Do you shop at thrift/consignment stores?

[BelleBoo&AmisMum]

You know, I live in a wealthy area too and all of my thrift stores and consignment stores sell utter crap, so it appears to not really follow the affluence of the community (or the people who work the Goodwill are thieves and the folks who give stuff for consignment are as delusional as the ladies are at the start of What Not To Wear in thinking thier clothes are nice). I just won't bother sifting thru a pile of Mom jeans and Blossom dresses only to find more of the same (or things even worse).

Funny you should say that, one of my good friends was on What Not to Wear, she also shops consignment stores for her kids and they are some of the best dressed kids.

Maybe it's our proximity to Microsoft, a lot of the employees spend a lot and then just give stuff away half the time!

 

[Tuffcookie]

I had not been to one in ages. I had to take Dudley to the groomers on Saturday morning and didn't want to go all the way home so I decided to kill time at a local Goodwill.

I ended up getting 4 dresses for myself ($3.99 each...wait, one was 1/2 off!), and a black pair of Nautica jeans for DS, age 16, for...get this...$1.75!

DS is very particular about what he wears but loves the jeans!

TC

 

[tink_n_pooh]

I had to vote "no - other" because they are never open when I can go

 

[ilovepcot]

Seems our local Goodwill (gorgeous new building) sells LICE right along with their clothing.

Ran into a friend a few months back and she was telling me about buying playclothes for her young children at Goodwill and what an ordeal it was getting rid of the lice. Says she'll never set foot in Goodwill ever again. The money she saved on clothing was spent many times over in buying supplies to get rid of the lice. Not to mention the aggrevation!

Oh yeah, almost forgot....the salespeople in our local Goodwill slick their hair down with oil to avoid getting lice. So, if any of you venture into your local thrift stores and notice this, better think twice about your purchase.

 

[Todd&Copper]

Seems our local Goodwill (gorgeous new building) sells LICE right along with their clothing.

Ran into a friend a few months back and she was telling me about buying playclothes for her young children at Goodwill and what an ordeal it was getting rid of the lice. Says she'll never set foot in Goodwill ever again. The money she saved on clothing was spent many times over in buying supplies to get rid of the lice. Not to mention the aggrevation!

Oh yeah, almost forgot....the salespeople in our local Goodwill slick their hair down with oil to avoid getting lice. So, if any of you venture into your local thrift stores and notice this, better think twice about your purchase.

BEST REASON YET to avoid buying trift store panties!

 

[NikiM20]

Seems our local Goodwill (gorgeous new building) sells LICE right along with their clothing.

Ran into a friend a few months back and she was telling me about buying playclothes for her young children at Goodwill and what an ordeal it was getting rid of the lice. Says she'll never set foot in Goodwill ever again. The money she saved on clothing was spent many times over in buying supplies to get rid of the lice. Not to mention the aggrevation!

Oh yeah, almost forgot....the salespeople in our local Goodwill slick their hair down with oil to avoid getting lice. So, if any of you venture into your local thrift stores and notice this, better think twice about your purchase.

Ummmm did she not wash the clothing??????? If its washed and dried, you cant get lice

ETA:FWIW, You dont know who tried on clothing before you and maybe they had lice.

 

[castleview]

Lice can only survive two days without being on a head so I'm thinking that was a coincidence and it didn't come from the store.

 

[wall*e2008]

Lice can only survive two days without being on a head so I'm thinking that was a coincidence and it didn't come from the store.

Lice can be killed by putting the item in a plastic bag.

 

[1PrincessMomma1]

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[ilovepcot]

Ummm....you caught me! I totally lied and my friend is a FILTHY PIG and I wanted to blame it on our local Goodwill....not that I mentioned the town.

 

[NikiM20]

Ummm....you caught me! I totally lied and my friend is a FILTHY PIG and I wanted to blame it on our local Goodwill....not that I mentioned the town.

Filthy people arent the ones who get head lice, they like squeaky clean hair

 

[ORMom2Four]

We do shop at thrift stores, but NOT at Goodwill. They are so overpriced. Faded tee shirts are marked $4.99 at our local store......shirts that I would use for a rag!

We have a few great thrift stores around town. My teen recently bought a $29.99 Abercrombie shirt (price tag still on, never worn) for $3.99. Yard sales are the best though. Where else can you get a practically new winter jacket for $0.25?

I have noticed that at least 80% of the shoppers in the thrift stores are men. Anyone else notice this? Perhaps they like the "hunt", lol. One time I overheard a man on his cell, "Yeah boss, I'm on the road now, the traffic is awful." (as my 3 year old was screaming and talking in the background, giving him away )

 

[Rora]

I voted no because it was gross/germy. I know it's really neither gross nor germy but I just have issues wearing or using someone else's things. It truly has nothing to do with pride or cleanliness, it's really just that ever since I've been little I was freaked out by wearing someone else's things. I have no idea why!

