Unique Thrift Store

This is the best thrift store I’ve found in the Twin Cities for men’s clothing. Jeans, shoes, dress clothes — they have a good selection of all. Good brands at good prices. They also hand the pants waist-​side out which makes it easy to confirm sizes without pulling them off the hangers. Until I found unique, the best I could do was Goodwill in South Saint Paul. They seemed to have a HUGE selection of clothing in HUGE sizes. Not my thing — but if you wear plus sizes, you’ll find a lot of options here. Good selection of kitchenware too. I’ll make this a regular stop.

I shop at the Sunray location often. Perfect place to buy vintage blazers and coats. Who doesn’t love a great bargain? Although I have to say that since they’ve stopped purchasing their merchandise and now depend on donations; the quality of stuff has decreased. Still a wonderful place to buy clothes.

This Unique has a great women’s dress and sweater section. Within 15 minutes I found 3 dresses and several sweaters to try on. I ended up getting 2 dresses and a sweater. Had I given myself more time to look I’m pretty sure I would have found more. I didn’t even go near the skirts or shirts! Coincidentally, one of the dresses I got was one I had tried on at Anthropologie about 6 months ago. It looked new still and paying $ 7.99 was much better than $ 79.99. Very happy. The other dress was a beautifully sequined dress from the late 1960’s with amazing rhinestone buttons. It was $ 15 but definitely worth the price.
The knick-​knack section of the store didn’t hold my attention long and seemed smaller than at most Unique’s, and my husband said most of the men’s clothing was only larger sizes. They had very clean and nice dressing rooms though!

This is one of the most well kept thrift stores I’ve ever been in. Plenty to look at if you are browsing, and organized enough that if you know what you’re looking for you can find out if it’s there with little searching effort. Store is clean and prices seem fair or a good deal. They have women’s, men’s, and children’s clothes and shoes, purses, home accents, sporting goods, some furniture, and lots of other «stuff.» The electronics aisle is almost always crowded — seems they could benefit by spreading that section out a bit and offering shoppers more space to pass each other. Otherwise seems like a well oiled machine!

Let me begin by saying I do not like garage or yard sales at all so why would I like any thrift store right? Please take that into consideration as you read my review.
I would have never stepped foot in here, except my daughter’s friend had told her she finds some cool things at this store, so we wandered in on a late Saturday afternoon. As soon as I entered, I wanted to leave but I thought I would be a good sport and look a little while my daughter tried to find her treasures…
I agree with other reviewers that this place is full of odd-​balls. From what I could tell, there were a few people looking for good deals but mostly it was people who apparently do not shop online or bargain shop. Why i say this is because from what I could see, I can buy brand new items online on clearance cheaper than the prices for the used items here. I thought most the prices were way high.
We left empty handed, just as I knew we would, but at least i don’t think my daughter will be bugging me to go to anymore thrift stores.

Let’s talk about May 2009, I went to Unique after vising the dog park south of there. I found a Vintage Leather Jacket that seemed special to me. I payed 6 bucks for it and sold it for 2 grand to some dude in Japan. This is what keeps me going back to thrift stores.

Lots of good stuff. If you go every week, you’ll find something new. It smells weird though. Found some great deals here.

It’s funny how an individual thrift store can generally be good at carrying particular items and not so great at others.
For instance, Unique Thrift on Rice St. is my go-​to place for sweaters and dresses. It’s never been a big hit for jeans, dress pants or short-​sleeved shirts for me, and my husband finds great sports jersey/​shirt/​stuff and dress pants here, but not a lot in the dress shirt department.
Some points to note:
–There is no bathroom. Hold it, or go to the gas station across the parking lot.
–They recently installed one dressing room (one single stall), so in theory, you *can* try stuff on. However, it’s always busy and it’s kinda.. . well, even though you’re technically covered the makeshift plywood walls standing alone in the store can make you feel kind of exposed. I usually just try stuff on over my clothes in front of the mirrors – it might feel kinda weird at first, but lots of people do it here.
–This store attracts the crazy, on occasion. For instance, I once had some aryan nation wanna-​be come up to me while I was looking at skirts and tell me that I was, «The whitest girl he had ever seen» and talking about how «mixing races was the downfall of society.» CRAZIES. Be prepared.
–Pricing is cheaper than Savers by far.
–Dresses. Did I mention the dresses? I almost don’t want to because if you rave about your favorite restaurant the restaurant will, in theory, have enough food if more people start going there. A thrift store is a treasure hunt. You can’t have my dresses! In all seriousness, I’ve found new-​with-​tags ($ 198) Banana Republic size small work dresses for as low as $ 4.95. They’re pretty good with the brand-​name dresses. You won’t find something every time, but I’ve found some great Express, Limited, Maggy London, Ann Taylor, Bisou-​Bisou, BCBGMaxAzria, etc. dresses.
–Same with sweaters for me. You might have different clothing «sweet spots» here based on your own preferences/​tastes/​size/​etc.
Sometimes you find something there, and sometimes you don’t – but the turnover is high and it’s a place you can go back to every week just to look around.

While I’m usually armed with two holsters of purell, I find myself kind of enjoying looking for old junk and trying not to touch my eyes when they immediately start to itch when I walk in. This place even smells cheap, but the last few times I’ve gone, I’ve had a interesting enough time.
I find myself laughing at the over abundance of porcelain kitsch that adorn the miles of shelving. It’s always the same porcelain hang in there cats, discarded ducks, bears and partylite snowmen sharing space with old trophies, picture frames (sometimes with actual photos in them) and every imaginable hallmark gift ever manufactured.
For all the Chicagoans, they even had Atty PC in a box which J said was like the Peter Francis Geraci edition.
Once in awhile there are some good finds (old toys, tapes, CD’s) Just depends. It’s an experience.

Dang this place is good sized. I used to be a thrifty shopper back when I was in college. Then I got a job and left behind my days of $ 2 sweatshirts and jeans. Now I’m jobless, so I have to tiptoe back into the world of cheap goods as a form of retail therapy. Good setup, and friendly customer service run this place. I really like how they organize the pants: hanging them waist side out so you can take a gander at the size/​inseam of your possibly new-​ish fashion find.
I’ll probably head back and buy some more stuff at a later date, as it seemed moderately clean and easy to navigate. Two thumbs up for second hand goods.

Been coming here since I was in grad school 15+ years ago and still stop by when in the Rice and Larpenteur area by the U’s St. Paul Campus. Back then I once scored a pair of fantastic gold (14K) clip-​ons (yep I wear em) and was caressing them next door while filling up at the gas station, when I dropped one on the ground and could not find it anywhere. I was soooo mad at myself for fondling the prize. So the mate went for scrap.
No such good finds recently, but still definitely worth the trip. And it may still have half-​price Mondays after holiday weekends, I believe, and 25% off on Mondays. No bathroom here so you have to go down to the SA station. Please look for my earring while you are there.

Hands down the best large thrift store in the metro. Jeans are a third the price they are at Savers and they are better organized too. I regularly score vintage items for just hardly any cash. This store is ideally located between working class St. Paul and the suburbs. They get a nice mix of stuff.
I second Lisa M’s advice about bringing a measuring tape. I never shop without one here or any other thrift store. If you are shopping for jeans, measure a good-​fitting pair from your closet so you can compare because this isn’t really a place you want to strip down in public.