Do you shop at thrift stores? Do you donate to the charitable ones?
I don’t shop at them because it’s just too time-consuming. The odds of finding exactly what you want at a thrift store just aren’t good odds. I have two objects in my house that came from a thrift store. One is a tiny dish I found at the Rescue Mission store and the other is a pillow I bought at the Discovery Shop. The pillow had a very attractive Chinese graphic and looks great on my sofa;. When I showed it to my Chinese friend, he said the graphic was just something made up, but it looks cool anyway.
I used to donate exclusively to the Discovery Shop, not sure why. (The Discovery Shop is the Cancer Society store in Henderson Center at 2942 F Street,) I stopped giving to them because they just make it too hard. You have to negotiate a packed parking lot to access their drop-off location, which is accessed (and I use the word loosely) by climbing up an unstable ramp without handrails. If you make it to the top, you have to ring a bell and hope someone answers. More than once I had to lug my donations all around to the store entrance on F Street. Unsat!
Then I found out that the Eureka Rescue Mission Thrift Shop (1031 Broadway, next block down from the main Post Office) has a painless drop-off. You just turn right off Broadway to go around in back of the store and a couple of helpful people are always there to help. Now THAT’S user-friendly!!
In closing, I’ll put in a word for Anglin Second Hand (2016 Broadway). Although it’s not a charity endeavor, it feels like one and it’s everyone’s favorite junk store. If I were looking for furniture I’d be sure to check them out.
In our low-income community, these stores fill a critical function, so donate and support them when you can. Happy Hunting!
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I shopped the thrift stores for all of my clothing for probably close to 15 years. You can amazingly find good quality clothing IF you go to the right places.
But, I will agree, the quality has gone way downhill in the last ten years. So much so, I don’t bother.
Now, I spend way too much time in antique stores finding items for my daughter’s shop in Portland. Daisy Drygoods is one of the cream of the crop as is Art and Old Things and Antique Depot in Fortuna. Remember when the antique store at the corner of 3rd and F existed in Eureka? Right after the Works moved down the street. I miss that place.
The rattiest has to the place across from Mazzotti’s on 3rd…but, I ALWAYS find something fun there….
Great input! Thanks!
I’ve been consistently disappointed with the items at local thrift stores. Way too many clothes, trinkets, and garbage housewares, and very little in the way of electronics, tools, building materials, or anything useful. Some of them I suspect refuse to even take any of those items, given the complete and utter lack of them. Generally the items they do have are of such low quality that they belong in a dumpster. The Reusables Depot was by far the best of the lot, but it’s long gone. Anglin occasionally has useful items, but their prices are too high – you might as well go to the pawn shop and get the same item in a lot better condition for not much more money. There’s supposedly a new place at Redwood Acres, but until they stop their policy of spamming the craigslist “by owner” section with their dealer posts, I don’t plan to go there. Friends was OK, but they’re also gone. And god, sooo many clothes. Everywhere. People, if you don’t think you’re going to wear something, don’t buy it! Really!
There’s always going to be used clothing for sale; people make mistakes. I found a few things at the Clothing Dock in Arcata but that was awhile ago.I’ve heard of thrift stores not accepting things (my neighbors on Next Door were complaining about that) my philosophy is: if they make too hard to donate, I just go elsewhere. If I were running a second=hand store I’d smile gratefully and thank the donors enthusiastically before I threw the junk out. DUH! In this town I suspect anything that has even a chance of being sold ends up on Craig’s List.
You are right about the time element, but going to thrift stores to browse for books, CDs and DVDs is time well spent just as it would be in a used book store. The Hospice Shop in Arcata is quite good. It is at 6th and H in the old Angelo’s Pizza restaurant.
And a worthy way to pass the time. I’ll check out the Hospice shop next time I’m over there.