 

[ilovepcot]

Ummmm did she not wash the clothing??????? If its washed and dried, you cant get lice

ETA:FWIW, You dont know who tried on clothing before you and maybe they had lice.

It's no telling when friend got around to washing the clothing. She was probably in no hurry. And yes, it could have easily been the person trying on the clothing directly ahead of her who didn't know they had lice. And yes, it could have come from another place entirely but friend was adamant about it coming from Goodwill. I didn't argue with her....merely listened to her story and recounted it here.

And yes, I *do know* lice are found in "squeeky clean" hair. That's why the Goodwill employees "oil their hair" as noted in my first post.

 

[belle&sebastiansmom]

I've found some great deals on toys for my kids at thrift stores. I buy only the hard plastic toys that can be cloroxed and washed down well, that's just my fear of germs. Toys in doctor's offices are much filthier than anything I've ever bought at a thrift store.

I've saved a ton of money and have bought a lot of items at thrift stores that the retail stores are advertising as the brand new thing out. My kids won't play with their toys forever, so buying at thrift stores allows them to have "new" toys often.

My dd just got several Polly Pocket and Littlest Pet Shop sets in near new condition. I also found a Magic Kingdom Castle Set that I bought for.99 that was selling on ebay for $78, and an Animal Kingdom Tree House Playset, which I bought for .79 and was selling for about $48 on ebay. So I feel like a winner when I find little gems like these!


And BTW, I've never noticed any thrift store employees around here oiling their hair!!

 

[kpm76]

Nope not a joke. Have you met kids? They are mean nasty little creatures. I know of a few kids that have been made fun of & I won't subject mine to that.

Um, ok. Unless you hand make all of your kids clothes there is no way every stitch of clothing they own would be unique. How would your kids react if they went to school wearing the same brand new, this season Gap shirt as a classmate? I don't shop thrift either, but I think your arguments are faulty....

 

[TwinsinCA]

The idea of thrift stores..

I couldn't care less about fashion. I'd rather have no-name new than brand-name used. I only go to the Salvation Army to donate and would only shop there under dire financial circumstances. I have not been to a garage sale since I was dragged to one by my mom as a child.

I buy the vast majority of our clothes at Target/Kohl's and things like jackets and swimsuits from Land's End/LL Bean. When my kids were little I went to the Carter's at the Outlet mall. The high end stuff just doesn't interest me so it is not worth the trouble to try to find deals on it.

 

[themarquis]

Seems our local Goodwill (gorgeous new building) sells LICE right along with their clothing.

Ran into a friend a few months back and she was telling me about buying playclothes for her young children at Goodwill and what an ordeal it was getting rid of the lice. Says she'll never set foot in Goodwill ever again. The money she saved on clothing was spent many times over in buying supplies to get rid of the lice. Not to mention the aggrevation!

Oh yeah, almost forgot....the salespeople in our local Goodwill slick their hair down with oil to avoid getting lice. So, if any of you venture into your local thrift stores and notice this, better think twice about your purchase.

Hmm ... count me in as one of the people who finds it a bit unlikely that most thrift stores are breeding grounds for lice. If your friend has kids, and those kids have ANY contact with other kids ... well, it's pretty much inevitable that they will get lice at some point. It has nothing to do with dirtiness or anything like that. It's just a normal fact of life that lice is endemic among kids, and there is not a whole lot you can do to stop it. I guess I find it a lot more likely that your friend's kids caught it from other kids than that they caught it from the laundered clothes at Goodwill. It is definitely possible, since someone might have just tried on something. Who knows?? But it kind of sounds to me like your friend happened to take a trip to goodwill and one of the kids happened to get lice, and she put the two together in a really unlikely way.

I actually would not be AS surprised that the EMPLOYEES of goodwill would be at greater risk for catching lice than the general population and might slick down their hair, since they have contact with all the unwashed clothes brought in for donation before they are cleaned. But that doesn't mean that your local thrift store is swarming with lice! Kind of a weird excuse, IMO for not wanting to shop at a thrift store.

 

[taheenee]

I don't shop there as much as I used to but mostly because of time restraints. Goodwill (or the GW Boutique as I like to refer to it) is great shopping here in my state because of LL bean being in the state. there is always lots of brand new Bean stuff for cheap.

 

[aprilgail2]

Nope not a joke. Have you met kids? They are mean nasty little creatures. I know of a few kids that have been made fun of & I won't subject mine to that.

Most of the ones in my daughters school (grade school) make fun of the kids wearing the target/walmart clothing. My friend bought her daughter a jacket at walmart but told her it was from kohls because she knew she would go to school and say "look at my new jacket my mom bought it at walmart" even though she tells her not to tell and then she gets made fun of!