The Salvation Army

If you ever want to take advantage of their «$ 0.69 sale» on Saturdays on the SA Chicago north-​side locations, come at 0900 hour SHARP! I came in at 0910 hour, and people have already grabbed all the «color-​tag of the week» merchandise onto their buggies! Well, many of them do the «tag-​team» style. Each of them would be assigned to a department, look for items with a specific color tag that is priced at $ 0.69, place them in the cart, and perhaps weed some of them out at the furniture department since there’s more room to maneuver.
Yes, it’s a freakin’ hot mess. Lines to checkout are Long at 1000 hour because the customers would be done with shopping around that time. By the way, they do charge you an extra $ 0.49 for each plastic bag, so my suggestion is to bring your own to achieve your maximum savings!

Who decides the prices for the items being sold?
Everything is over priced like crazy.
Am I wrong or do the items not get donated?
Like you get them for free right?
So…come on!
I understand you making money to pay employees and donate the rest but holy jeebus.

This place used to be great. My ex and me would each get like 40 bucks worth of clothes every time we came here. I wish I had appreciated it back then…
It’s really gone down the drain this past year. A lot of the racks are not as filled up as they used to be. The prices have gone up. There was a plain black turtleneck for 10 dollars. I almost had a stroke. They used to have a great collection of vinyl, but they’ve raised the prices on those too and the collection sucks now. Well I guess it depends what you’re looking for. If you want polka and organ records then this may be your dream place! Also, they now have male employees following customers around. I wish they were at least being subtle about it, but they’re not. It’s just not what it used to be at all.
This place used to also smell really bad. Which, imo, made it even better. I can’t tell you how many times it either smelt like genitals or urine. I’m not being sarcastic. It added to the charm. It smells good now though. Maybe that’s why more people have been coming here. It blows.

This is my favorite of all the Sal. Army stores I’ve been to. The thing about thifting is that you really have to dig and put up with some stuff. This place does, on hot summer days, have that musty smell. But they keep the doors open, so it helps a little. Except for the records, and huge mountain of bags in the back corner, everything is pretty organized and clean. I have found some designer names here, but I mostly come here to find shirts with a great print on them, which i can later alter if need be. Overall, it’s always worth the 20 min walk for me.

I don’t usually give my secrets away, but no one likes vinyl anymore anyway so here I go.
I collect anything on vinyl really… I started in the late 90’s with my dad’s «let’s eat a bunch of mescaline» records… and now I collect everything (that shouldn’t be stored) under the sun-​even cheesy smooth Jazz records (yes, I have a hefty Kenny G collection as well… BOOY-​Yah-​kah-​shah). Don’t ask me why, it’s just what I do.
Anyway, I never had any luck at this salvation army finding anything I wanted mainly because the two crates of records were the same records every time I went in. One day I went in and the whole wall was FULL of vinyl… So I haggled the manager down to 50 cents a vinyl for 80 records. I had to pass up a bunch of records that I wanted because I was on a budget, but she gave me the deal.
So yeah, anyway… I went back there the next night when a different shift was working and hustled the other 400-​sumthin records for 12 cents a piece (I knew they were getting in the way). The good lookin Latina gal at the register smiled at me like I was their savior when they gave me the deal. Most of it was like new condition Chicago house records pressed here in the city, Cajual label, tons of totally radical new wave and Polish beer drinking records, and… everything I could ever want or want multiples of and other great stuff I never knew existed… I don’t know if I should spin these things or just naughty all over them — probably both. Regardless, I am looking forward to moving these things when I move out.
This place is awesome for finding easy bake ovens also. I bought one for my sister after she moved back from London and lost hers. Two easy bakes and an imitation that was recalled because it tended to catch fire have been on sale at this Salvation Army for months. It’s worth the tiny chicken pot pies (cooked by a light bulb), but I’m an older brother, so… I just eat them in one bite and let her use the easy bake. As long as we’re both happy, there is harmony. Anyway… long review, but this is what a thrift store can bring (back) into the world.