Reader Survey: Shopping Malls or Thrift Stores?

I used to buy books from Barnes and Noble every weekend. Now I go to the library, if I can’t find it there I find something else, wait a week and look again. If after a few months I can’t find it, I can usually find it on half.com for super cheap.

I almost never buy clothes. My clothing budget for a year is about $200. I probably should buy stuff, but I rarely do. And when I do I often go to Goodwill, or TJ Max.

I still go to the mall about once a month, but I never buy anything, except maybe a coffee in the food court. I guess I’m just not wired to like shopping.

I dislike malls: too much consumer culture culture for me! I have a hard time with all the flash and bash. When I want to buy something I usually go to small independently owned shops, which are typically more expensive than what you’d get at a mall or a big-box store, but I’m willing to spend more to support my local businesses. I do buy furniture used, mainly at yard sales and flea markets. (Someone once described my décor as “Early Attic.”) I’ve never gotten into used clothing, although I have a few friends who do all their clothes shopping at thrift stores and they look very cool. For books, I almost always shop online. I would support local bookstores but the English-language ones are all too far from here to be convenient (I live in an almost entirely French-speaking part of Montréal).

I browse the mall around Christmas time. I try to be conservative with my shopping, but being in a mall helps spur ideas on what to get people. Whether I buy it in the mall, off of Amazon, or somewhere else, you can’t beat having so many ideas in one place. I have several “hard to shop for” people on my list.

I haven’t done too much with Thrift stores, but I’ll definitely look into it.

I love overstock.com (though you need to realize when something is a good buy and when it’s not even if the website claims it is), E-Bay, the overstock/sale items at llbean.com and landsend.com, and outlet malls. Or if I’m being conscientious, I like to shop places like Ten Thousand Villages that offer fair-trade items.

I used to try to shop thrift stores but rarely found things I liked in my size. I usually ended up buying stuff I wouldn’t wear.

I avoid the mall now because it induces me to spend and sometimes makes me feel fat and unfashionable. However, for a wandering retail experience to get ideas for gifts or what’s in style, the mall can work.

I’m a big fan of thrift stores, for just about anything. It takes some more shopping; I hit up the salvation army every couple of months and just browse, but if you’re not looking for something in particular, they’re amazing.

I buy some stuff at each…

The local thrift store is wonderful for finding fabric for my sewing projects. I am not fussy. I just love to make things with pockets and so I am very easy to please. I take classes at the local fabric store to support them, but I rarely buy any supplies there because it is so overpriced.

I used to have tons of used/half-price bookstores to choose from, but this dinky place has almost nothing here so I “shop” at the fabulous library system we have (it is a two-county library system) and also at Amazon.

Like you, when I was growing up, the mall was the main shopping destination, though I also appreciated the retail neighborhoods in my city. In college, there were no malls around, but lots of street retail, and the same with grad school. In effect, having good retail neighborhoods helped wean me off of malls at a relatively early age.

Until November, I went to a mall maybe once every 18-24 months, as most of the stores I shop at are either thrift/discount stores in strip malls or independently owned businesses in upscale retail neighborhoods. However, in November, a Trader Joe’s (discount “upscale” grocer) opened in a nearby shopping mall, so every time I go to TJ’s I have to go to the mall. (I get most of my groceries at a market near where I live, though.)

Fortunately, TJ’s is on the corner with separate parking, so I don’t have to deal with the rest of the mall.

Aside from TJ’s, the only other reason I would have to go to a mall is for the occasional visit to Barnes and Noble. I rarely buy anything there, however; I get most of my books from the library or (if I purchase) from Half-Price Books.

Malls don’t have much appeal to me beyond this. If, for some reason, a shopping mall were to open with ethnic groceries, ethnic restaurants, academic bookstores, wine shops, etc., that might entice me. But in the meantime, I’m happy to avoid the Yankee Candle Shops and Sunglass Huts and Cheesecake Factories.

I don’t go to the mall to buy things; I go to the mall to look at pretty things. I grew up in our consumerist society, I have that consumerist impulse, and I don’t necessarily act on it… but I like to indulge it for free every now and then.

I am really, really picky when it comes to clothes, so I don’t shop at thrift stores–it’s never been a good return on my time investment. But I don’t buy many clothes in the first place.

I grew up in the Land Of No Malls (Manhattan), so I find them very stressful. I am not joking when I say that the Mall of America made me cry.

I love thrift-store shopping–far more fun to do with friends than mall-visiting, more challenging to the creativity, cheaper, and, as far as I’m concerned, more fashionable. I very much operate in a social circle in which thrifting is cool. All of my favorite jewelry comes from flea markets, thrift stores, and junk stores (most of it is vintage Bakelite). I buy my clothing about half used and half new. I find that the items I like best (though not always the ones I wear most) are the ones I buy thrifted for $2.99.

One thing to watch out for here is the branding of midmarket consignment-style stores (e.g. Beacon’s Closet, Buffalo Exchange, The Red Light, &c.) as “thrift stores,” which implies a bigger price reduction than you’re getting, though it also guarantees a measure of quality.

Like most, it depends — I appreciate malls for the instant gratification and finding exactly what I am looking for (ie, for a specific occasion or if I want to have a piece for a specific trend.)

