Rating Every Thrift Store in Chicago | REISSUED
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- A needlessly thorough first impression of the Chicago thrift scene... with ratings because that's more fun.
#reissued #thrifting #chicagothrifting
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These are just my assessments of the stores I visited based on one visit.... but I'd love to hear from Chicago locals who hit these stores all the time! Did I get it right?
Follow me on IG and Pinterest @theandrewharper
0:00 - A REISSUED Thrifting Guide to Chicago
1:21 - Rules for ratings
2:01 - How I chose which stores to visit
4:02 - How I'm rating these stores
7:00 - The Restore
10:26 - The Salvation Army
13:44 - Rebuilding Exchange
16:08 - The Brown Elephant
19:57 - Village Discount Outlet
23:21 - Unique
25:39 - Mount Sinai Resale Shop
29:40 - Goodwill
32:12 - Thoughts on clothing
33:57 - My BEST and WORST Thrift Stores revealed
36:18 - A few honorable mentions
My favorite stores for clothing:
Crossroads Trading Co - crossroadstrading.com/locatio...
Buffalo Exchange - buffaloexchange.com/location/...
Belmont Army Vintage - belmontarmyvintage.com
Belmont Army (different store) - www.belmontarmy-wp.com
Richard's Fabulous Finds - www.richardsfabulousfinds.com
2nd Street (Lincoln Park location is better I think) - 2ndstreetusa.com/find-a-store - Навчання та стиль
Chicago resident here: we love Village Discount, although we shop for clothing and glasswear/ dishes. I do agree with your high marks for Brown Elephant, and they support a great cause.
looove the village discount for clothes. Lots of hidden gems, and the price is always right
There are nearly 50 Goodwill stores in Illinois but most are outside the city. They stopped taking furniture donations during the pandemic and never really started again. Prices are better than other cities but have gone up lately. Best days to shop are monthly Customer Appreciation Day (25% off) on Tuesdays and Senior Discount Day (15% off) every Wednesday. Goodwill is also one of the only thrift stores that stacks discounts so you can get really low prices on certain items if you go on these days.
Omg you’re amazing Linda! Thanks for the info!
Please also be aware that outside the city proper, there are multiple Goodwill regions operating - some offer Perks Rewards and some do not, depending on which entity is operating the store.
I think Facebook Marketplace has changed the game for Goodwill and Salvation Army. I tried to donate a 1950s dining room table to SA in suburbs and was told they’ll only take current styles in perfect condition because they get so much furniture and not enough floor space … and it doesn’t sell quickly (again I think FB marketplace factors into that because pricing can be cheaper and flexible there).
Three stores to check out in northwest Chicago suburbs are Wings Resale (3 locations), Lucille's Resale in Arlington Heights and Pink Geranium in Barrington.
I LOVE Wings AND they brought back half off everything days at the end of the month!!
I love Lucille in Arlington Heights! One of my faves for home stuff.
Oh I’m definitely hitting these up the next time I’m in Chicago!
Rebuilding Exchange is a great organization. They train people for work in the trades. They also have workshops for the general public. I learned how to make a table top using 19th century salvage lumber.
The thrift stores in the south suburbs are iiiiiincredible. Think Homewood, Country Club Hills, etc.
Chicago resident - weird seeing all the places I go in a video that's not mine, haha... Village Discount used to be a great place to go. Now they've raised all their prices without any increased monitoring of quality. Packed and dirty stores. It's a shame.
Exactly! We still go, because it's cheaper than Brown Elephant, but the prices have definitely gone up. The "white tag" items, which used to be a very selective group of higher quality/branded items (and not included in color tag sales), are now liberally placed throughout the store. I'm just shopping for myself, but we see a ton of resellers in there all the time, too. I think that's part of why prices have gone up across the board. Oh! and dirty, yes! - I'm always sneezing if I'm in there for any length of time!
I was just thinking the other day that I'd been missing your videos. Glad everything is good well in Chicago.
Me as well.
This was a unique video. I can't say anyone has rated op shops on a video before. Some excellent tips! Thanks Andrew🙏
So cool that you are doing Aida with Lyric! Looks like a very interesting take on the classic...
Loved the extra long episode! Great idea to rate thrift stores and your system was well thought out and easy to understand. It was a fun watch and I smiled to see your pic in the marquee poster. So glad you’re back!
Thanks Lisa! ❤️
I love the Restore. Just picked up some leather cantilevered chairs from there this week!
