After visiting with a friend in Alexandria today, I decided to stop in at a couple of thrift shops in Old Town that I’d never been to before to add to my Thrifting Guide to Northern Virginia: The Twig Shop, which is another INOVA Hospital store, and the Look Again Thrift Shop that benefits the Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington.
The Twig Shop well well-stocked with both men’s and women’s clothing. I spotted a few designer pieces up in the women’s section. They also had a nice selection of wedding dresses and formal dresses. In the men’s section, I saw a very nice pair of vintage cowboy boots for just $10.
As for the housewares, which are in the basement, I grabbed just one piece, a small gold painted octagonal mirror for just $2.50. I may keep this one. It needs to be re-glued and the paper on the back is torn, but those are easy fixes.
I also saw a Georges Briard ice bucket that was the slightly larger twin of the one I’ve got in the Etsy shop, but left that there for some other lucky person to snag. They didn’t have it priced yet, but the housewares were all priced at what I would expect from a thrift shop despite the fairly upscale surrounding neighborhood.
All in all, it was a good shop and if I find myself back in the Old Town area, I’ll return.
As for Look Again, there were a lot of people milling about so I didn’t snap any inside photos. All in all though, I’d call the pricing a little higher than I’m normally willing to pay. Look Again seems to understand that they’re going to attract a real antiquing crowd with their location right there on King Street. A few designer dishes caught my eye, but the $345 price tag on the set wasn’t low enough to sustain my casual interest. Also, some vintage barware that I’ve seen at Goodwill and other shops for $1-2/glass was priced at $6/glass, making them more expensive than I would expect to get them from even Etsy or eBay, particularly since they’re pretty generic and easily obtainable. I have a few in my own collection because I never feel bad about breaking them, unlike some of the more desirable Culver pieces I have.
That said, they were doing a brisk business with many people wandering about and most of them making purchases so stuff seemed to be priced right for the neighborhood.
After those stops, I hopped back in the car to peruse some of the Route 1 stores I don’t make it to very often, but unfortunately, except for that mirror, today just wasn’t my day. I struck out at the Alexandria ReStore, Back Porch, the Alexandria Goodwill, Thrift Store Center and Select Seconds. That said, Back Porch has reorganized their store and the whole place looks amazing! It’s now quite well-organized and they have dedicated a little more space to furniture so I’ll be trying to stop in there a little more often.
Have you tried out any new thrifting spots lately? Do you lament when you have a goose egg type day or do you cruise right through knowing that tomorrow is another thrifting day?
This is a post from Pies and Puggles. Republishing this article in full or in part is a violation of copyright law. And it isn’t nice. © 2010-2013, all rights reserved.