Suburban Secondhand

Yesterday, reader KD imparted the following wisdom:

Don’t get me wrong; this is a great find and I love your blog. But I thought Beacon’s Closet was supposed to be a thrift store. I realize that its in NYC and quite organized, but thrift is NOT a $35 dress! Thrift is $15 and below dresses! Most of what is thrift in NYC is more like consignment, but donated.

KD makes an important distinction here. The beast of thrift is the time spent sifting the fab from the fugly. Once the fab gets found, it’s cheaper than you ever thought possible. Therein lies the beauty.

Resale (a.k.a. the practice of Buy-Sell-Trade) tells a slightly different story. That shopping resale’s a lot less frustrating than shopping thrift is no accident. With BSTs, the bulk of the sifting has already been done for you. Resale buyers neg a lot more than they take, and the pared-down selection makes for a more efficient browsing experience.

Give me an hour at Salvation Army, and I might leave empty-handed. Give me an hour at a resale shop like Beacon’s Closet, and I’m bound to find something sensational. The trade-off with the latter is its slightly higher price point. Glad we got that cleared up.

KD’s assertion that shopping thrift means paying less than $15.00 per item is right on… unless you live in NYC, where Upper East Side charity-related thrift stores charge twice that for damaged GAP crap. Everything costs more in major urban hubs and thrift is no exception. Go beyond the city, and things get a whole lot cheaper.


Case in point: The Alcove in Northfield, New Jersey. All of the tags pictured are under $10.00. The $6.00 one was attached to the below Zara shift dress:

Note: Zara dresses usually retail for upwards of $100.00. BAH!

For the full score report, stay tuned. Shit was reDONKulous.