Why go Thrift Shopping?

WHY GO THRIFT SHOPPING?

So many reasons. I am sure you already know about the importance of thrift shopping for environmental reasons (stuff not ending up in a landfill, manufacturing waste...), you already know that you save money (duh!), you already know that most thrift shops are non profit and the money goes to some sort of charity and gives people jobs. So I am not going to bore you with the stuff you already know. If you don't know that stuff, you should.

Reason 1: I don't  want to support greedy big box stores? umm...Walmart, really?

Reason 2: I don't  want to have the exact same tee shirt from Target or Aeropostle that every other person walking around has.

Reason 3: I don't  want to have the same table lamp that everyone else bought from the same furniture shop down the street that was having a big sale that weekend.

Reason 4: I don't want to spend $450 on a purse? (okay, money saving that you already knew about, but still...)

Reason 5:  Its fun. No really, it is a lot of fun. 

Reason 6: Everyone needs a hobby.

Reason 7: You never know what you're going to find. Maybe you will find that million dollar oil painting (doubtful, just saying...) Maybe you will find that hilarious piece of junk that you can't imagine that someone actually owned at one time. OR maybe you will find that perfect dress that you have been looking for. With matching shoes if you are having a good day.

Reason 8: This is an important reason. We live in a very wasteful culture. People buy stuff they don't need, want or like. And they keep it for awhile until they need to get rid of it to make room for more things they don't need, want or like. So it ends up getting dumped at a thrift shop with all their other items that they didn't need, want or like. Many of the items that you will find at a thrift shop is still new with tags. Yep. BRAND NEW merchandise with thrift shop prices. New toys unopened, clothing with store tags still attached, New games still in cellophane wrap, books with not a crease at the spine...The list goes on and on. NEW stuff! 

Reason 9: Why pay retail? Seriously are you rich? If you are rich, congratulations! Do you want to stay rich? Do you like wasting money? 

Reason 10: (Refer to reason 8) I bought my daughters school uniforms at a thrift shop. All items were NEW with tags. I bought 4 pairs of navy and khaki uniform shorts for $2.50 each (she still has white polo's from last year.) I also bought jeans for my daughter and son. I got 8 pairs of jeans for $2.72 each. My friend just complained how much she spent on her child's jeans ($45+ a pair) Um..No, I don't think so! I got 8 pairs for about $20, and at least half of them were brand new with tags. 

Reason 11: My son likes to wear vintage rocker tees, and vintage shirts in general. He has a closet full of rocker tees, a few Simpsons tees, and I just picked up this weekend and vintage Woody Woodpecker tee shirt. (score!) My daughter also snatched up a super cool Ren and Stimpy shirt (wish is was in MY size!)

Reason 12: School supplies, art supplies, office supplies, craft supplies. GALORE! You know how you will see something cool on Pinterest? So you go and buy the supplies, Then it comes out wrong, so you buy more supplies and it still looks crappy, so you buy more supplies and then you lost your ambition. Then your spouse is sick of seeing all the shit all over the house and 1 year later, you think its best to part ways with your 5 boxes or craft supplies, and you get drunk one night and then cry about your lost dreams to be a super amazing crafter, so the next morning you pack it all up and donate it? Same with all the scrapbook crap that you never got around to doing because it ended up being too much work. All that stuff is now at the thrift shop for the next inspired person to waste their time with. But at least they don't pay full price to have shattered dreams. 

I'm sure there are at least another 100 reasons, These are just some of the top of my head. I used to shop thrift when I was younger and HAD to. Now I shop thrift because I am older and WANT to. Funny how that worked out. 

Meanwhile, here are some goodies I just picked up this past week, Actually on Monday, National Thrift Shop Day!

They are listed in my shops:

RANDOM GOODS VINTAGE

AND 

RANDOM GOODS BOOK ROOM

I got about 4 packages of these mid century bobby pins. I think they are the cutest thing ever!

Large first edition Wonder Woman book. Girl Power!

I snatched up about 6 or 7 different retro "stained glass" kits, All different. Put the color crystals in the chambers and bake and then stare at your creation in awe!

Because why have an ugly tissue box in your bathroom, when you can have this groovy accessory?

School starts in just 3 days. Which means more shopping for me. YAY! 

Follow me on Instagram and Pinterest for more shenanigans and vintage goodness (oh, and coupon codes, gotta follow me on Instagram for those, they are top secret, shhh) 

Any other reasons that you shop thrift that I failed to mention?

Thrift Finds in St. Augustine

Any summer that the family and I don't have big vacation plans (which is most summers) We spend a week in St. Augustine. Its about a 3-4 hour drive from our house. My sister in law, who is stinking wealthy and really awesome, does vacation home swaps, so we get a huge condo, on the beach for half the price as they normally charge. This was our 4th time staying at this condo. We have been there enough, and done all the touristy things, so there is time to hit the thrift shops. (There is ALWAYS time to hit the thrift shops)

I was looking most forward to visiting the one I went to 2 years ago. It was a ginormous warehouse that was stacked high with stuff. Seriously, the most stuff I have ever seen at a thrift shop. Decades of stuff stacked to the ceiling. Okay, bad news, its closed down now. Devastated. Anyhow, carry on.

