Thrift Stores in Austin? (Laredo, Buffalo: sales, houses, neighborhoods)

[jwnulife]

Can anyone recommend some good thrift stores in Austin?

[sanmiguel]

There are tons of them but, according to my wife, Savers tops the list.

[Moonlady]

Thriftown at the corner of Manchaca and S 1st is my favorite. They receive all the donations picked up by ARC of Texas. I've found some awesome deals on clothes there, including a Liz Claiborne linen dress for $3.99.

What kinds of things are you looking for?

[jwnulife]

Originally Posted by Moonlady

Thriftown at the corner of Manchaca and S 1st is my favorite. They receive all the donations picked up by ARC of Texas. I've found some awesome deals on clothes there, including a Liz Claiborne linen dress for $3.99.

What kinds of things are you looking for?

I'm mainly looking for decent quality clothes with a lot of variety. I like to dress fairly casual so cool t-shirts, jeans, stuff like that.

By the way, what is ARC of Texas? I just moved here.

[Moonlady]

There are several resale shops and more vintage clothing type places. Goodwill comes up most on a yellow pages search for resale, but honestly, I can get better deals on new at Ross and Target. The vintage shops might have some cool stuff - I know there was a newspaper article awhile back on them. I'll try to dig that up.

ARC is a local charity supporting mentally challenged individuals. They do periodic pick-ups and cover some of the nicer neighborhoods - hence the great finds at Thrift Town. I thought they had great prices for quality stuff. It's funny because I am wearing one of my favorite sweaters today I got there for $2.99.

[austin-steve]

Goodwill in Tarrytown. Hit or miss but sometimes there can be a mother-load of great women and kids clothing. In general, any thrift shop close and convenient to an affluent area will often have designer brand clothing priced really well.

If you really want to do some Rugby style bargain brawling, head to Blue Hanger in East Austin, which is Goodwill's clearance warehouse. Be warned, when they roll out a new bin full of stuff, you'll be up against those who have honed their rummaging skills. Some are able to simply stick their arms down into a bin and feel around for the better quality material.

There are hard core garage sale Soccer Moms and old Hippies who buy stuff to resale on eBay or at their own garage sales a few times a year. It's a whole 'nother world. Bring your antiseptic spray, a breathing mask and some thick rubber gloves if your phobic about germs.

Anything not sold at Blue Hanger gets bulk crated up and wholesaled to who knows who/where by the pallet load, so this is the last stop for most of this stuff.

Read more about it.
Goodwill Blue Hanger Outlet - East Austin - Austin, TX

Steve

[chickenfry]

austin-steve is right. some of my friends refer to that goodwill (tarrytown) as the gucci goodwill!

[sanmiguel]

[quote=austin-steve;7124037]
Anything not sold at Blue Hanger gets bulk crated up and wholesaled to who knows who/where by the pallet load, so this is the last stop for most of this stuff.
/quote]

Actually most of that stuff ends up in warehouses in Laredo for transport down to Mexico. The items are then sold at the local tianguis throughout the country

[twange]

There are a ton but I've done best at:

Buffalo Exchange - clean and organized with quality, fashionable clothing. Definitely heavy on the college crowd but all kinds of people go there. They have a great little system going: if you choose not to use a plastic bag, they give you a 5 cent token that you drop into a box representing a charity.

New Bohemia - Excellent vintage men's clothing. Everything from boots, t-shirts, coats jeans. I usually go to the one on S 1st.

[patgriggs]

The best prices on clothes would be at family Thrift Town. Congress and Oltorf.