Long gone are the days when three trips to the thrift store a week was the norm. I'll never forget the countless hours I've spent rummaging through shit and sometimes shirts with actual shit on them in order to find a gem. Even if the hunt didn't end with a gather, it was still the best stress reliever for a high-schooler with a Dunkin' Donuts paycheck.
It's been sort of a dream of mine to own a little vintage store, but that's everybody's dream. I figure I'll start someday by selling all my old scores from the thrift store days on eBay or Etsy. I'll start price capping my items at ten dollars. You know why? Because none of my shit is even worth two dollars. I understand the value of "sentiment" and "originality", and I especially understand the value of "style", but Urban Outfitters must put gold soles in their shoes to make some of those pieces of shit cost 398 bucks. I'm especially amused by the "Urban Renewal" junk they push. They'll take a cool old jacket that they had an intern buy for fifty cents at a Salvation Army and put heart patches all over it. To me, that makes it worth negative money; I would pay to not wear that.
The "great thrift stores" back at home are quickly becoming picked over by the "cool kids", and some of those places are even catching on. The Salvation Army off the blue line Grand stop has significantly marked up jackets and purses and it just so happens that's what all the kids are gobbling up. "Vintage" stores in Chicago like Lenny & Me and the Brown Elephant have cute stuff, but it'll be a cold day in hell when I pay twenty dollars for a smelly t-shirt that they bought for twenty cents. In Bloomington IN, I've never found anything special at the Good Will or Salvation Army. I guess the demographics of donors aren't eccentric enough for my taste. The Cactus Flower prices most things around fourteen bucks, but when you like everything in the store the thrill of the search is lost! (And you walk out with empty pockets)
I understand these stores are usually struggling to pay rent and turn a profit at the same time. It's just a shame that the true art of thrifting seems to be dying off. For once, I really hope I'm wrong.
2 comments:
If you think that the Urban stuff is bad, Etsy is worse!
I know that I'm guilty of it, but if you search on etsy, you'll see that there are hundreds of sellers who think that they can make $10 off of a "vintage coffee mug"
and people do buy it.
the thrift stores in chicago are picked over in the areas where there are students or yuppies or have easy access, like that sal army off grand. But there's a select few that my roommate and i love to go to because they're small, they're cheap (and we can bargain!) and they aren't picked over. so there is hope. and whenever i go back home home, to midlothian, i usually always find at least a few amazing items at the markham unique.
AHHHH etsy scares me.
next time i'm home i'll be running around chicago looking for things to buy- you'll have to keep me updated on what's good. i've been out of the loop lately, more or less. (no chicago pun intended!)
and yeah, i love that unique in markham. i'd always stand in front of that one stupid little mirror for like 20 minutes trying to fit things over my clothes while kids and old ladies gave me funny looks.
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