The pickings were slim, surprisingly for such an old city. We (my son, Evan and I) first stopped at one that looked fantastic on the outside:

You cant really tell from this picture, but it had ton of stuff on the outside, and was really large in the inside. It was called Omega Alpha Thrift Shop. Mostly crappy stuff and newish stuff, ALL overpriced. Evan got a cool EXIT sign for $10, now we just need to figure out how to wire it.



Then we came upon this gem:

Complete with the homemade "thrift store" signs. I thought, "this has got to be good!"
See the dark opening? That's what it looked like in the inside. No lights, no air, just a fan blowing on the cashier, who had little to no teeth. This place really was full of old treasures. Caked in decades of dust, many items water damaged. I knew I could find some cool things, if I dug around, and perhaps had a flashlight, but I ended up being too grossed out to continue. And grossing me out at a thrift shop takes a lot! I didn't want to accidentlly find a carcass or something.

We ended up hitting a few others that were mediocre at best, I did manage to wrangle up some goodies. We went to one that had brand NEW with tags New Religion jeans for $30 each! With the original tag of $345! If I was an Ebay seller, I would have snatched those up in a heartbeat and turned around and sold them for $200 each. (they had about 5 pairs). Sadly (yet not sadly) I am not an Ebay seller.

At one place, again overpriced, we did manage to get some good stuff, They had a section of "vintage books" which always pisses me off, because you know they will be priced high. And they were. They must have had about 100 really cool ones. I wanted them all, but I narrowed it down to about 20. Then Evan picked up some random eyeglasses that were on one of the shelves. And said, "whoa, these are my exact prescription!" They were girl glasses, from Nine West, but for $1 we agreed that they would be okay in an emergency if he broke his glasses, or whatever. Spare pair for $1, can't go wrong.

The next stop was at a thrift shop that the proceeds went to animal causes. These are my favorite places to spend my money. Nabbed a few goodies there. I would have liked to have spend more money, but it was a really small place, so there was only so much. Then on the way out, I got stuck in the parking lot. I have a SUV and back in the day, those St. Augustine lots were not made to accommodate large vehicles. Evan got out of the car and tried moving the trash cans around and guide me, but it really was no use. I ended up having to ride backwards (which I suck at) the whole way out.


The last stop almost didn't happen. It looked like some crappy tiny shop in a shopping mall. But we thought, what the hell? Lets check it out anyhow. Whoa, surprise! This place opened up into a mega thrift! I am guessing that it was maybe a former grocery shopping store.  Seriously, HUGE! First thing Evan grabs is a Limited Edition The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, PEZ set, All still in the original box, It has nine characters and 12 Pez candy containers. He got it for $5. Just to have, I suppose, Its not like he's going to open it up and eat the candy.

This place was also overpriced. Oh, St. Augustine, you did me wrong.


Here is some of the goods I came home with:

I did get about 40 other vintage books, but you will have to visit my shop to see these and the rest. 

RANDOM GOODS BOOK ROOM

This next item used to be in my bricks and mortar shop in Largo, but I took it home to sell in my Etsy Shop:

Check it out here------------------->FLOWER POWER DISHES



While you are there, check out my other fun vintage goods I have listed.


Usually, when I am on vacation, I put my shops on vacation. However, this year I decided to try something new. Business has been slow (typical this time of year), so I figured, instead of putting my shops on vacation, which completely shuts down my shops, I decided to keep them open and offer a 10% refund, due to a few days delayed shipping, to any orders that I received during that time. AND OMG, for whatever reason, my shops were on FIRE, crazy amounts of orders! And everyone was super cool with the 10% discount, most of them said that it wasn't necessary. I gave them the discount anyways, of course.

Here is just HALF of my orders I packed up upon returning:

So the moral of the story is: I have to go on vacation more often. 

Oh wait, I almost forgot to show you a beach picture! Here it is.

Yep, kinda have the whole beach to ourselves. 

We decided to rent bikes and go for a nice ride on the beach. We made a mistake. We rode with the wind, 3 miles, when we started. When we turned around to head back, it was 3 miles against the wind. And let me tell you, it was one extremely rough ride. My 8 year old daughter couldn't make it. So we ended up walking our bikes back the 3 miles, in the hot sun. Which even sucked more than riding against the wind. 

Later on, since we still had the bikes until 8pm, Evan and I decided to take the bikes out,  (Avery and Greg were done!) We started by going against the wind, so when we turned around, the ride would be way easy. Get the hard part out of the way while we had energy. Wow, what a difference!  

Home now and we are all thankful to be in our own comfy beds. Our 21 year old cat missed us (even though she was in great hands while we were gone, thanks to Katy and family)

Now to get ready for the school year. (UGH). 

Did you have an interesting summer? Any great thrift store finds? 

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @Random Goods Vintage  for COUPON CODES,  and  check me out on PINTEREST,  because how many recipes do you really need?