(PHOTO/April Irvin)
College students rarely have an abundance of cash, but when they do, thrift shops are where students can get the most bang for their buck.
Thrift shops have picked up some popularity after rapper Macklemore’s hit single “Thrift Shop” was released. The song itself focused on buying clothes for cheap and passing up designer labels. One of Macklemore’s lines in the song said “Yo, that’s fifty dollars for a t-shirt,” pointing out the ridiculous prices of brand name clothing.
These stores offer fun times for the frugal. Exploring is part of the adventure when visiting a thrift shop because you never know what you’ll find. Sometimes outfits may take some tweaking, but it is an opportunity to be creative.
Thrift Shop
This store is simply called “Thrift Shop.” It is next to Anytime Fitness, located at the Southland Village Shopping Center off Highway 231. Thrift Shop is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The shop mostly sells clothes and organizes the clothes by gender and type, such as dresses, pants and shirts. It has a large selection of shoes as well. Outside there are discount clothes. Yes, thrift shops have sales too, so you can imagine the steal the outside rack clothes are. The items with a pink tag are 99 cents and those with red tags are half price.
Christian Mission Bargain Center
Located at 104 Pecan St., the Christian Mission has its selection of clothes color-coded, allowing for shoppers to browse among the colors they like most. The bargain center is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on Sunday. This store also has a selection of books, where a special treasure may be found, such as J.R.R Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” for only a quarter. Miscellaneous objects are scattered on the shelves and a wide variety of mugs and dishes are sold here. It has a fair amount of jewelry and sunglasses. Diehard Alabama and Auburn fans can also find team merchandise.
Goodwill
The Goodwill is in downtown Troy at 115 S. Three Notch St., near the Regions bank on the Square. It is open Monday through Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. This thrift store has its clothes categorized by size, type and gender in one part of the store. Clothing can be as cheap as $2, and even a leather jacket in good quality will only cost $20. Another part of the store is devoted to household items such as knickknacks, mugs and books, which are separated by hardback and paperback. The paperback books are 50 cents and hardback are a $1 and up.
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army store is at 509 S. Brundidge St. next to Subway and Taco Del Mar. It is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Here the clothes are separated by gender, type and color-coded. The Salvation Army has a wide variety of other things besides clothes such as furniture, old records, TVs, VHSs and cassette tapes, along with other odds and ends. There is also a large collection of fiction and romance books.
Remember, the reason thrift shops are in business are because of people’s donations, so if you have clothes that you’ve hardly worn and no longer want, consider giving back to one of these locations and helping out someone who needs the clothes. As the saying goes, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
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