We women love to shop. Be it a department store, a clothing store or even a thrift shop. Some have a great eye to spot the best deals in thrift stores. Those who regularly shop at thrift stores know the best time to scout for certain stuff.Thrift stores are full of stuff that is cleared out by people from their homes, mainly when doing their spring cleaning or in winter. There are no hard and fast rules to shopping at thrift stores and no magic in getting the best deals.
But there are some tips that can help you get better deals than the rest. Follow these tips and see if you can land yourself a golden egg:
1) Internet- If you aren’t techno savvy and yet you want to get the best deals, now is the best time to sit online. You can search for the best thrift stores in your area online and even sign up for their mailers. Some websites even offer the option of you entering your zip code and in turn getting a list of the thrift stores in that area.
2) Location- It might sound silly but the fact is that good locations have the good stuff. So if you go to a nice area, you have chances of getting better stuff. The logic behind this is that people generally turn out their old stuff to the closest thrift store. So if it is a nice area, you get the better stuff and especially if an area of well to do families then chances are that the people living in these areas do not frequent thrift stores as much as we do.
3) Season- Get your seasons right. Normally people clean out their entire homes and dump all the old stuff when they carry out a yearly cleanup. Some people do it in spring or winter.
4) Travel- So scourge the thrift stores in these seasons.No one usually has a thrift shop on the agenda when out on a vacation. But don’t forget to add them from now on to your itineraries. You never know what undiscovered treasures that thrift stores hold in store for you.The more exotic the location, the more treasures you will uncover.
5) Days of the week- There are some days on the week that are better than the others to shop at thrift stores. Good stuff in these shops sells like hot cakes. So it’s best to ask the salesmen at these stores when the stock usually arrives so that you can visit them as soon as the stock arrive. For example some stores get their best donations on weekends.
6) Frequency- Thrift stores keep getting stuff. The more frequently you visit the more chances are there of you getting good deals.
7) Mailing list- A lot of these thrift stores have mailing lists. They will send you e-mails and updates of the latest stock and offers in their store. Some even send these updates that include pictures of the items sent.
So head out to those thrift stores and get lucky!
P.S – Don’t forget the fact that you can save yourself a lot of money by buying stuff at these stores.