How To Decide Which Thrift Stores To Source Clothing From
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ก.ย. 2024
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This is a rundown of all the factors I consider, consciously or not, when deciding which thrift stores to hit and in what order, on what days of the week. A lot of success in finding good inventory from thrifts is always going to be down to luck. But making sound decisions can still make the difference between striking out and having high profit outings.
Just a tip on shopping at bag sales: practice rolling the clothes up. I can get 7 pairs of mens jeans in a plastic DG or Walmart bag. And I have gotten up to 28 ladies tops for $5. Practice, practice, practice!!
Side note: Get to where you can unroll asap. I have sweet talked some into letting me fold and lay really nice things on top of bag.
Great content as always man. 1 thing I make sure I do no matter which thrift store I go to is be there when they open. Even if I don't feel like waking up early or sometimes its raining I'm the first one there. Just forcing yourself to get up and be there when they open and getting to know those thrift stores you're already ahead of the game.
Yeah really good point, can't believe I forgot to include that.
Once I learned when product was coming out at each store and formed a route to time inventory, my sourcing went to the moon.
About a dozen years ago I worked at a thrift store. Kicking myself now for not reselling back then. Us employees got first dibs and an insane discount (up to 75 percent off on half off Friday every week). Plus those were the good old days where you could get a shirt for 2 bucks. Sigh*
I did much stupider stuff a dozen years ago.
I’ve been thrifting for over 40 years and you hit on some really specific details that eventually do come from years of experience! I’ve come to know that I can almost always correctly conclude who the druggies are because they are pocket diggers looking for money...and yes, they talk incessantly. The newbie thrifter-BFF’s are chatty, loud and are obnoxious to be within ear shot of because they can’t contain their enthusiasm. Then there’s the occasional ones who pretend to be shopping but you know they’re going to ask for money. You just get a feel and a read on the variety of folks after a while and just tune them out. I keep my head down and avoid eye contact in order to stay focused and to discourage verbal exchange. Not because I dislike people but because I’m there on a mission and socializing isn’t it!😂 However, as you emphasized Matt, you do have to be willing to command presence as well as your personal space. People will try to intimidate and root you out of yours so you have to let your eyes and body language speak loudly. Most always that works...but I will get vocal and stern defending my territory. Most people won’t say anything and that’s why they continue...however, as personal policy, I call out rudeness🤣
And lastly but not least, I too have seen💩feces and urine deposits in my thrifting travels as well🤢
~These things rarely happen, but it’s wonderful to be alerted and prepared. Thanks Matt! Good content👌🏻😃
I have an old video that's basically half an hour of me describing how to be a polite dickhead to people in the thrifts, re: commanding personal space. It's amazing how often people try to steamroll you, or rummage through your cart, or coerce you into an hour long "conversation" about how they went to the DMV once.
@@ThriftALife I think your “how to be a polite dickhead” was in fact the very video that I first watched of yours! 😂 Definitely worth another look see. I’m still working my way through your (😆humor and) content in chronological order! Later dude😎
Also, make friends with the cashiers, sometimes they will give me the senior discount when I definitely don’t qualify lol
Yessss! Happens to me
I like going the afternoon before a dollar day. I am limited on the weekdays to afternoon thrifting only. I’ve noticed some shops spend the day before stuffing the racks and I can pick the better than average stuff among the abundance at an ok price since it’s typically wiped out by the afternoon of the sale day. I also like independent consignment shops since they sometimes have dollar or 75% off racks.
You have got to move to Arizona. Not to far from San Diego, maybe 5 hours? Every month you can have a 20% off coupon emailed to you if you spend more than $20.00 each time all month. They also have $1.00 Thursday on the color of the week tag. Tuesday is Senior day and everything is 25% off if you're 55 & over, (obviously you're not). Sunday is students day & veterans get 25% off. There are so many Goodwill's here in the Phoenix metro area. I'm in Goodyear & we have 2. Scottsdale (2) has a lot of high end items. Sun City has 2 stores also high end from retirement communities.
Rents are a lot less here. We have a nice 4 bdrm, 2 bth, backyard, garage, 1712 sq ft. rental property in Buckeye. $1450. per month. I move here 5 years ago from the Bay Area where I was born and raised. I miss the ocean, but not the high cost of living. I think you would make a killing here because stuff is not marked up as much as CA
Thanks for all the informative information.
Pretty deep roots here in California. Otherwise I'd be gone.
