Ragstock

Go straight to back to load up on solid basics for women: tanks, tees, leggings, tights. Then head to the basement for killer clearance.
I love this place. It’s a State Street fixture, and they also have resale.
After you stock up on essentials, wander around and try on some resale items. It’s fun and the finds are fantastic.

I was waiting in line for the dressing room with several shirts to try on and the friend I was with needed to use the restroom urgently. Told the kid working that it was an emergency and I would be buying something but we HAD to use the facilities first. They told us to leave, so I did and will not ever be back.

I can’t really decide if I love this place or hate this place. So I guess I’m just going to flat out list the pros and cons.
Pros: Great, unique clothing items. A few neat costume pieces during Halloween times. Cheap as dirt clearanced fishnets. All of the clearance is pretty much amazing. Weird finds. Dirt cheap tank tops when they’re on sale.
Cons: Over priced fishnets. Weird smell. Super dusty second floor that ends up making me sneeze. Hard to walk around when it’s busy because of crowded aisles. Occasionally rude staff. A lot of over priced stuff. Annoying customers.
This place will continue to be a regular stop for me, despite the cons. I just advice others to go during slow hours.

Good for state street, could use some interesting shops (boring). This is a great interior, nice selection… BUT. too expensive!

This Ragstock is super unique. All the employees are angry, literally all the time. Don’t ask them a question, don’t take pictures in the store and definitely don’t giggle in the basement. This location has way more used clothing than most and hosts an unusual array of Mexican ponchos, 80s prom dresses and traditional kimonos. All the retro stuff is on the top floor and all the military jump suits and booty shorts are in the basement. Don’t go down there without a friend though, there are lurkers you surely won’t want to find yourself with alone.
Ragstock is great for cheap basics like Tshirts or camis in every color of the rainbow, but that is it. Don’t let a coastie convince you to go here for Halloween. You can buy a slutty bumble bee costume anywhere, the line at this store will be 45 minutes to the register for a week leading up to Freakfest. Also, don’t come here for an ugly Christmas sweater, they mass produce them for $ 20 or more and they aren’t even unique. You can get one for 75 cents down at Dig and Save on South Park, plus it will be even christmasier and way uglier.

Wife and I were in Madison for a wedding and there was some below average temperatures for early May. Temperature was in the low 40s and my wife forgot to pack her coat for the trip. Hmmm… forgot or just wanted another jacket to add to the collection? Whatever the reason we were not going to be able to bar hop with no jacket in the rainy cold. Walking around town we had a hard time finding a place that had anything that was trendy and not extremely overpriced.
Coming across Ragstock was a blessing. The place is like a thrift store and a TJ Max collided and this was the result. The clothes were trendy and hip with good prices. This is not clothes most people would wear to the office but would wear out on the town, to a party, or just anywhere that’s casual. We spent over an hour in the store and walked out with much more than we intended. She ended up getting 2 jackets and a shirt and I got 2 t-​shirts and a pair of shorts. I suggest you stop in just to take a look around. We saw college kids buying clothes for a costume party and others shopping for a dinner night out on the town. Very unique!

When it comes to finding a costume around the State St. area, Ragstock is second to none.
I went into Ragstock yesterday with zero clue what I would dress up as, but 100% confidence that I would find something.
I left 30 min later with (what I would like to think) a pretty convincing Austin Powers costume baby!
Unfortunately, that costume didn’t come cheap, and cost me just under $ 70. The only reason I didn’t give Ragstock ⁵⁄₅ is because it isn’t cheap. However, when you offer a better product than area, that comes with the territory.
All things said and done, I’ll definitely be using Ragstock for any and all costume purchases going forward.

Ragstock is a weird but enjoyable mix of super trendy (think neon) and bulk thrift.
Ragstock carries both Men and Women’s clothing. The walls are either painted kitschy or covered in movie and music posters. This place looks cool.
The price range for the thrift is reasonable. They aren’t going to gouge out your eyes for a musty Letterman’s jacket. I’v gotten a few cool pieces (kimono top) at reasonable prices.
The trendy stuff is sometimes oddly sized (I am a Medium/​Large and often cannot fit in the Ls they stock) and over priced for the quality, which is cheap ($$).
There is a basement of marked down items. Its a mishmash of stuff that didn’t sell. Good luck.
The staff is very helpful and nice. Thanks, cool kids.
I like looking around cause you never know what you’re going to find. This place is especially good for Halloween shopping.

Ragstock. Ragstock. Ragstock.
Super trendy new clothes=not into it.
Super awesome used, vintage clothes=ultra awesome.
$ 20 vintage leather boots. Sold.
You have to check in your bag at the front, which isn’t a big deal. All the good stuff is to your left and up the little stairs. And sometimes downstairs.
They have douchey sunglasses if that’s your thing too.
It’s something for everyone!

Ragstock rarely rises above disappointment for me. (Please note that I only shop for clothes and shoes aimed at women, so I can’t comment on the aimed-​at-​men counterparts here.) I have zero interest in the «new clothing/​accessories» side of the store– it’s trendy, cheap stuff whose materials and construction are terrible. I know that higher quality materials and sounder construction do not entail better labor practices, but the stuff on this side of the store makes me want to know more about its origins. The used/​thrift side isn’t usually worth digging through unless you want components for a Halloween costume, an Ugly Christmas Sweater, or denim cutoff hotpants (each in its respective season.) The used clothing seems like the kind sold in bulk by resellers. The vintage clothing leans heavily towards the polyester. I think the only things I’ve found here are some khaki shorts for a summer job, a nice flowy silk hippie skirt, a lipstick red Wilson’s leather blazer (why not?), and a truly wonderful pair of vintage Frye-​alikes that singlehandedly raise the score from 1 star to 2. Ugh, I love those boots. They were dead cheap, too. But I’ve never found their like again in what’s otherwise a sea of square-​toed stretch pleather.
The downstairs clearance area is full of flammable-​looking shiny things, extreme whiskering, printed leggings, etc.
Like much of the thrift-​side clothing, the dressing rooms don’t seem particularly clean. I like the Star Trek murals, but the doors to the stalls are way too small. If I were tall I would be making eye contact with the other shoppers as I changed, and that just ain’t right.