Ooooh those sound amazing!
I love that you are working for Lyric in Chicago! ❤ So cool!
West loop is alot of renters and college students, so makes sense that there's not alot of home stuff
Great insight!
A fee notes...
Unique has half-price Mondays, which in my experience means it moves most merchandise on Monday. I personally find them really expensive but competitive on Mondays. They used to be the place to go, but have definitely lost quality.
Chicagoland Good Wills quit carrying furniture a few years ago. They said transport and placement was too difficult and they didn't have space. I do like some of the suburb locations for things like ceramics., pottery, and kitchy finds.
I try to stay in the suburbs and stop by the thrift stores and resale shops before running other errands, and I have found that pricing is wildly erratic, but some areas have some really good finds. I also feel prices are more fair in this area, but my other thrift experiences are in. SWFL , where many stores charge over original MSRP for absolute garbage, so my viewpoint may be skewed.
I hope the information is helpful.
Great info! Thank you!
Andrew, this is so wild. I was in the chorus for Aida and got to watch you dance (beautifully) from stage right. I thought you looked familiar at the time and now I realize why!!! Love your channel and love your work. I wish I would have put two and two together before we closed!
(ps, I'm the one on the far left of the picture you posted haha)
Omg that’s crazy! I wish we had connected!
Salvation Army always seems to be wildly overpriced on some things. I will say the one area that I've managed to get really high-end pieces for super-cheap is in smaller paintings. The staff at Salvation Armies (Salvations Army? Dunno the plural) tend to overprice large artworks, but they can't identify an original smaller painting (anything smaller than 8.5X11) to save their lives. I found paintings worth several hundred to several thousand dollars in the "frames for $1 each" bins at Salvation Army, and I bought them because I liked them as artworks, not to resell, But if you're interested in art to try to find something of worth, Salvation Army, in the frames area (in my area, that's in the big junk-filled garages in the back), you can find some really great art.
Salvation Army staff don't know how to price things which was good for me. I found an authentic Chanel blazer for $24.99, and have bought Prada, Dior, Gucci clothing plus Meissen, Tiffany & Co. and other high end brands there. Sadly, the honey hole where I got all these great finds closed a few months ago.
This is SO helpful! A friend of mine is buying her wedding dress in Chicago this summer, and I know we'll also want to go buy some more regular clothes. But it's also cool to see what thrifting looks like for other things too
So fun! Yeah definitely hit up Goodwill and Salvation Army for clothes… but there are so many cool vintage and resale spots for clothes too!
Wow, I appreciate your thorough evaluations even though I don't live anywhere near Chicago! Still interesting though. Thanks! Fascinating to see those train station walls along with a vintage photo of them! 14:35 Very cool. That had to have been frustrating leaving things behind due to lack of space. Glad you're back.
I love that Corbusier Chase Lounge in Cow hide ….. if it’s authentic , it fetches more than £7k
Oh wow! That might have been a great find!
This looks like so much fun! I love going to thrift stores when I'm out of my town. Great job with the ratings, thanks for sharing.
Great to see you, Andrew! I admire your ability to make an interesting episode while far from your home base. I just wish you were dancing in Dallas when you recorded this so I'd know where to go! Again, great to see you! I hope Queenie isn't wasting away while pining for you.
I've been buying and reselling for 40+ years.....now health issues have pretty much ended that for me. I still thrift and go to flea markets (I used to do the one in Rosemont) it attracts a mixed crowd, but there are ALWAYS a lot of 30 somethings looking for 70's and MCM. I live around the Joliet area now and tend to stick to the thrift stores a little farther south. We do have a lot of Goodwills....even one that does the "bins" that you have to dig through. And even in nicer locations, designer bags and jewelry are in cases at the checkout. As someone who has both bought and sold on Marketplace, the prices on items sold in the city (especially artsy neighborhoods) are at least double for the same item in the suburbs. I ran a Tea Room that also had a shop in it in a tiny southern Illinois town. A week before we actually opened, a couple came in and bought several things including a farm table I had listed for $300. When I tell you they couldn't give me the money fast enough....turns out they had a store in Evanston and sold my table for $1200!! I knew what they were going to do with it from the get go, but my philosophy is if you pay me what I'm asking for it, and turn around and sell it for 4x's as much.....good on you. And that's why thrift shops in the city price so high.
it's good to see you again!
I live in Chicago and I thrift them all. Even Mt. Sinai, which I don't thrift anymore.
