More for less: the best parts about thrift shopping

PHOTO: Shopping at thrift stores can be very affordable and handy, especially for students.

By Annika Fisk,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Thrift shops are one of the best ways for people, especially students, to get what they need for an affordable price. In Davis, there are quite a few thrift shops, such as Boheme, All Things Right and Relevant, the SPCA Thrift Store and Goodwill.  

According to Yelena Ivashchenko, the owner of Boheme, students are almost 85 percent of the business they see, as they frequently crowd the store looking for jackets, shoes, blouses and even household items for a price they can afford.    

“August is [the most popular season] because it’s moving season,” said Ivashchenko, explaining one of the most popular times for students to be crowding the store.

DHS sophomore Mia Magney enjoys shopping at thrift stores. Locally, she has shopped at the SPCA thrift store and All Things Right and Relevant, and found unique items for better prices.  

As she paced down the many rows of clothes displayed on large round tables, Magney noticed that there were a lot of nice jackets, jeans and even accessories.

“They certainly have better prices,”  Magney said.

Many of the thrift shops in Davis are located downtown and often attract the attention of younger customers spending time at nearby restaurants.

Even though it is not as popular with younger customers, All Things Right and Relevant still does a fair amount of business, according to employee Lynne Okmuro.  

All Things Right and Relevant sells many articles of clothing, but their most popular is women’s blouses. They have all different colors, shapes and sizes and customers never hesitate to pull them off the rack by the armfull.  

The store is stocked 100 percent through donations and is especially full of items during the holiday season.  

“Donators are starting to think about taxes and money,” Okmuro said, explaining the increase in donations during the holidays.  

Shopping at these stores can result in finding things you might not have found otherwise, or might have found but couldn’t afford.  

Sophomore Elyse Lowrie enjoys shopping, citing Superior Thrift in Stockton as well as Boheme and Goodwill in Davis as places she has shopped to try to buy more for less.  

She peeks her head inside the thrift shop and is a bit overwhelmed by how “chaotic” the store appears at first with the racks overflowing with clothes of all kinds, but once she starts shopping it’s all worth it.   

“Sometimes you can find really cool things for really cheap,” Lowrie said.  

Thrift shopping may be just a fun pastime to some people, but to Kelly Teague, it’s a business.  Teague is a Davis resident and runs a reselling business where thrift shopping plays a large role.  

Teague goes to different shops, finds various items in the best condition possible and buys them for a low price.  He then resells them and sometimes makes a large profit.

“I sell everything from clothes to toys to lead bricks,” Teague said.

One of his most successful thrift store purchases was finding a bunch of old Hot Wheels in almost perfect condition.  He bought 17 of them for $1.19 each and ended up making about$2,000 profit.

Teague also finds a lot of DVD and VCR recorders which many people want because they are not currently being made by companies.  

“There are many good products for a fair price,” Teague said.