Michael and I decided to get away for three days. We wanted to go to Chicago, but the hotel prices had doubled since we went in December. We decided to stay at our friendly local KOA intead. On Monday we headed out to a store we had always hit in our previous camping trips, “Calico Garden”. It had knickknacks, doo-dads, Christmas ornaments, dolls, jewelry, vases, lamps, etc. To our surprise, it was no longer there. Michael offered to take me to the new Goodwill instead. Well, twist my arm…
I found a shirt right away, a long sleeve floral that was vintage in look, if not in age (it’s from JC Penney). It was $4.50 and not a green barb (the ones that were 75% off). I figured if that was my only clothing purchase, I wouldn’t feel too bad about it. I checked out the winter coats, not expecting to find anything. I found a gorgeous champagne faux fur coat, car length, fully lined in satin, with plastic (Bakelite?) mother of pearl buttons. It was a steal at the regular $13 price. The last time I saw a vintage coat at this Goodwill it was in the Boutique section and was marked $80!
I found a couple items to go in the “Gift” box (things I put away for birthdays, Christmas, etc.). The night before we went camping I broke Michael’s last Smurf glass. I found one Smurf glass and four Muppets glasses, all at 25 cents each. A couple magnets, a book, a canvas tote (one can never have too many), and a Veggie Tales lightswitch cover rounded out the trip.
There was an older, grumpy lady at the register. She informed us that if we had been in earlier that day we could have bought the five Smurf glasses she had already sold. Why, oh, why do thrift store employees do this? She then said, “Do you know this coat is $13?”. Uh, yes. “Well, this a really nice coat. It’ll be really warm. Hey, Heather, she’s buying the really nice coat!”. Um, okay. Did they think I was getting robbed for spending $13 or did they think I was just going to go home and use the really nice coat for target practice or something? Here it is June and I’m dreaming of wearing my new coat in September or maybe there might be a cool night in August I could wear it?
Oh, I just realized I’ll have to buy new boots to go with my new coat. My vintage boots are black and gray faux fur and my new boots are white and silver moonboots. Also, Mom will have to make me a crocheted scarf and hat to match.
Even though I love to thrift and will never stop, I become more disillusioned every time I go. Since regular retail stores drop their clearance prices to ridiculous lows (I buy T’s for $1 and $3 at Big Box Mart) thrift stores have to raise their prices to make any money. In my area at least, the thrifts are begging for donations. If they have less to sell, they are going to charge more for the things they have. It’s a vicious circle. Personally I’ll still pay for good vintage items, but when it comes to newer goods I’ll only pay a dollar or so.
