Vincent’s

As I was walking casually past I noticed a sign on the window saying «Everything € 1». It’s no harm to look, right?
So I went in & there’s not a lot here that you’d really be too interested in unless you were ready for a good root through the rails. But they do have lots of books at the back of the shop. A book for € 1 is a good deal. So I eventually found two that I was going to get, went up to the register with my € 2 coin. The guy on the till said «Books are 3 for € 1, would you like to get another one?».
So he charged me a euro for my two books. You can’t argue with that. Left a donation too because I felt like I’d robbed them!

People seem to be getting riled up about Vincent’s here on Unilocal,but I have no idea why. Sure it has a little bit less selection than some of the other charity shops in this area. And sure, maybe it’s window displays aren’t as good (when I walked by one day the display was animal-​print themed. One of the maniquins, though, had both it’s arm stuck inside the dress, and it was a little bit scary). But overall the prices are right and the quality is good.
They have a large selection of books and if you still have a VCR, this is the place to get VHSs (hehe!). It’s a small shop and can be breezed through quickly.

It feels morally wrong to diss a charity shop, but sometimes in this charity shop-​laden city of ours, one has no choice but to but the guilt aside and deliver stone cold, non sugarcoated opinions.
Vincent’s is a bit shit.
Yeah, I do feel bad.
They have a good selection of books, and every other day of the week it seems they have an ‘everything € 2 day’. But aside from that, the stuff they have generally is only of use in a semi-​ironic/​novelty kind of way. I bought a Samba soccer track jacket once. See what I mean?
Still feel bad.

It seems that you can’t move along the stretch of Dublin that runs from George’s St, along Aungier St through to Camden St without coming across a charity shop every hundred metres or so.
Vincent’s is a case in point, located as it almost directly across from WaWa, the Women’s Aid shop, and about ten doors up from Whitefriars.
Perhaps it’s the proximity of all those other charity shops, but Vincent’s seems to sell much more aggressively than the rest of them. Some charity shops you could pass without knowing what they were (I only discovered Whitefriars function the other day), but Vincent’s often has balloons outside and posters advertising whatever outrageous offers they are running (half price clothes, 1 hardback or 3 paperbacks for € 1).
These regular book sales are perhaps an indication of the amount of donations that Vincent’s receive: they seem to have a lot more turnover in books, and as such a good deal more range than a lot of other charity shops. So it’s well worth a gander to see what they have. In the last while, I’ve picked up two Iain Banks novels, Nick Hornby’s ‘Fever Pitch’ and Woodward and Bernstein’s ‘All the President’s Men’, all for less than a euro each and all towards a good cause.
Give a little, get a lot.

I would just like to add an extra star to this review on account of the gloriously ludicrous shirt I bought here today. It’s fricken orange yo! € 2 worth of awesome. Now, as you were…
Charity shops are great for deals and being at the forefront of «random item retail». This one in particular seems to be as mad as a bag of spiders. On the face of it the opening hours make no sense, further study may reveal that they make no sense. There are also days, again seemingly picked at random, where everything is € 2.
They do have some gems though. My single biggest regret is that I didn’t buy an Italia’90 Ireland jersey they were selling for just € 15. It even had the old Opel sponsorship logo. Some villainous scoundrel got to it the day before my paycheck arrived. If I ever find out who it was…