Cheap Thrills

The woman on the phone was so sweet and helpful! Great place to find awesome Halloween contact lenses for a costume!

So BUMMED out that this wonderful store is now closed. One of a kind. All in the name of «progress» I guess.

This great store has closed its doors on Haight Street.

If the name «Cheap Thrills» sounds familiar to my Vancouver friends reading my Unilocal reviews that is ’cause this place used to be situated in Vancouver as well as the Underground back in the 90’s…when Granville was the true alternative scene in Downtown Vancouver. I always wondered what every became of the shop and heard rumours floating around that she moved to San Fran and then BAM!!! A store by the same name, same logo and similar contents on Haights Asbury… a neighbourhood that was what Vancouver was like in the 90’s…was right in front of me. The store has an eclectic array of knick knacks, costumes, shirts and truly alternative things that puts most alternative punk goth stores to shame. If I remember correctly and it is the same person from Vancouver, I hope that she is doing well. She was always one of the nicest shop owners especially when I was in my 90’s Manson phase. I used to buy all my makeup (Star Gazer) from her.

Awesome store! If you’re in the haight area, definitely stop by! Lots of cool retro clothes and goodies. Fun store to look around and friendly staff

One of my favorite places to visit in the neighborhood (after the Fluevog store next door). I get a kick out of browsing through the magnets, the posters, the collectible figures. There is a lot to see here (Penis candy!). If I’m ever in need of a costume, this will be on my list of stores to check out.
The staff has always been friendly. Even when asked random stuff like «what is the name of that band we’re listening to?». You never know what you’ll discover until you ask (Me First and the Gimme Gimmes).

For a fun day filled with cute shops in San Fran, start on Haight and check out this gem. There were a lot of fun places to walk through; this one had pretty competitive prices. I bought some fingerless gloves ($ 6.99) and some penis candy mini-​packs ($ 0.39c).
Most of these shops cater to touristy crowds and definitely Burning Man participants — great outfits and lots of furry boot covers. Fun stuff!

Ive been going to this store for the last 2 years. I love all the trippy toys and gag gifts they carry. Not to mention the shirts, stickers and dia de los muertos items. Anytime I’m in SF I make sure I stop at this store. I just wish it was bigger. It’s pretty small and cluttered. But other than that its great to go in and trip out on all the cool stuff. There is actually too much to see in there. I never leave empty handed. A definite must see if you are in the Haight Ashbury district.

If your looking for that special silly gift or some punk rock stuff this is the place.

I must say… I was very impressed with the staff working here! I was on a mission the other day to find some stuff for a costume party coming up and was going store to store around the entire Haight district.
Although I wasn’t able to find what I was looking for since it was out of stock due to it selling our for Burning Man, they looked around the store helping me find the item (there was one left, but not the right color I was looking for) and they even gave me a discount coupon to purchase it online from their website. They did reorder more of this item for the store but it hadn’t arrived yet, but other than that, the store was well stocked, had a fun selection of items, for a great price!
They get a big gold star for their effort, kindness, and it definitely made an impression on me. I’ll be back here again sometime and will recommend it to others.

What can I say… this store makes me happy! Just walking around looking at all the little toys and interesting items throughout the store just gives me a lift no matter what my mood.
All kinds of cool and neat things that appeals to the inner child in you. The woman working the register the other night was super nice and cool too. I was able to get another witchy creature for my wine cellar and she gave me a great discount because it wasn’t perfect.
They have a plastic figure set called Zombie Pet Shoppe that always cracks me up. It even has a zombie parrot. Thought it to be a bit pricey, but just looked it up online and discovered that their price was actually pretty reasonable.
Extra points for being in convenient walking distance of Haight Street bars and nightlife. Great place!

I’m a huge fan of this place but I wish the prices were a little dropped. Besides that it has a just a plethora of random tid-​bits you can pick up for a quirky birthday or gag gift.
They also sell my favorite gum in the world. Actually 2 of my favorite gums in the world: Teaberry and Cloves. If I remember correctly, these two only come out once every 2 years and a specialty store like Cheap Thrills has them.

