There's a lot of thrift stores left in Columbus to be explored, so maybe it will happen someday. Stay tuned.


View Thrift Store Aggregation and Review in a larger map