Where I live the best priced clothing is in the sketchy neighborhoods. I street smart enough to spot the trouble before it escalates
So glad we have great thrifts here in north Florida! We source things for $6 and under mostly....dollar days are so much fun on weds , you never know what your going to find ! So many great flips . Happy poshing everyone! Keep up the great work ! 💪🏻
Yes!!! I'm in NE Florida and our goodwill is AMAZING and so are the people that work there.
Love the $1 day! Grabbed a pair of Ugg boots I'm gonna clean and flip in September. Bag sales are awesome too. You can fit 48 kids items in a standard plastic grocery store bag. Ah ha next video idea for you Matt! How to fill a bag effectively at bag sales...rolling v folding lmao!
Make friends with the employees! I know their names and they let me inside early if it's cold. They also slip good info my way!
I tried a local Goodwill outlet once. As you stated, it was disgusting and I saw nothing of any value that was even remotely worth my time to justify pawing through that pile o’ 💩 . 🤢🤮 I did, however, notice recently that my closest Nordstrom Rack was more packed then I’d ever seen it before and it looked pretty darn close to a thrift store itself! 🤣
I recently found your channel and your content is concise clear and logically based; love your communication skills.
I recently left my thrift shop job. I would open those ’$20’ bags and I can tell you exactly why that’s a nonstarter.
1. This is garage leftovers and they mix everything up. There can be NIB items that can resell on Amazon, small parts to larger toy play sets, jewelry and so on. (These are usually 30 gallon contractor grade bags that can literally weigh a hundred pounds. We get them a lot. The universal law demands that they contain some if not all of the following- unfolded clothing, random socks, shoes and underwear; at least one electric appliance hopefully a breakable; leftover cosmetics, the trendier the better; Billy the singing Fish or friend; small toys hopefully Happy Meal rejects.
2. This is an abandoned property clean out that can be pure trash.
3. Clothing with what I call ‘closet rot’ meaning that no one has disturbed it in years and any foam hanger layers are dust. Also elastic is rotted. A very rare positive is that Grammy had pinned a bank envelope to her skirt.
4. This is nicely folded scented stacks of medium to high quality clothing.
The first is any thrift store’s bread and butter but what would you do with the dross? The last is the rarest and your hope.
I appreciate your perspective and again, your communication skills are superb but (and isn’t there always one?) you only have the insight of the shopper. I worked very happily for minimal wages. I am over sixty and processed up to ten cubic yards per day because of my bosses. My thrift, my heart is for Veterans and customers are the necessary evil. I can’t speak for others but why else would we put ourselves there?
Love love love your channel.
Thanks for getting to the point and providing comprehensive interesting reselling videos.
I'm from North County San Diego. I miss socal, but certainly not the high cost of living! I moved (retired) to Arizona last year. Oceanside used to have some great thrift stores if they're still open. DAV on the coast, and Brother Benos down Mission Ave in the valley had fill a bag days! The animal rescue also had a shop over there. A lot of moms & pops in that area too that are not chains, hopefully survived. There is a lot of money moving into what used to be that "old ghetto area", so maybe some quality items circulating through now? I refuse to even donate to goodwill anymore because they are so overpriced, but I'll still shop there sometimes with a coupon😉 thanks again Matt for your words of wisdom!
I've never made it up there to thrift. I'll have to make a run. Thanks for the tips.
I’ve been meaning to check out Oceanside! I have been finding some gems at random thrifts in North County, but need to branch out. The new Goodwill in Escondido is 50% higher than it was in it’s old location. Yikes!
@@nextrightstep2743 Yikes, that is crazy! I just drove by the new one and thought I should stop in to check out pricing. It was on the high side before. They must be paying higher rent!
Definitely agree on the go early and often sentiment. Being able to look at the shoe rack everyday and spotting the new inventory has greatly decreased my time spent looking over shoes.
Great video. I am continually updating my sourcing strategy and store routes. We are spoiled in Vegas. We have more stores than we can get to regularly.
I always wondered about how good Vegas thrifts are. Are you able to find good stuff consistently?
Road trip
I have a couple of consignment stores, one of them extremely high end that have end of season sales they start at 40% off and eventually go all the way up to 90% off. That’s when I swoop in and clean up on great inventory.
Another type of thrift shop that I've had luck at are the 'Women's Assistance League' type shops, there was one on Ventura Blvd, in Sherman Oaks (back when I lived in LA) that was consistently GOLD. Here in Denver there's one that's almost as good. Also, Antique Malls can be good/interesting places to source. I focus on books/ephemera more than I do clothing but I am often surprised at the clothing on offer, especially when it is a larger store with many different sellers (who rent space & have their own little nook). Once again, groovy video, Matt! Keep on hustlin'!
