Thrift Round-Up
Heading out to buy some sweaters for a craft project, and thought I’d compile my planning here. If you have contributions & recommendations please add in the comments!
-Attic Shop-Saint Francis Memorial Hospital Auxiliary
UPDATE: Closed :(
-Bargain Mart NCJW
-Cathedral School Shop
UPDATE: This was the best of the bunch. Small collection with high turnover- they get donations every day it seems. High quality, and not picked over.
-Community Thrift
-Goodwill Industries- 11th St, Clement, Fillmore, Geary, Haight, Mission, Central sorting, Central retail
-Hospice by the Bay Thrift Shop
-Los Ninos Inc (no site avail: 4760 Mission. )
-Mission Thrift
-Neighborhood Discount Store
-Repeat Performance
-S F Tavern Guild Community Thrift Store
-St Anthony Foundation
-St Francis Churchmouse Thrift Shop
- The Salvation Army - Valencia, and Sutter
-ThriftTown - Mission St
Tools, chats & more info after the jump.
Tools/Resources
Most of these are from the SFSU Handbook. I like it because it covers the charitable organizations- church jumble sales, etc.- instead of the usual Mission/Valencia thrift triad (ThriftTown, CommunityThrift, etc.)
This crafty Store Locator tool helps you find thrift & consignment stores: Fashiondig Vintage Clothing Store Locator.
Yellowbot search for the tag “thriftstore” is quite good too.
SFStation has a vintage category that contains thrift: Vintage Clothing
Thrift Chat
Emailed some friends to get advice- Phil got back to me:
The thrifts in SF aren’t so great, though I like the 2 Out of the Closets(Mission and Castro. I’m used to driving down to redwood city or so to thrift. Livermore, El Sobrante, and Pleasant Hill are great. Oddly the GoodWIll on Haight at Cole can be pretty good, you would think it was picked over. I think GW directs inventory to that location because of the foot traffic.
via chat I asked my friend Tharpo about her favorite NorthSide thrift/consignment:
My old one was at the base of the stockton tunnel, so they got all the union square/nob hill stuff… There was this old guy from nob hill who used to go to my favorite consignment store and buy cashmere sweaters as undershirts. instead of cleaning them, he would just throw them away and buy new ones”
NorthSide SF
Not sure I’m up to hitting the Mission Triad, so I’ll explore NorthSide: This link should show you the Google Maps route of thrift stores.
-Mascara Vintage
UPDATE: Really funky place, nice eclectic blend. Very stylish and indie, like Portland shops of the 90s, with bright synthetics and applique sweaters/jackets. The owner said something about getting written up in a few places soon.
-Molte Cose
UPDATE: Gorgeous stuff, not a lot of clothes but high quality, also, an entire extra storefront is dedicate to a great Men’s section.
-Cris
UPDATE: Very nice, but very small sizes. Doesn’t seem like a consignment shop at all, but a usual boutique.
- St Francis & St. Anthony, Bargain Mart & Cathedral School Shop, in list above
What’s the craft project? A felted laptop bag! But of course. Photo is of my favorite thrifted item- a pale green suit in 100% silk with a label from British Hong Kong. Bought for $12 in Portland, “Land of Good Thrift.”
In Redwood City, Savers is the best thrift store. In fact, forget I said that. Go away. Get out! Don’t come! Leave the best stuff for me!
After that, the St. Vincent de Paul on El Camino across from Target, just past Woodside Road.
Third and last, the Goodwill on Veterans Blvd. between Whipple and Woodside.
What about the Out of The Closet on Polk St? Or The Raphael House on Sutter?[It is only open on Saturday's],also I like the Salvation Army on Sutter at Polk and the Goodwill on Geary between Hyde and Larkin.We have some great thrift stores downtown too!Then hop on the 38 Geary and go to Fillmore and hit the Goodwill on Fillmore,and move on up to the Symphony Store,and several other thrift/charity stores clustered around same Fillmore/Sacramento area.These stores get the Pacific Heights goodies,you know the gowns the socialites wear one time and castoff.Way up on Sacramento near Laurel Village is the Town School Store…that is also a very good place to find designer duds for a fraction of their cost at Neiman Marcus etc…I am told that parents of children at the Town School have to donate clothing and or money to the store for continued enrollment of their child/children.I buy sheets and Ralph Lauren only..and I go frequently to the stores. They get new shipments everyday.
Thanks CRS- I got some of them in the original article but your list definitely backs it up and adds some more gems! I also heard a recommendation for the Town Store. Those charitable stores really get a great collection. I got 2 score sweaters at the Cathedral School. Sad that Attic closed.