Good Samaritan

Maybe I’m spoiled by other Northern Virginia thrift stores, but I visited this shop last week and I was far from impressed. It’s filthy, stuff is piled haphazardly on shelves and the only employee was on the phone the entire time I was there so even if I had found something, without prices on anything I wouldn’t have been able to ask. I kept expecting to see an insect or have something fall on my head. Let me be clear: neither of these things happened, which is why it gets 2 stars instead of 1 star.
I was sort of in the neighborhood so I didn’t exactly go out of my way to get there, but I would have been extremely disappointed if I had. It’s also not that easy to get to and unclear where to park. I won’t go back. Do yourself a favor and run up to the Goodwill in Herndon. That’s nothing special either (no treasure hunting there), but for inexpensive household items and clothing, at least it’s clean, well-​lit and well-​organized.

Good thrift store. However I do feel that he jumped up the prices for me since I didn’t look «poor» and I can imagine he lowers the price for whoever he feels like. He charged me $ 3 for a toy and then I got home and found a price tag on the bottom of it for $ 165 which was strange. It was clean and very sorted so you can go to where the eye takes you. Thanks for the other revoew because I would have never known it was there if it wasn’t for Unilocal.I need to go back there because I really dodnt get much time to look around and hunt as had my baby in my arms. Nothing has prices on so you have to keep asking him «how mcuh» which I find annoying. The clothes could have been cheaper as he had so much stuff in there and I would have probably stayed and spent more…

The truck stop location was very appealing to my adventurous treasure hunting fantasy. There was practically no online information about this store, which made it feel like I was hunting out in the obscure location, presumably full of untouched hidden treasures.
First spotted: a beautiful child’s antique potty chair for $ 10. Not travel-​friendly, so it was a no-​go. We then walked into a small front room PACKED with clothes, shoes, bags, etc. Since the store had just opened for the day, owner (?) was still moving things outside, so we proceeded to the back rooms. In one room, there were books and bric-​a-​bracs: china, tea pots, those kinds of things. The other back room was full of clothes: dresses, tops, pants, outerwear.
While it felt eerily isolated, as if you could get snatched up and sold into sex slavery at any moment (creepy truckers whispering hello while eyeing you up and down in front of store did not help), what impressed me most about this place were its polarizing qualities. The space was packed to the gills. Probably the most packed I have seen in a thrift store, and, ironically, also one of the cleanest and dust-​free. Things lined up high along the walls, but they were stacked neatly. There was no dust you would expect in such a cramped store with its door opened onto a highway. Even more amazing since it seemed only one person ran the store, probably all the time. (I didn’t see where an employee or another person could even FIT into this store.) The eeriness that came with these strange qualities, the isolated feels of the store, and creepy random truckers were stuff horror movies are made of. It was definitely an exciting experience!
Back to reality. After the walk through, we started digging a little deeper. Contrary to my initial fantasy, there was really no vintage to be found (except that one potty chair.) I managed to find a Coach bag ($ 6) and some other little things including Ralph Lauren and super cute Talbots skirts, both still with original tags ($ 6 each.)
There were no price tags in this store. We brought over the loot, and the nice gentleman momentarily stopped vacuuming to price things on the spot. Prices were reasonable. If you are looking for modern clothing, this place is definitely a good bet. Owner (?) was also very helpful when it came to my question about another store nearby.