Definitely preaching about stopping by a close thrift everyday. I’m a 5 min walk from a volume thrift and stop at least 4 times a week. It’s definitely paid off!
You seriously have developed the Scientific Method of thrifting and reselling. My items fly out the door when I buy according to your Manifesto. Good job and looking forward, as always, to your next video.
Good info. I have a goodwill 3 minutes down the road and are on a first name basis with all of the employees. One day the girl says to me don’t you have enough clothing. Lol
AGAIN, more gems! Thank you so much for valuable content. Planning our routes and sourcing days around sale days and coupons has been a life saver!
GREAT video! This isn't talked about often, and it is so important when planning how to spend extremely valuable time in your sourcing route and schedule. Thank you for making this, very helpful!
Thanks Riannon, appreciate it, as always.
Great video! I really enjoy watching them 🤗
I’ll be working for a year for the bag sales I exploited this spring. Good thing I got a part time job starts Tuesday and I’ll be missing all half price Saturdays this summer. Now I have the bread and butter to fast flip and be more picky sourcing
I do have a thrift store a quarter mile from me but it is the most expensive thrift store you will ever see. I went in for a printer and they had 10 year old HP printers that were probably $90 new on sale for $50. They have no problem charging $50 or more for Nike.
We had a thrift store go out of business with 75% off. I filled my cart with great clothing items!
This is the trouble when thrift stores don't make any money they close up ....Better charge a fair amount and stick around so everyone wins
I like your style and persona. Regret that I didn't discover your channel when you first started posting, but I'm catching up fast.
BUT: if I avoided the thrift stores where the junkies/crackhead/tweekers congregated, I couldn't shop at any thrift in the
Phoenix area. Even in the snooty parts of the Valley, where the buses don't run, you go into a Goodwill, and there they are.
They shoplift with impunity, employees pretend not to notice. Gettin' worse, not better. But I mind my own business and they
mind their's.
It does kind of come with the territory.
Rhythm of the night! Love it! I do have a goodwill store 5 minutes away from me! Going to try to hit it every day Matt and see what happens .. thanks for another great video… I will get your manifesto tomorrow.. my purse is not close to me lol and I want to watch a couple more videos before I stand up. Want to help out a little for all the work you do for us … I know you are happy with money for ☕️ 💙
Your videos are so valuable. Thanks a lot
I'll have to remind myself to have empathy like Matt does, because sometimes it just doesn't seem feasible. Why does every thrift have multiple women each with a cluster of 3-5 school age children orbiting around them during school hours on a school day? The orbits get wider and wider until the children are running, screaming, clawing and biting, underfoot and under the racks. The pattern continues until the matriarchs (who, the entire time, have been carrying on loud speaker phone conversations with some distant unknown soul) finally realize their brood has ventured too far, and screams at them chases them down to bring them under control. Which lasts about five minutes until she's distracted screaming at the phone again, and the whole process repeats. This happens at every Goodwill I go to and continues the entire visit. Empathy. That's what I need to remember.
I've thrifted in a sketchy area because they have $1.00 days. When it rains or the weather is bad is when it gets over run with homeless people with serious issues. I've been stalked, wittnessed arguments, the police have been called. Weather dictates when I go there now.
Hello. I'm a very small reseller just as a hobby. What we need to remember is the original purpose of thrift shops is helping someone through donations. Whether it's disabled, animals etc. Not to provide us with a job. I'm all for paying a dollar for something I sell for 20. But, the donations and their profits are for a good cause. I love your eyes Russell is my husband I'm a woman lol!!!!
You can also identify new clothing in Goodwill based on the colored tags. If you go to specific Goodwills enough, you should be able to identify the new clothing that is put out. All the other pieces of clothing should be new as well, with the same colored tag. Don’t take this advice as finite, but I believe it holds true. Thanks for another great video Matt.
Good tip.
I agree with rolling up clothes it works , and l love your your tips keep it coming
So many great tips, thanks for making the video so fast!
One of my local sourcing spots gets competitive and I literally pretend not to hear or see resellers who try saying slick things or try to push 😬 they leave me alone now 😂
Hi, just wondering of you removed the caption option? It's gone. Im not sure if you still get credit for watching your vids, if you don't have the volume turned up. I work night shift and routinely watch you, ( need to keep volume turned down ) ... Thanks 🤜🤛 (confessions of a a reseller ) ❤️💕💯
One more thing! I loved this variable topic!! 😆
I am also someone that needs the captions on the videos, but mine is due to a hearing impairment. There are a TON of us hearing impaired people out here, so its always appreciated when the TH-camr makes sure to have the captions turned on for us.
