Just a few weeks ago, Amazon had its huge Prime Day sale. The sale that used to last a day is now a week-long, unnecessary extravaganza of deals on everything and anything. Sponsored emails from every imaginable media outlet bombard our inboxes, trying to entice us to buy stuff we think we need so they get a pay cut.
I quit the ‘zon back in May of 2023 when I just couldn’t justify purchasing from a company that won’t build storm shelters after workers died in a warehouse during a tornado, doesn’t allow its employees to unionize, and its founder sent a rocket out to space during a pandemic. Two years later, things haven’t gotten better with the company’s track record with its employees or its environmental impact.
I’ve become better at sourcing stuff through local stores, smaller online businesses, or second-hand. My favorite of the three is definitely shopping at second-hand stores. As mentioned in my previous newsletter, thrifting is a balm for the soul. If you’re a little bit like me and want to do something antithetical to giving your money to a billionaire, then head to your local thrift for National Thrift Store Day, which is today, August 17th, but we can always extend it to be a week-long just like Prime Day!
Peruse, browse, search, stumble upon, or discover your next favorite thing. It might be a great pair of jeans, or a vintage tea set, or the perfect-sized frame for that piece of art that still needs a home. The thrift store can give you all of those things, and sometimes it can give you nothing. It’s all a part of the thrill of the hunt. It’s the gamble that we take when we walk into the store that keeps it low stakes.
The best part about shopping at a thrift store is that, besides your purchase keeping things out of the landfill, it can also help charities do great work, especially if you live in New York City. Here are some of my favorite charitable NYC thrift stores:
Housing Works - Great thrift stores all over Manhattan that have spectacular finds. The prices can be really good and sometimes out of touch, depending on the location. Proceeds go to services that help folks living with HIV/AIDS. Here are my favorite locations to visit:
Goodwill - Always a goody in my book. Goodwill has been around forever and prides itself on providing access to training and career resources for job seekers. I used to frequent one on the Upper East Side weekly when I was a nanny forever ago. It was on 88th and 2nd Avenue, but it is sadly no longer there.
Habitat For Humanity ReStore - Love, love, love this store. Great furniture pieces. I once got two vintage mustard leather yellow barstools from the ReStore in Queens a decade ago (sadly, that location recently closed) and got two MCM pink lamps in the Hudson ReStore a year ago. I think I’ve been to them all (I’m a bit obsessed), with the exception of the one in Newburgh. I’ll have to go there this fall to check it out.
If you don’t want to leave the comfort of your home, there’s always ThreadUp, which is the largest online thrift store or shop on eBay. I personally love to buy books second-hand. Cookbooks, art books, or rare single-subject specialty books are awesome scores on sites like Thriftbooks.com and Abebooks.com. Worldofbooks.com is another great option that has an ethos based on circularity.
If you want an even more curated “thrifting” experience, I’m actually purging a ton of stuff I have in the coming months, and most of it is vintage. Here’s my first batch of stuff I’m selling. Feel free to reach out in the comments to snag something, and I will message you back! ~ All items will ship anywhere in the States for $6 flat.
Thrift-til-you-drop!
Natalie 💗✨
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