That said, I am buying most of my gifts this year from small, indie boutiques in San Francisco. It’s made Christmas shopping very fun, as I have a strict budget ($30 and less per gift) and am finding unique, quality pieces by local designers.

I *love* places like Ross and Marshalls for things like shoes and handbags (which I don’t like to buy used.) With some digging, I’ve found many name-brand/designer items here for 50-80% off.

Thrifting takes time and energy – I much prefer the mid-market consignment stores in upscale areas of town, like Buffalo Exchange and Crossroads (San Francisco Bay Area chain) because they do the initial ‘sort’ for me.

About once a month, I take the family out to a shopping mall, dinner, and a movie in a theater.

As far as shopping, I do 99.9% of that using comparison shopping , wholesale distributers, and bargain sites on the web.

I do frequent thrift stores from time to time, if it’s in my line of direction, and only those whom I know have a clearance eisle. I don’t normally buy those items for myself, instead I see what I can give out as birthday/christmas, etc presents, or can sell at a profit.

The only other stores I visit are gas stations for filling the car’s tank, and the closest food supermarket, which just happens to be the cheapest in town (they mark down the meats on sunday’s to 1/3rd the retail price).

At 37, I still wear the same clothes I left my parent’s house with at 18, and I take care of them. My closet is overfull, as occasionally people will gift additional clothing. Some of the clothes, I’ve had to sell just to make room.

Several years ago I was in the habit of making a weekly recreational trip to a particular mall on the weekends — it was my answer to “what should I do today”. Of course, even if I didn’t need anything, the temptation to spend hit often and hence some soaring CC debt (my weakness is stores like The Bombay Company and ZGallerie). That trip to the mall was usually accompanied with a trip to the local bookstore, a local higher priced restaurant and a movie/snack. How did I ever afford all of this on what I was making then? Oh yeah, credit card.

Now, in my new Debt Blitzkrieg fashion, I go to the mall for an annual Christmas shopping trip for family members, and I might go to the mall one or two more times during the year if I pre-determine that I NEED something. I go infrequently enough that I get lost because of the store turnover. (usually since I get their 20% coupons like they are going out of style I skip the mall and just go to Bed Bath & Beyond armed with coupons).

No more high priced restaurants or movies either. I rarely go to the movies anymore, so little that I’m always shocked at the latest price.

I buy most of my clothes online from a couple of different places, and usually hit their clearance sales. What I don’t buy that way (like socks) I get at WalMart.

I have a really strong aversion to buying clothes at thrift stores. I’ll buy little household knickknacks at thrift stores but not clothes.

I manage an upscale thrift store and find it extremely difficult to pay the high prices at the malls after seeing all the cute and newer items that I sell at the store at much cheaper prices!

As a side note, why not donate time to your local thrift store to help them get organized better!! Our store is organized by size, gender, kids, adult, and even color and is easy to get it that way, so thrift shopping can be made easier!!

We buy 95% used. I’ve got expensive tastes! I comb yard sales in pricey neighborhoods, for all natural fiber clothing, quality china, glass, building materials for restoring our rentsl houses, cast iron cookware, furniture, beautiful all wool rugs which we take to have cleaned before using, kitchen appliances like an ice cream makers (like new, used twice by the original owner), a bread machine (never used, it was a gift)and antiques which are resold on ebay. Once you get hooked on yard sales with high quality goods and dirt cheap prices, it’s impossible to view expensive new things at malls the same. I buy new kitchen appliances (for cash, haggling for that all cash discount!), new shoes and new jeans because of my height. I buy elegant, expensive designer suits at yard sales or thrift shops and take them to the tailor which you’d need to do anyway if you bought new off the rack. The tailoring makes them fit fabulous! Everyone comments on my fine designer clothing and extensive wardrobe. What they don’t realize is that by buying used I paid off the 20 year mortgage on our house in 11 years. Buying used gets you better quality for pennies on the dollar, keeps the environment cleaner, helps recycle, AND SAVES TONS OF MONEY! Also I’ve never felt frightened at a yard sale, but women get mugged and/ or robbed in the parking lots of malls all the time.

I am captain thrift store and although I don’t always find what I need, I find great stuff. The secret to finding good stuff is to go to a thrift store in a wealthy area or near a college or prep school. Prep school thrift stores will lead to AMAZING finds.
gj.

Smart shopping isn’t just about the price tag but the quality of the product you are buying. There are many things I certainly don’t mind buying second hand and will, but if you are patient and willing to dig around you can hit sales at department stores and buy clothing, cookware, etc. at thrift shop prices, only the quality of the clothing will be much better. Sometimes it annoys my when people automoatically rule out a department store assuming that a goodwill etc. will be cheaper. Many times it’s not if you know how to shop.

I seldom go to malls anymore. As I grow older, it gets harder to walk them.

I’ve always been a tall, big girl. It used to be I could not find size 14, 16, and 18 in thrift stores. I’ve become more like a 3x or 4x now

But now, America is so overmanufactured that the thrifts get new quality fat clothes.

I also shop Ross Dress for Less, Marshalls, Big Lots, Simply Fashion Fashion Bug Plus, Catherines, and sometimes mail order with coupons from Woman Within and Roamans.

I have never beat Ross Dress for Less at the thrifts. Once I bought my mother a new blouse at Ross for FORTY-NINE CENTS!

Who needs the malls?