Category — Mistakes

Today I found a pair of new Eddie Bauer pants for $3.00 at one of my secondhand store haunts. I knew that they hadn’t been worn because they had a little plastic bag with a spare button attached to the inside of the waistband.  

There is so much more new stuff at the thrift stores these days than there was decades ago when I first started shopping for used clothing. I’m guessing that the increase in volume has to do with two things: one is that now, more than ever before, everybody is racing around so much of the time that they don’t bother to return clothing that they don’t want; another is that retail stores discount items so often and so deeply that people buy things that they would otherwise leave on the rack at the store. It’s a great boon for us used clothing fiends, but not so great for those who aren’t getting use from what they buy. 

I’m out four dollars. That UPS jacket that I bought on April 1 is now clean, dry and in the pile to be donated back to the thrift store. I love most of what I buy, but this one’s gotta go! I just wasn’t sure about it in the store. If you want to go to a department store, they’ll hold things for you while you make up your mind. Since that doesn’t happen at any of the thrifts that I go to, sometimes I make a mistake. For four bucks, I can live with it.