I tinkered with my settings a while back to make sure captions were enabled across all my videos, not sure why they're not showing up for you. I'll look into it, thanks for bringing it to my attention.
@@ThriftALife Thank you! I enjoy your content and I like your sense of humor as it relates to what we do!! 🤜🤛
To the beat of the rhythm of the night 😀 Great content!
Reseller from England so it's different over here No bins no bag sales we have the car boot and that is amazing ....Love your videos by the way i'm pure gut instinct and experience like Thrift Fever your more analytical but thats interesting
It all works.
Hi! Another great video! Would you please give us your vast knowledge on men’s shorts and swimwear? I live in a CA seaside town and my stores have tons of this but I can’t figure out what’s sellable. Short of walking along the cliff and looking at mens butts to try and read labels, I could really use some help here. Even just what the best styles are would be so useful because “summer’s coming”.
Swimwear is admittedly not my strongest category. As with everything clothing, I go by brand first and other considerations second. Vintage sells well here. Katin is a brand that springs to mind. And Faherty.
You the mane bro!
Awesome practical info~thank you!
I have a bins where I live and they have better stuff than the actual store. And my cost of goods comes out to being about a dollar each if it’s jeans but some stuff is practically free scarves in super lightweight tops you could probably get 10 for a dollar
"Invited me into the back room" really sounded like it was going somewhere else for a second.....
I work part time on the weekends then every single week day I hit my local Goodwill. I’ve gotten to know some of the main employees that bring product onto the floor and I’m at the point where I’ll ask if there are any video games or men’s clothing racks in the back and the employees typically bring out what I ask for on their next trip. This is what happens when you’re nice to the employees and they help you, at least in my case, by letting you cherry pick out the good clothing before they put it on the shelves! Last week I got Mario Kart Double Dash on the GameCube just straight from the employees hands and yesterday I got a CC Filson wool jacket worth $200+. So ya, be nice to the employees and you will typically receive good product in return!
Amazing scores. Congrats.
My local has a reseller that has this kind of relationship with a couple of the employees there. When he arrives and there's not a lot of competition around, they'll bring out the new merch. Nice for him but not for the rest of us. Consider if someone else had the connection and you were cut out. Would that seem fair to you?
Awesome content! Thank you!💜
Bro, move to east coast it’s heaven thrifting compared to what you’re describing.
Another great video! Thanks 🙂
Awesome vid like always!
You missed a good one here. Community rummage sale...pay what you want
Never run into one of those. Sounds good.
@@ThriftALife Picked up clothes, 80s and 90s plush toys
Yes - church sales are the best here.
There’s a thrift store I go to that the cashier just makes up a lower price. For example I’ll know I have $30 worth of stuff and the cashier will just say, “just give me $10”.
I heard the la Jolla area is awesome for thrifting in San Diego
I keep wanting it to be. There's not many thrifts there. Biggest one is a small Goodwill.
@@ThriftALife That one and Alpine are small and SO overpriced! FJ's and a small one in the East County are my sweet spots.
So your advice is don't shop in the store if someone's taking a dump?
That seems like solid advice
Shop but just don't step in it.
Library's always have bag sales $2 usually
The more you go the luckier you get.
The night, oh yeah...anyway, would you recommend going to a thrift down the street every day even though they have dollar days every weekend? I have 2-3 stores nearby that do this. I often pass on new inventory knowing much of it will still be there in a couple weeks for a dollar.
I would personally still go as often as possible. Margin calls, I would wait until dollar day, but the really excellent stuff, I wouldn't roll the dice.
Omg! Where on earth are you shopping with the poopers Matt? 😷😷I’m in the east county and I’ve never even come across this . Nor have I thrown elbows. Kind of feel like I can’t even consider myself a true thrifter after watching this :)
The pooper density was higher in LA but I've had a couple brushes in San Diego too.
@@ThriftALife pooper 💩 density, lolz🤣
Hi Matt! Do you purposely not share your PoshMark closet either here (in about info) or on Instagram? I like to follow closets of those whose content I appreciate. Thanks either way!
Hi, yes, I choose to keep them private. Thanks for the offer of support though.
WTF?? wow, that's crazy about the poopers
As a thrift store owner I'm kind of disappointed with the advice you are giving in this video. A lot of these tactics are the reason thrift stores don't like resellers. Just come in and shop like all other customers and forget all the tactics. They are annoying to us .