Valu Thrift Store

I have done some thrift shopping at this location a few times. Overall, this is an average place to do so because of their average quality. Some days I have good luck; some days I do not.
If I go there on the right day and time, I will be able to find some treasures. They are hard to find because of the high number of items that they sell. It is also hard to predict when the best times to find them are. Those days are sporadic. This is what I would expect from a typical thrift store.
Every now and again, I have been able to find some valuables. For instance, I found close-​to-​original vinyl prints of Barbra Streisand’s debut album and the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack. I also found a charming statue that has gotten a lot of compliments from my friends when they visit my home. My friends think that I spent a fortune on it, but I really did not.
Their organizing and cleanliness needs some work. It is not the worst that I have seen in places, but there is still some potential for some improvement. Not all of it is the employees’ fault. However, they can keep a better eye on water and mud trails in the aisles. There have been times that those areas have been so dirty that I have felt uncomfortable walking in there. I think that hiring two more people would solve this problem.
Their customer service is great. The employees are friendly and helpful when I need help. Most of them appear to be eager to please their customers. I also notice that the cash register individuals are great at keeping the line going quickly when the line gets long. Therefore, I have had only one instance that I had to wait in line for more than five minutes, including during their holiday season.
When I am in the area and in the mood to find some potential treasures, I will continue keeping this place in mind. This is not my first choice for thrift shopping, but I can count on them to have good moments. I hope that management reads this review and takes in account the cleanliness issue. Then I would consider ranking this place higher.

A couple minutes after walking in we were asked if we had a ticket to be there and told it was family night so we had to leave. Completely random since the doors were open and there were no signs stating this. Surprising level of incompetence here.

There is a decent amount of of selection here, do not get me wrong. The layout of the store could be much better and the atmosphere hectic at best. I couldn’t find where the dressing rooms might be, or if they even had any. I’ve been to much better thrift stores.

This one is quite spacious, but busting at the seams with discarded shelves of once loved porcelain charming, yet alarming kitsch.
Looking for clothes for the next 90s party? It’s probably here.
Found a few interesting books, but didn’t feel like standing in line to check out.
Not a big fan of this one. It smells a bit musty, old and a lot of the items are just wildly overpriced and the front door security alarm thingy is always going off.

This thrift store reminds me a lot of the Unique thrift stores I’ve been to, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re owned by the same people. It’s huge so there’s lots to look through and it’s well organized. Lots of clothes and lots of unorganized knick knacks. Nothing really caught my eye but my mom ended up getting a real coach purse for $ 25.00. This doesn’t seem to be the norm, most of the designer purses are locked up and cost more than the regular bags. The bag she got was harder to identify and thus flew under the radar, total score. It was an ok thrift store but nothing I’d go out of my way to go back to or add to my thrift store rotation (but i don’t live very close to it so that’s also part of it).

Love Valu-​Thrift on many counts:
— clothing is well organized, sizes clearly labeled
— clothing prices are amazing; I buy very nice Arrow-​grade shirts for $ 3 all the time
— nice selection of DVDs near checkouts — $ 2.99 vs. $ 30 at Target; they play fine
— their back-​end techs. help you check out electronics before you buy
I understand they are non-​profit. So much more reason to shop there.

Valu has steadily increased prices over their existence in that location. Additionally, they hire what seems to be nearly 100% Hispanic people, and it isn’t because they are bilingual. Aside from them overcharging the poor for gifted goods and their racist hiring policies, I can’t think of anything great to say about them, other than the place is big and has lots of stuff and I wish I had the gross receipts.

Huge
Selection
Laid out well
Can find just about anything
All of these are great reasons for stopping at Valu Thrift Store. I have to admit that I am sometimes ooked out by the «un-​cleanliness» of thrift stores so of note is WASH everything you buy there before you use/​wear it. I found brand new Bell bike helmets for my kids for $ 2.50. I have seen Coach purses for under $ 50 and they have everything sized which makes shopping for the kids easy as I don’t need to sort through all the racks, just the sizes I need.

