Bargains Galore

Without a doubt, this was the best thrift shop we visited while in Tahoe. So much stuff to go through. We ended up getting a bunch of cool, one of a kind items. Truly thankful we stopped here on out bike ride. Take a look. You definitely won’t regret it.

I have been here at least 20 times. I have purchased a few things. Some of the items need to be on a half price table to turn over the inventory. Occasionally, there are ok pieces of furniture, but most need some work. I have purchased a few games, ski clothes, books, and kids toys, and a $ 20 clock that I liked. There is a new location, next to the sub shop, and close to the old location. My understanding is that they accept donations on behalf of Live Violence Free and then provide the victims/​clients with vouchers. I recently lost some weight, so I have about six big bags of new and almost new clothes to donate. I will see if they are interested… unknown hours of operation. One last thought… I have been in here a lot when people come in to haggle over a $ 1 item, or just to talk. It is exhausting and I felt really bad for the owner. I am sure this would wear down even the best merchant. Some of it is the thrift shop clientel. I think this explains some of the comments.

The only reason this place gets a star is because I got a cute sweater from it. First of all, prices for items are posted on a tiny sign hidden behind a hat rack in the store. When you get to the register though, the clerk decides how much your items are based on brand and quality. Huh.
The actual selection of stuff there is hit or miss. Its pretty much a rummage sale indoors. Thats fine but then again, the pricing seems shady.
My biggest problem though and the reason I will NEVER come back here is because of the treatment I received here.
I asked the clerk, an old blond woman where the pricing was for women’s tops. She became very irritated and pointed at the tiny sign behind the hat rack and announced, «The sign was obviously there.» Ok… I had 4 tops that I was thinking about buying but wasn’t sure. She pretty much forced me to be rung up right then and there to ‘see how much I would spend.’ She rung it up and it was around $ 20. I hesitated for exactly 2 – 3 seconds and she got really angry and pushy and asked, «What is the problem?!! I told you how much each item would be!!» I told her before she rung the items up I wasn’t sure I was going to buy all the tops. I decided I was only going to take 2 tops so I asked her to take 2 back. She freaked out. She said the register could not be reset and she started making actual huffy noises and said, «This is unbelievable!!» She then proceeded to tell the other lady that worked there about the situation like I was not there. I apologized to her for being a paying customer and that didn’t help. The other lady took over and kept apologizing to me about the extremely rude old blond lady throughout the transaction. I left the store without being given a bag and wished the rude lady a nice day. Only kindness could repel the venom of such a hateful human like that.
Please, please don’t go to this store if you do not want to be treated like scum. There are a few other thrift stores in Tahoe and I have been to all of them. Most of them are better with selection but all of them are extremely and stupendously better in customer service. People like that old blond woman should not be in any profession that deals with other humans. She should be in a dark hole somewhere breaking rocks as penance for being such a rancid and insufferable wench.

Pretty cluttered, not the best selection.
I’m sorry but this is a thrift store! NOT a consignment store. It seems like the owner waits to see how excited you are about what you’re buying, and prices things accordingly (meaning that they are way over-​priced!).

There was a lot of junk in here, I was not impressed. I was hoping to find some nice winter gear, but there was nothing nice. Just old stuff, like at a rummage sale. The clerk was friendly though.

Bargains Galore has the largest (and nicest) selection of furniture I’ve seen in the south shore thrift stores. We’ve been looking for a dresser for a couple of months, and finally found a solid wood, definitely hand made one-​of-​a-​kind piece here. My partner in crime loves it & is planning to sand and reseal it this summer.
We also found a mini grand piano (toddler mini) for our daughter. It needs to be sanded down and repainted, and the keys need some nail polish remover taken to them (as the previous owner seemingly decided to use them as test strips) but it’s otherwise in like new condition.
That being said, the awesome dresser and adorable piano did not come cheap. The dresser was $ 60 — which is a KILLER price for a dresser like this, don’t get me wrong. I’m so happy we spent our money on this versus going to Ikea. The mini piano was $ 30 — again, great price in the grand scheme of things, but when I pointed out that it was in dire need of repainting and the keys needed to be stripped, the woman helping me (the owner, I think) got a bit huffy and said that one of her friends told her it should go for at least $ 50. Ohhkaaay. Maybe brand new…
I’m used to thrift stores that are willing to bargain, so I asked the woman if she could give us a slight discount on the piano since we were buying two (relatively) spendy items that both needed some love. She looked like I had asked her to kill a new born puppy. Apparently, they don’t haggle. Which is fine, but she got all flustered and pissy with me after that. Really? Has no one ever tried to haggle with you? Ooftah.
Anywho, aside from the spastic service, it’s a pretty decent little store for second hand furniture. The pieces we got need TLC, but there were a ton of others that only needed a little dusting and they would be good to go. Also, this place has more table lamps than any other thrift store I’ve been to — random, but good to know.

If you’re looking for buried treasure, keep following the map. But if you’re interested in random digging with the possibility of treasure: take a peek!
Be sure to walk around and snoop into the various rooms! They’re upstairs, sideways, forward… it’s a bit of a maze.
Some items are super priced, and others not so much: so don’t assume it’s all going to be cheap.
Also, the turnover is kinda slow so give a wide birth before coming back around.

Pros
* Big thrift store with different rooms
* some good finds
* very organized
* friendly staff that were attentive to customers
* lots of awesome antiques
Cons
* selection of clothing was not that great
* tiny men’s section… mostly women’s clothing
* DVDs were way overpriced ($ 4.00 for a used DVD from the late 80s)
What I loved about this place is that it was like a home. There is an upstairs /​downstairs and every room catered to something different. Everything from bedding to snowboards. My favorite room of them all was the room full of random pieces. This is where I found the DVDs, which (to my disappointment were way over-​priced). Downstairs is all women’s clothing and they dedicated a tiny room upstairs for men’s clothing. There was barely anything in the men’s department. I loved that they had some really awesome antiques at the front of the store, but those were pretty expensive too. This was the biggest, but it wasn’t my favorite in the South Tahoe area.