Monday, July 21, 2008

Today's "thrift" stores

I went on a four-day shopping spree in DC and Mclean's Tyson's corner which inspired me to write this post. I went to Georgetown to try to find some nice thrift stores, and I saw Annie Cream Cheese(I had heard about it before)... So I walked in and I liked the music and atmosphere immediately. I continued to browse and found a dress I liked. Since the whole store was buy one get one 1/2 off I decided to try to find one more thing. But I couldn't.


So then I began reconsidering making my purchase. Everything in the store looked like it came from goodwill, the store smelled like goodwill! Yeah, and that's okay for as long as it's goodwill, but the dress I was holding in my hands was $50! I peered at the label in hope of some recognition of a designer name or even a good brand name. But no, $50 for a polka dot dress with a no name label, OH and that somebody else has already worn! Half of the store was a designer botique. I didn't look that closely but I saw a couple Fendi dresses priced for over $1000, and they weren't even fantastic looking. Wouldn't you buy a new Fendi dress if you had that kind of money anyway?


As I walked out of the store and put the dress back on the rack of even more expensive dresses(ranging from $75-250), the girls who worked there were still talking about the day Victoria Beckham came into the store. OOOkay?

What I bought for the $50 I had left after my other expenses?



A ring from Betsey Johnson! I love this crazy ring. And i think it's a much better decision than that dress.

So, I was going to say... I think it wrong that there's so many "vintage stores" like that around today. OMGDAKHGAKDHG and can't you just call it a thrift store instead of vintage store? really? Isn't the point of thrifting to find some treasure that's really really great for a really really low sum of money? Isn't that the exciting part? There are so many online thrift stores too, that charge way too much and sell clothes in only sizes XS or S. I guess you really have to hunt around the find the good stores...
What's cool: finding the good stuff for under $20.
What's not cool: spending more money than you would on a dress at H&M for some no name used dress that's cool only because it's in a "vintage shop"

Image Source: Annie Cream cheese, me