Bargain Bank

It’s called Spencer & Daniel’s now:

R.I.P. Bargain Bank and thank you for the fond memories. BB was at its height during the dot com bubble bursting years. My favorite liquidation involved beauty e-​tailer,
. Back in those glory days, you could find NARS cosmetics ON SALE here and many other lines (e.g., Anna Sui, Tony & Tina, LORAC), as well as jewelry and perfume. I found myself stopping by all the time (you can’t find NARS or other prestige cosmetics on sale usually). Ahh, good times. I found myself cheering for the demise of more e-​tailers but
was really the best thing to happen to Bargain Bank.
BB carried random things including discontinued candy, unpopular toys including the talking Furby, shampoo, hockey pucks, cheap wine, imported food, etc. You never knew what you were going to find and that made it fun.
They had three locations at one point. Sadly, over the years they started to carry more food and wine and they were no longer that much different from other discount stores.
Their website looks much snazzier now.

This place is worth it just for the $ 14.99 bottle of Remy Martin Cognac you’ll fine. Also found $ 8 bottles of Calvados. A lot of the stuff is crap, but I’ve found a lot of decent food items as well (not expired of course.)
–Chris

What is there to say? Strange, off-​brand items in flavor combinations NO ONE is interested in trying (think sesame-​ranch pasta sauce), hence their presence at The Bargain Bank. If you like bizarre crap that you’ll never have use for half as much as I do, then this is the place for you.
The real reason I give it 5 stars, though, is that it’s right across from the 540 Club. It’s really fun to send your drunk friends from out of town across the street to the Bargain Bank when they tell you they need an ATM. Watch them look, puzzled, first on the Clement St side and then on the 6^th Avenue side of the store! Priceless.

they always sell expired candy and crap. they’re closing. too bad. cheap wine though.

Are you cheap? Do you like discount variety stores? I do! This place is an adventure that won’t cost you more than $ 10 and will keep you entertained for hours.
Do you have a craving for the flavors of candy that flopped? Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup with Cotton Candy filling anyone? How about that unidentifiable flavor of gum, labeled in Swedish?
If you are feeling really daring you can get some $ 1 wines that probably taste marginally better than Cisco, or a wine cooler with tapioca balls in it.
For the home; I am now the proud owner of some scented candles that don’t smell and some Jesus shaped ice cube trays.
Okay, I kid about the ice cube trays, but I am sure they probably carried them at one time.

Yup the Bargain Bank is really hit or miss. Inventory rolls over very fast here. I always stayed away from the food (the expiration dates are very telling) but we’ve found some neat toys here.
We got a Santa train set for $ 2 (you set up these tiles and the train runs on it). That’s a real good deal for kids. Cheap and it works!

I regret that I did not check Unilocal before stopping in. I bought chocolate and coffee — no expiration dates were given for either item. Brought home both, opened them, and found them to be very discolored and the coffee did not smell right. I determined neither was safe. Thus, I WASTED $ 6 in «bargain» purchases that went straight into the trash!

I specifically shopped at Bargain Bank for wine for my family’s Thanksgiving meal, and I loaded up on starter (Zinfandel), entrée (White Bourdeaux), and dessert (Moscato) wines for $ 24. The wines were fairly mild because some of them were somewhat past their peak prime. They were still very drinkable and paired well with the meal’s sharp flavors that can be toned down with the non-​overpowering libation. Many of their wines come from expensive French wineries but are marked down from $ 40+ to around $ 10.
But I wouldn’t gift wine here for a friend who is a wine connoisseur. Your friendship might be in jeopardy.

Best store ever. one hint: do not ever get chocolate as it is often old and expired. Good place to get olive oils, cookies, hot sauce, soups, canned goods, sauces, dressings, sweets. No wine.

I’ve lived in the Richmond since the BB was Wells Fargo… it’s much better as the Bargain Bank… I love this place and do all my shopping on Clement St. with a stop in at Bargain Bank every week (though almost nothing on my list is sold there!) and pick up junk food, bath products, canned goods, and sometimes things I didn’t know I needed (wanted)…I’m not a wine drinker, but even that is a GREAT DEAL there… the staff is friendly and it’s just exactly where the penny-​pincher shopper needs to shop… and it makes you feel less guilty answering «you bought THAT?» when you tell people what you paid for it…
As everyone else says though — Check the expiration dates!

You can get lots of good deals on lots of things here. You can also get home only to realize the mayonaise is already expired.
Mostly, I like it for the wine. Even the wine is hit-​and-​miss, but the prices are low, and therefore so is the risk. If you find something you like, chances are you can go back and buy a case of it. And they always have a good supply of very drinkable fortified wines (e.g. sherry, brandy, marsala, port, madiera, etc).
The other aisles are worth a wander too; just be sure to check the expiration dates on things where you consider an expiration date to be important.

I’ll never forget my first bargain bank visit.
Petfish was highly ADD, and also a wine expert, so this was a playground for her. They’ve got at least a hundred different wines, all ridiculously cheap, most of them gone bad. We spent an hour comparing prices against a bunch of notes she had written on slips of paper.
.. . and then we moved onto the chocolates.. .
You can load up like crazy here on pantry items. Pasta sauce, crackers, Italian syrups. They have some sweetheart deal with a local liquor distributor and carry overstocked or unpopular spirits at half price or less. Sometimes ridiculously less, like five bucks for a fifth.
It’s the cheapest drunk for the dollar in town short of chugging mouthwash (which they also carry) so they often kick out the bums.
And it’s the biggest ADD OCD and general D magnet outside of the video arcade, so if youre friend is gone missing for a few days you might have to come rescue her from bargain bank.
They take credit cards and the staff is friendly, if a little ovewhelmed by the clientelle.

I love this place. Period. Not much more to say. I was sad when I had to break up with my last BF because I didn’t have an excuse to be in the Richmond every weekend so I could go to the Bargain Bank.

I came back here repeatedly when they had boxes of Hello Kitty fortune cookies in stock. In fact, I kept one of the fortunes: «Hello Kitty says, Look within yourself for the answer, not the cookie.» Who woulda thunk Hello Kitty could give Confucious a run for his money?!?
I knocked a star off because the store will never fail to emit a stale odor of expired (or nearly expired) food.

Surprises at what pops up at their various stores for miscellaneous foodstuffs, liquors and bath soaps.

Ok, for a good year I walked by this place over and over and thought ICK. Now I’m in there 3 times a week to see what is new. I love it and the wine selection is getting better and larger and they are good to buy. I have not had a bad bottle yet.

The biggest reason I miss living in the Richmond (other than trivia at the Bitter End) is the Bargain Bank. The culinary finds here are unmatched, and you can create an entire 3 course meal for four for about $ 2. $ 4 if you include the wine. I’ve eaten some of the most random things and discovered brands I never imagined could exist after uttering the phrase «Dude, 5 for a dollar. How you gonna pass that up?» This place is for the risk taker, for that bold person willing to throw down 10 bucks for three grocery bags of food, all of which will be highly suspect.

The Bargain Bank is one of the greatest stores in the world. I always come here when I need that special for a party I’m hosting or going to. Would you dare eat Pennzoil brand chili? Maybe not but it makes a great gift. The BB carries overstock items from around the country and the world. You can get a case of Shasta soda for $ 4. I still have white wine in a juice box that I got here just waiting for that high class lady I take back to mi casa.