Cheap Threads in LA

LA is a city about looking good and looking good can cost a mint! If you don't want to spend a small fortune to look good and have the time there is a new store in West Hollywood for you. The store is the $2 Clothing Store on Santa Monica Blvd in the Russian part of West Hollywood. This isn't Boystown this is the working class enclave.
The shop is small but the vibe is big. The clothing is on a pallet in the corner of the store and customers are encouraged to remove their shoes and jump in. If digging for treasures isn't your thing I would suggest avoiding this place but if this sounds fun you will love it! The staff is so friendly and full of fun you have to laugh. Everyone is having fun digging and laughing and just finding a bargain. This is like a lot of the icky Goodwill and Salvation Army places with bins but this place is cool. Fun music is playing and people are laughing and giving advice. "No that isn't your color!" or "Oh you should try this!" There is a mirror in another corner but no dressing room so get over it and try stuff on!
The staff is a lot of fun and when you look like you might be getting overheated will give you a cup of water and words of encouragement. The garments are all clean too. The stuff comes from film and TV sets so some of it is kind of boring but there are treasures to be found! Be it Gucci be it Gap its just $2!

Gotta Love Goodwill

Everyone has been to a Goodwill Store. They are the largest thrift shop chain in this country and they are branching out though out the world. Founded in Boston in 1902 by the Morgan Methodist Chapel, Goodwill is now the go to thrift shop of thrift shoppers.
Not all Goodwill stores are the same do they have one thing in common stuff. If you need some stuff this is the place for you. When one enters a Goodwill Store one shouldn't be looking for something but look at everything. You never know what you just might find. Because they depend on donations you never know what you may find. I once found a Le Corbusier chair for $12. It is always a crap shoot. Look at everything and you just may find something. Personally I tend to avoid certain sections of a Goodwill. I never look at shoes or under things. Somethings are just taboo. The toy section also freaks me out. Now the dish section is always a lot of fun as well as the book section.
Goodwill Industry the parent company is a really big business. The executives make the same kinds of salaries as any large business does. The hierarchy has declared war on smaller charities and their collection boxes. The clothing donated to Goodwill that doesn't get sold in their stores is eventually sold off to companies that in turn resell it for several times more than they have paid for it in third world countries.
So there is a double headed coin aspect to Goodwill. It is a great place for finding a bargain at times but it isn't all rosy.

Thriftshopper's Dream: Picasso

A man walks into a thriftshop... Sounds like the start of a bad joke right? This is a true story and not a joke though. A man walks into a thriftshop in Ohio and roots around looking for mid-century housewares and kitschy art and what does he find; a Picasso linocut worth thousands of dollars. Seven thousand dollars to be exact. This is every thrift shopper's dream. Who doesn't want to find that lost Vermeer or even Noguchi coffee table for pennies on the dollar? This thrift shopper, Zachary Bodish, succeded where so many of us have failed. He hit pay dirt and he hit it big. Mr. Bodish  paid the only in a thriftshop price of $14.14 for the Picasso linocut. He is living the story every participant on "Anitques Roadshow" dreams about. I say to you Zachary Bodish RIGHT ON! Keep on shopping and so shall we, if you can do so can someone else. I know that Vermeer is out there waiting for me or perhaps you but I hope me!