I shop Unique for Womens lingerie, Appliances&electronics, and menswear. It has toooo much womens wear and it would take up too much time to shop and compete with other women for clothingl Unique on Monday (1/2 off) is a mess, and you need PATIENCE.
I'm a regular at Unique and unfortunately, the reason it looks disheveled is because of the buyer and their "children". Everytime I go there, toddlers running around and tearing up toys and books. Grownups don't pickup the clothes that fall down. They walk over stuff and throw it around. So blame the customers.
Mt. Sinai needs MORE SPACE and they just moved to that space about 5 years ago.
Reco: THE Xchange on Broadway. Elliot's Consignment on Broadway. McShane Exchange on Halsted.
This Unique is my go to thrift store. Every Monday everything is 50% off. The village discount is so overwhelming to me though
You’ve been missed! I got to check out the architectural salvage store. The price points within the city, especially Chicago, are going to be higher. I’ve found the best prices are outside the city, but some of the coolest things are going to be in Chicago due to its history. Example: Pullman Company with their luxury train cars was headquartered in Chicago. The people surrounding Founder George Pullman were the most wealthy. A lot of their mansions are gone, but their wares are everywhere.
You’re spot on about price points being higher within the city… same way in ATL. But yeah Chicago has some super cool stuff!
Hey there! Native Chicagoan and thrift vlogger here. Loved to see this video and your take on the stores! I am a frequent patron of Unique (the one you visited, mainly). I've found some pretty cool things in the past (lots of Haeger, swung glass vase for $10, etc.), but I do agree their prices are on the higher end. The Salvation Army prices, in my opinion, are incredibly ridiculous. I used to go to the Grand and Union one, but I went to the Sheffield one recently (I believe). I was shocked that they were asking (in some cases) above retail price on some items. I'm definitely going to check out the Brown ELephant in Andersonville after watching your video. I work in that area now, so it will be easier for me to get there on public transit. Also, Goodwill is definitely more of a suburbs chain. Also barely any Savers in Illinois and not sure why it's called Unique in Chicago. Subscribed and can't wait to see more content.
Totally agree about the Sheffield area/Clybourn Salvation Army prices. The number of times I've rolled my eyes at a price tag higher than the original MSRP, and it's not a vintage item!
Love that ReStore! I got a 5 drawer antique chest of drawers there, and the fabulous staff helped me fit it into my tiny GTI! Lucky I was only going 2 miles, but I did it!
22:30 Village Discount Outlet; you didn't go UPSTAIRS! That's where the Furniture is!
Is there a third floor?! The only stuff on the second floor was menswear…
@@REISSUED oh WOW. I guess they changed it. That's where the furniture used to be.
Great seeing a video Andrew, have missed you. (which is understandable and not a slam) I agree on both the brown elephant, and the rebuilding exchange! that looked like a place I'd need to pack a lunch to visit!
I enjoy thrifting so this video was fun to watch.
I don't live in the city, currently, but I do visit often.
Brown Elephant has been my favorite since 1990. I think the new Lakeview location is open now.
Mt. Sinai is definitely pricey. Difficult (for me) to call it a thrift.
Goodwill is all over the suburbs. Many locations to choose from if you leave the city.
Fun to get project ideas at Rebuilding Exchange.
I think I have found deals at just about every store you visited. Like any thrift trip, all can be hit or miss. I like the thrill of the hunt to find interesting books, art and decor mostly.
Glad you had a good time in my favorite city!
Thanks for sharing this info Amy! Very helpful ❤️❤️
Enjoyed this episode! Thanks🇦🇺
Thanks for making a video even though you're busy with other things. We don't have a many thrift stores in my area and they are very spread out, but I feel inspired to do my own hunt and list.
Hey Gabby! You absolutely should do your own list! Thanks for watching ❤️
I can't believe how many of your recent videos I've been missing!
Must have been in hibernation or sth.
The third store (for building) seemed amazing!
I highly agree on clothes needing to be sorted by size and books by subject.
Haha Village Discount! That used to be my place, even though it is for sure dingy. I once found a pair of sunglasses for $2 that I resold for $250 :)
As a thrifter this video was EVERYTHING to me! I live in Chgo but thrift in the suburbs mostly.
Just subscribed! I may need to pop up to Chicago and do some thrifting!
I'm so glad you visited the Brown Elephant in Andersonville. That's where I live and I would have recommended that you visit!
It’s a great spot!
