Best CHEAP thrift/vintage shops in PDX?
September 24, 2015 5:56 PM Subscribe
I love thrifting but hate overpriced vintage "boutiques" with carefully curated things with big markups. One afternoon in PDX- where's the best place to go for trash & treasures? Clothes, books, household items, furniture etc.
I don't actually like the bins... it's basically going through trash. It's often actual trash, like, on it's way to the garbage dump. It's cheap, and it's an experience, and yeah my friend once found an 808 there, but that story is legend and the reality of the bins is You Are Sorting Through Garbage, In A Giant Bin.
Goodwill Supercenter.
RERUN. IS GREAT.
Er, other Goodwills? The one in St John's is deec, as is the one by Lloyd Center. I also like the one in NW. Speaking of NW thrifting, I don't like William Temple. Overpriced and bad selection. Except their glassware, sometimes they have great glassware.
posted by special agent conrad uno at 6:41 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Goodwill Supercenter.
RERUN. IS GREAT.
Er, other Goodwills? The one in St John's is deec, as is the one by Lloyd Center. I also like the one in NW. Speaking of NW thrifting, I don't like William Temple. Overpriced and bad selection. Except their glassware, sometimes they have great glassware.
posted by special agent conrad uno at 6:41 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yep, Goodwill is the answer. All the Goodwills.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:58 PM on September 24, 2015
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:58 PM on September 24, 2015
Nah, the Goodwill on 10th in SW is one of the overpriced curated ones. I too am eager to find the "real" Goodwills.
posted by bendy at 7:20 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by bendy at 7:20 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
Beg to differ. Goodwill is expensive and too picked over. To give a single answer, it'd have to be value village. I've got a list somewhere, I'll be back if I can find it.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 7:22 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 7:22 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Closest to "undiscovered" is that one out on Sandy; Better Bargains. And there really are bargains. I've been to all the others: red white blue, teen challenge, etc., and they're all about the same. I think of it in car trips: a dedicated trip for any value village and better bargains, and then maybe down 82nd, where there's a bunch of them close to each other (salvation, goodwill, Deseret) though they're not as good.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 7:39 PM on September 24, 2015
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 7:39 PM on September 24, 2015
I like Village Merchants on SE Division. I've bought cool vintage fabric, kitchen wares, art supplies, and small furniture there. I always leave with something. The prices are reasonable. Not dirt cheap, but not overpriced.
posted by terooot at 7:41 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by terooot at 7:41 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Are you just coming to Portland? I ask because thriftstores in other communities may not be as picked over or pricey.
posted by fiercekitten at 8:24 PM on September 24, 2015
posted by fiercekitten at 8:24 PM on September 24, 2015
Red white and blue. It's a hike to get there, as its at the ass end of 99E in Gladstone. But it is worth it once in a while.
There's a new teen challenge on 82nd where the value village used to be. It's okay, and the price is okay, but their stock doesn't turn over very fast.
I was going to suggest some of the out-of-town shops too. There's one in madras that's crazy good. Even the goodwill a are better in Salem. If you can get out of the metro area, you'll have much better luck working in your other criteria.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:27 PM on September 24, 2015
There's a new teen challenge on 82nd where the value village used to be. It's okay, and the price is okay, but their stock doesn't turn over very fast.
I was going to suggest some of the out-of-town shops too. There's one in madras that's crazy good. Even the goodwill a are better in Salem. If you can get out of the metro area, you'll have much better luck working in your other criteria.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:27 PM on September 24, 2015
Yeah, Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette is terrible and they run all of the PDX Goodwills. Visit goodwill.org to see all the places they "serve" and avoid them. Everything is overpriced and the selection is small. I've even noticed that some Goodwills here are shady enough to retag items with new color tags so they don't qualify for the weekly half-price color sale. It happens most often on shoes and electronics. On top of those good reasons for not shopping at Goodwill, I also can't get over the fact that Goodwill uses a labor loophole to avoid paying minimum wage to their employees with disabilities.
BTW, the Goodwill bins are straight up nasty, you're basically digging through trash. Some are better than others, but the smell at the Milwaukee bins was unbearable enough to make me realize that my dignity was worth more than fighting other people to root through bins full broken crap while bathing in that noxious stench.
Value Village used to be the place in PDX that had a good selection and decent prices, but Goodwill must have made some Faustian bargain with the devil because they seem to have driven every single Value Village out of Portland proper. There's still a really big VV in Vancouver and one in the Tigard area. Goodwills outside the control of the Columbia Willamette organization usually have better prices, but you have to get pretty far outside PDX, to Seattle or Eugene, before you can escape their hold.
posted by i feel possessed at 8:59 PM on September 24, 2015
BTW, the Goodwill bins are straight up nasty, you're basically digging through trash. Some are better than others, but the smell at the Milwaukee bins was unbearable enough to make me realize that my dignity was worth more than fighting other people to root through bins full broken crap while bathing in that noxious stench.
Value Village used to be the place in PDX that had a good selection and decent prices, but Goodwill must have made some Faustian bargain with the devil because they seem to have driven every single Value Village out of Portland proper. There's still a really big VV in Vancouver and one in the Tigard area. Goodwills outside the control of the Columbia Willamette organization usually have better prices, but you have to get pretty far outside PDX, to Seattle or Eugene, before you can escape their hold.
posted by i feel possessed at 8:59 PM on September 24, 2015
I'm no expert on this, but I think the answer might be Vancouver, WA. It's just the other side of the Columbia, and seems like it may not have been as thoroughly pillaged for "vintage" items yet.
posted by sibilatorix at 10:46 PM on September 24, 2015
posted by sibilatorix at 10:46 PM on September 24, 2015
OK so opinions about the Bins differ but perhaps you would like to be guided by video footage of the shopping experience and its rewards.
posted by feral_goldfish at 1:07 PM on September 25, 2015
posted by feral_goldfish at 1:07 PM on September 25, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
We bought a cedar chest there for $10.
posted by feral_goldfish at 5:57 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]