I’m all about Valu Thrift, often going there on Saturdays to browse around with the husband and see what we find.
In terms of merchandise alone, this is probably a 4 – 5 star thrift store. For me, its strengths lie in basic shirts and blouses, skirts and housewears (we just got a «new» set of dishes from here) – I don’t usually find much in terms of dresses, pants, jeans, sweaters, etc.
My husband, however, has gotten most of his work shirts, sweaters, vests, pants, etc. from Valu. Banana Republic, Brooks Brothers… It’s great for guys (medium) dress stuff, apparently.
What knocks this down to a three star place, however:
–While they have bathrooms (locked – you have to have the attendant let you in) and two fitting rooms (and some thrift stores don’t have either), the fitting room policy is annoying. Three items in, then back to the back of the line. This in and of itself would be fine, but depending on which attendant is policing the line, they can get really snippy at you. I usually just try stuff on over my clothing anyway to avoid the whole fitting room hassle. The lines can be *quite* long during busy days.
–Their pricing. Most things are thrift-​store cheap, but then you find some things that seem totally arbitrarily priced. For instance, today I saw an ugly-​as-​hell, shrunken wool sweater for $ 49.95 (sweaters usually range from $ 2.95-$ 12.95; most being around $ 5 – 8) with a tag notation «From Norway». It’s like they try to «price up» and get a certain premium for particular brands.. . but often times the brands they choose don’t make sense.
–Their turnaround isn’t has high as other places, and they don’t seem to pay as much attention to the quality of the merchandise going out (watch out for shrunken sweaters).
They do occasionally have 50% off days (usually holidays) but unless you’re hardcore, I’d avoid them. There are *swarms* of people on those days and quite a bit of pushing and shoving (and they don’t seem to put premium merchandise for the sale, either).

My mom always, always drags me here on our shopping trips and I always roll my eyes and check my supply of hand sanitizer at the mere mention but the funny thing is that I ALWAYS find something.
Just yesterday I stopped in because I was looking for a cool blouse with some ruffly details to wear under a cardigan. I broke the rule of going to look for something specific. Of course I didn’t find it.
But I did find 2 pairs of pants, one Express, one Michael Kors for $ 5 each and both fit my short, stubby legs. I also found a pair of Banana Republic wool trousers for the Honey which will be nice to have come January.
I consistently see labels like Gap, BR, Ann Taylor, etc. The majority of them are in good shape and most are priced right for me. I even checked out some of the purses and those looked good too.
I go every couple months and I think it’s well worth the time.

As much as I want to support small, locally owned thrift stores, I love the big warehousey ones too.
What I like most about them is something that I like least about many smaller stores — you have to dig.
Digging at Valu Thrift requires time and possibly a dose of Claritin to curb the sneeze attacks. There are about 10 – 15 long aisles to scavenge and the clothes are packed tightly on every rack. With a solid effort, I’ve found some of my all-​time favorite thrifted items here, including a flowery ‘80s sundress (practically my summer uniform) and a really unique silk vest with menswear fashion sketches on the fabric.
They also have a big furniture and chotchkies selection, so if you need a painting of an eagle, a ceramic duck, a dusty side table or anything of that sort, you will have no trouble locating those items.
The turnover is great, so you could probably come once a week and find something else if you are diligent in your browsing. And I don’t find the prices to be too high for the real retro-​wear, especially compared to Savers on Lake Street. Plus, there are discounts every Monday!
My only complaint is that you can only take three things into the dressing room at a time and then you have to get back in line… they really need a better system (and more dressing rooms).

Sometimes it’s entertaining to find a clearanced-​out shirt from Target with a clearance tag of $ 3.99 only to see it marked $ 6.99 here. Or two of the same shirts, still with tags, one for $ 9.99 and the other for $ 6.99.
I’ve seen stuff with tags from most major stores around the cities, so I wonder if they buy overstock/​unsold by the pound, which I think Target does. Pretty interesting racket, this for-​profit thrift store world.
If you can stand crowds, go on a Monday after a holiday weekend when everything is 50% off. It’s a little insane but still a fun fest. I believe every Monday is 25% off too.

When I go to a thrift store there are three things I look for:
–Cheap Books that aren’t yellow and don’t smell.
–Velvet Art so I can Laugh-​At-​Loudly.
–The Blank Slate Design Section which in layman’s terms is typically referred to as the sweater rack.
I’m a confessed fiber junkie and because I received a sewing machine for my birthday last year I decided to try my hand at chopping up old sweaters and sewing them into one-​of-​a-​kind purses and bags. And this is where the thrift store came in.
As far as I’m concerned, a thrift store is a thrift store is a thrift store so they only get 3 stars even though I like them. This is probably one of my favorite thrift stores to buy old wool sweaters from because the ratio of cleanliness to selection is consistently good here. It’s also HUGE and when you pay with a credit or check card (which they do accept) the employees don’t give you the evil eye.
The prices are somewhat higher than what I’ve seen at other thrift stores but I’m willing to fork over the extra cash if it means there’s a slightly better selection and there’s a slightly smaller chance of contracting scabies because some anonymous creep didn’t wash their garments before donating them.
For under $ 20 I can usually walk away with 4 – 6 quality wool sweaters which can then be perfectly shrunk, cut up and sewn back together in the shape of a purse. Add one fat quarter of funky fabric lining and some cool embellishments – et voila – a new bag!