I like the fact there’s a basement with markdowns and it had everything the kid needed. First time visit but it won’t be the last.
Think college students are cheap or just broke? Well, I was impressed that the kid was able to make *TWO* purchases without blowing the $ 2 budget. Insert Laugh Here. In the end, I learned they carry new and old under one roof. Found a cute top for myself but will wait for a mark down.
Friendly, helpful staff. Kinda disappointed we’re just going for the 1^st time but glad to have found the «grandmother cove» of SEQUINS, SEQUINS galore so the kid can accessorize.

Plenty to find. Hipster place for sure

Ragstock is one of those stores you could spend hours in just looking around. It has a cool vibe, and they carry a huge variety of new, vintage, and thrifty clothing and accessories.
Although not everything is of a high quality, it is very affordable. Especially on the sale racks, you can always find something for a steal.
I’ve shopped at the Madison location many times and am excited to hear one is coming to the Fox River Mall in Appleton.

I don’t know if «thrift store» really describes this unique little chain (there are three stores in the Chicago area, one in Minneapolis, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the next one opens in Portland or Seattle). Ragstock is a fun store to wander through. They pick up very random lots of overstock, used clothing, and… other stuff, and sell it cheap. There’s really nothing expensive here. It’s really hard to walk two feet in this big cluttered three level store without saying, out loud, «What the.?» Well, it’s really tight, so it’s actually kind of hard to walk two feet in this store, period. I can’t quite describe how entertaining it is to shop here, you really need to come with a friend, and a sense of the absurd. There’s lots of absurd in here, and on clearance prices.
So let’s see, what have I bought here recently? A couple of peculiar hats, a black tuxedo shirt (they actually had tuxedo shirts for $ 15 in 6 different colors other than white, 6 different colors of tuxedo shirts? Yes, six different colors of tuxedo shirts), a book bag made out of Nepali rice sacks, a used Japanese minor league baseball jersey, some thick union-​suit style long underwear (kind of an adult size onesie), a Korean war era gas mask (long story), and a purple bow tie for my cat (who didn’t like it and tore it to shreds but it only cost me a buck). The young, personable and helpful staff, for the most part, actually know what’s in this strange store and where to find it, in spite of a constantly shifting inventory. The staff here are about as unlike the jaded, synthetically friendly oppressed automatons found at big corporate chain retail clothing stores as you’ll find, and that alone is refreshing.
This is an excellent place for hipsters, those who love irony, people with any kind of sense of humor, tourists visiting Madison, if you need a costume, ska musicians, parents visiting their costly college students (whatever they want in here won’t set you back much, and there’s lots of conversation starters in here), 50-​year olds looking for the sports jacket they wore in 1976, theater people, protesters looking for their rights (you won’t find your stolen rights in here, but you can find some cheap gloves and warm hats so you can protest a little longer, and some antique Nixon era ironic buttons that have renewed relevance), and anyone who needs a disguise.
Close to both the campus and the capitol. Very crowded just before Halloween.

Ragstock is always a fun time.
They definitely have a hold on Halloween, which is good for how big we go for the holiday on campus.
The prices are extremely reasonable, particularly because most of their new things aren’t great quality, and there is a lot of fun stuff, both vintage and new.
The most obnoxious part about Ragstock is definitely their «no taking pictures» rule which I always break. It is absolutely ridiculous to stock your clothing store with costumes and fun clothing and accessories and not allow people to have fun with friends, take a quick pic and make a memory.
I dig the sunglasses, the upstairs vintage section, and the downstairs sale area. oh yeah, and i love the colored gorilla suits.

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but Ragstock may be my favorite clothing store. It’s got a lot of character and a great «vibe» — hard to believe it’s part of a chain and not an independent. Really good selection of stuff, great prices. The quality of the clothing is generally pretty good, definitely better than at most thrift stores. More of an emphasis on hip/​trendy clothing, but still low prices. The store in Madison has a whole rack of black leather coats for $ 20 each, as well as rack of Japanese baseball jerseys (?!?) I’ve found some very cool T-​shirts here, never for more than $ 5. Inexplicably, the other day they also had a bunch of Daunte Culpepper Vikings jerseys. Authentic NFL jerseys, for $ 12! Hard to beat.
On a side note, I would just recommend staying away during the week before Halloween — the place is absolutely packed with UW students looking for stuff for last-​minute costumes.

Great selection. Worth checking out the vintage upstairs. Good sales selection and $ 1 headbands. Wee!
Fun staff, not pretentious.

The bad: clunky, gas station like key chain around some metal car part to get into dressing room, off sizes (I’m size 6 but fit into an XL dress because the other ones were too short in length), stuffiness due to no air circulation upstairs in the women’s vintage clothing section.
The good: super cheap but amazing articles of clothing in the disarray (got a plaid blazer and denim skirt for 17 dollars!)