I grew up with "The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature" copyright 1955 - and still have it!!! (Sadly sans dust jacket.) Great find! Enjoy!
Also, I lived in Chicago many years ago during my starving artist days and scored a lot of clothes and furniture at Amvets on Halsted just north of Diversey (long gone). I still have many of my finds - including the chair I'm sitting on as I write this! ($2.00 at the time.) Thrifting pays.
Yeah it was a great find! Looking forward to taking inspiration from it!
This was a doctoral presentation. I am about 7 minutes in and still hearing your qualifying criteria is cracking me up! lol
Haha it was so extra! But I wanted to give all the info!
Brown Elephant used to be a bowling alley, not a church. Also, the West Loop is a high-theft area re: Goodwill. I donate most of what I have to declutter to Brown Elephant, bc it’s near my house and because it’s the retail store for Howard Brown. But I also donate to direct-to-user stores-like clothing and other items people really need. They’re mostly in the suburbs.
It was the Calo Theater before it became a bowling alley (and then a theater, again). The name is still on the building! :)
Hi there: just a heads up that the Chicago Metro area encompasses MUCH more than the loop and the Northside. Those areas are maybe only about 30% of the city.
Unique thrift on Elston is usually messy fro, my experience.
There’s a Goodwill on 95th and Western.
Nice to see your video. Come to Boston to dance and shop!!
Sounds fun!
When I was living in Chicago I went to Village Discount because I needed any clothes I could find cheap. I got to the point I could feel the high quality fabrics and eyeball the larger sizes I needed so I could race through the racks. Also I would only concentrate on 1 or 2 sections at a time. Now I just go when I want a grand adventure of a treasure hunt for fun
Interesting to see with your creative eye what other areas have to offer. My part of the country is woefully inadequate when it comes to thrifting , more along the lines of Unique. Junk. Also, any place I can watch a video of any of your dance performances?
Mt. Sinai used to be great! They got out of control with pricing and stopped doing frequent sales. The vibe of the place so I stopped going there.
Yeah they have such cool furniture but the pricing is out of hand
I think they are a fund raising arm for the hospital and a lot of the doctors’ wives donate to them, hence good quality items and high prices on them. Back in the day they used to be the volunteers and did pricing so knew the value of the stuff. Not sure if it’s still the same.
Just watched your video and realized I was at that Salvation Army at the same time as you, I recognized all the furniture you were showing! That Salvation Army is way over priced, I only go there in the hopes of finding a pricing mistake, and I do quite a bit. Okay so you really are spot on with your observations, I go to all of these places except the Mount Sinai store. One place you perhaps were a bit off with is Unique, you have to brave going on Mondays when everything is half price, customers will turn the place upside down, so by midday the place is a mess. Turn over is quite good there. If you donate to the store they give you a coupon for 20% off. I have to say I get more treasures there than anywhere else!
I've been wondering where you were! I was born in Chicago! What a great city! I grew up in Glenview. I haven't been there in a very long time, none of my siblings or my parents are there anymore. Eat up Andrew! Great food there! Sorry, I haven't even said anything about the thrift stores! Have a great time there! Go to the Art Institute if you have time!
The Art Institute was fantastic! And we really enjoy the contemporary art museum as well!
@@REISSUED So glad you got to go! Just the building alone is amazing! I haven't been to that one. The Science and Industry Museum is great too, we used to go to all those places when I was a kid. ❤
The Best thrift stores I'd found in the Chicago area are all in the suburbs.
I used to love stopping a Goodwill on Barrington Road near Schaumburg, I'd stop there when driving up from Batavia to Schaumburg to visit family.
Granted, this was well before the pandemic so I'm not sure if things have changed since then. I would get designer brands at deeply discounted prices, sometimes with tags still attached.
Hi from Australia, not sure how the thrift stores accept donations, here are often signs out where you leave your donations stating what they are not accepting due to been over stocked. As for furniture, some thrift stores will collect, however you have to email photos and they will let you know what they will take. This is to reduce stock they know they won’t sell and reduce costs to dispose of items. One thing here we call thrift stores Op shops. Short for opportunity shop.
I just saw the Joffrey Ballet's closing day of Mid Summer's Night. Did you work on that production?
I love thrift stores but we don’t have those big ones in Madrid❤❤❤
Some of the dark dingy places are the best finds. You have to jump in and hang on.😂
We have a lot of thrifts. The closer to the city you get, the more expensive. The surrounding suburbs are best.
I feel like dollar stores are resale shops. Do you find that you have to look out for pickpockets in the busier stores? I did, at a thrift store in Oak Lawn (southwest suburbs).
We really like shopping at thrift stores, our channel is similar as we review small businesses, hotels, restaurants etc. Nice video! 👍
Restore in IL is INSANE with their prices. Some pieces I feel are priced retail or higher!! I’ve stopped going there
Do you not have value village in Georgia, I think they are companion stores to Savers? We had them in Charlotte
Ah I wondered about that… I didn’t see VV as a sister brand on the Savers site… but maybe I missed it. Not a fan of VV either 😂😜
That Goodwill is not new. It has been there since at least 2010. We used to go to a gym near there (Flirty Girl), and we would get items our shows. I think they don't have furniture in that store, because it there is no parking to stock it in the store or for people to take it out and load it in their cars when they buy it.
😻
Our Goodwill (western suburbs of Chicago) doesn't accept donations of Furniture.
Very interesting!
I used to live next to mt. Sinai, and would go about once a week. I would say their turnover rate is quite high. Still, it is crazy annoying to get furniture from there
Good to know! Thanks for sharing that info! ❤️
I don’t think things are selling quite as briskly right now, by what I see on FB marketplace people are offering pretty nice furniture free and it’s not moving.
ditto
🎶💕
Bro, you doing a play and no backstage POV?
It was a union house so they are super strict about no filming… but here’s a bts promo - m.ua-cam.com/video/JNqLTxI9_h0/v-deo.html
@@REISSUED Great promo. I see ya 👍🏿
Hey let’s see if you go to any of the ones I go to 😂
Mount Sinai was a thrift store? The prices were terrible. I would say 0/5
Long time…
Yeah it’s been too long!
🔳✨✨👍✨✨❤️🔥💫😎
So, you seem sweet, and my heart skipped a beat at 30:37 but I hope people remember who some of these stores were created for: poor people. The reason why prices have risen so much is because of flippers and upcyclers and straight up parasitic dealers, leaving poor people with nothing but dregs, if they can even afford those.
I don't know what your financial situation is, so I can't comment on that, but if you come from a privileged background, maybe it's worth having a think about.
I understand that some items are very collectable designer pieces that could go to people who appreciate that, and sometimes they do, but all in all the thrifting world has become an actual battle zone full of pickers and parasites who give zero thought to the poor or any concept of share and share alike. This is a societal problem of biblical proportions. And some poor people have an eye for design in case people don't know, they don't want to fill their house with crap just like anybody else, but they are now nearly completely shut out.
If you can afford to shop at a vintage or antique store you should, because you're essentially robbing from the poor.
I can only imagine the level of swindling and in-crowd leveraging that goes on, too. I don't trust anybody who runs a thrift store. No-one. I'm no fool.
Lastly, I wouldn't go to The Salvation Army if you paid me, either. Horrid people who have a long list of crimes against society, local and foreign. Just research it. This is something we think about in the regular world of shopping (fair trade, child labour, etc), so why do thrift stores get a pass? Not on my watch. I try and keep my morals consistent.
You are so correct. I live in the neighborhood where Brown Elephant is and it has changed so much! I can't believe he said the prices are low there! Everything has gone up astronomically! I've thrifted my whole life, out of necessity. It's "cool" that it's trendy now, but it has dimmed what used to be a great joy! We live by a Village Discount thrift, too, and it used to be reliably inexpensive, even though you had to dig. Now there are resellers in there all the time. You can tell because they wear headphones, flipping through the racks, in their zone. Those of use who are just in there shopping for a ourselves get the leftovers. We can't compete with the "professionals".
Such nonsense every thrift store is throwing away literal tons and tons of high quality items. Its ironic you have an issue with resellers hurting poor when resellers literally are poor people trying to better themselves the avg make below min wage. They are also the #1 recyclers by occupation, you have obv become bitter but find someone else to blame for your woes resellers are a huge asset to society.
So you wanted to go Chicago Thrifting but instead went to Goodwill and Salvation Army? Yikes…. The local neighborhood, small business thrift stores are where it’s at!
Just subscribed! I may need to pop up to Chicago and do some thrifting!
When I was living in Chicago I went to Village Discount because I needed any clothes I could find cheap. I got to the point I could feel the high quality fabrics and eyeball the larger sizes I needed so I could race through the racks. Also I would only concentrate on 1 or 2 sections at a time. Now I just go when I want a grand adventure of a treasure hunt for fun