Cheap Thrills, I’m all about ‘em. In life. This store. Big Brother and the Holding Company album. Frank Zappa song.
Lots of retro-​punk type stuff (clothes, accessories), rockabilly stuff, and random goods from feathered false eyelashes to witty magnets.
Really fun store, if you’re looking for gifties for guys or gals, you will not walk out empty-​handed. OR, do what I did and only buy things for yourself. Cheap Thrills, people, how fine they are.

AWESOME!
One of my absolute favorite stores in all of San Francisco. Soooo much cool stuff, totally affordable prices, and super duper costumer service. I’ve been going to this store for like 6 years to buy cool stuff for myself and for gifts for my friends and they always have tons of great things, and the people there have always been extremely friendly and helpful. Just love it.
CHEAP THRILLS ROCKS!!!

The scene: walking around Haight Ashbury in search of a robot toy
My first stop: Giant Robot (duh, with robot in the name, how could they not have robots?). No robots. what?
Next stop: kidrobot. no robots. what? Such misrepresentation.
Next next stop: some kids toy store. Asked the person behind the counter if they had any robots, and she said no, but recommended Cheap Thrills.
Final stop: Cheap Thrills. Looked around the store briefly on my own. And was overwhelmed! Too much stuff to look at, and by this time my feet were killing me (why do i suffer for fashion?). So I asked the woman behind the counter if they had any old-​fashioned toy robots, and she noticed there weren’t any on the shelf. She said there were more in the back, and in a couple minutes she was out with the perfect one! It was only $ 8 too! Awesome. Thanks Cheap Thrills! You’re a life-​saver.

Stumbled upon this place in search of phallic accessories for a bachelorette party I was hosting… on the day of the party itself (don’t judge — I had really bad luck tracking down the stuff over the past few weeks). So, I was desperate…
The girl who worked the store was super helpful, pointing out a bunch of fun, anatomical accessories. I left with a feather boa, tiara, candy favors, wind up toys, etc. all for under $ 25. Exxxcellent.

After emerging from the oasis that is the Hippie Hill — onto Stanyan and Haight today I met the most precious adorable puppy in front of McDonald’s.
A fiesty, six week old beauty with soft black fur, and chocolate brown eyes that smiled as she tried to chew on… well pretty much everything around her.
Her name — Wet Dream. Yup — that was seriously her name. Apparently — her doggie dad was named Nightime. And her doggie mom was named Dreamer — and their quirky owner thought it would be fun to combine the two names — ever so creatively.
Anyways — while browsing the stores on Haight — I popped into Cheap Thrills –and figured I’d pick up a teething toy for sassy WD. I asked the woman behind the counter — if she had any safe dog toys — that would be appropriate for a puppy.
She thought hard and went searching around the store — until she picked up a genius glow-​in-​the-​dark squeaky toy — that was just the right size for WD to grab onto.
Being that it was under 10 dollars, I asked if she had a card minimum. She assured me that there was no minimum. I still felt guilty charging such a small amount, so took the opportunity to browse around the store for a couple of minutes.
Cheap Thrills is packed with fun little gag gifts and quirky finds. Everything from vintage looking pin-​up card carrying cases, to hand buzzers, to punk looking T-​shirts and socks. Their selection seems very similar to a number of other stores in the the Haight, but being that it’s a large store and the owner is so nice and helpful — I prefer coming here over the other less-​friendly and less spacious stores in the hood.
WD was passed out asleep on her owner’s lap when I made my way back towards the park, so I just handed her present to her appreciative owner. But I’m sure her tiny growing teeth have just as much love for Cheap Thrills.
Trust.

Once upon a time… a very, very, VERY long time ago, I knew this kid.
He got caught smoking fake cigarettes in a Carl’s Junior.
He went to juvie, shanked some dude and now wears orange all the time.
Okay so that’s not true, they just threw him out and we laughed at him.
Buuut. That’s why I love fake cigarettes. All the coolness of smoking without the added cancer.
Cheap Thrills not only sells them fake, and fake stogies, but also pencils shaped like cigarettes. It’s a cigarette bonanza!
They also have friendly help and the best prices for petticoats on Haight.
So if you say… needed to be some sort of Alice in Wonderland chain smoker, then this store is for you.

Cheap Thrills is one of the only places in the city where I can go and pick up rockabilly fashions. A decent selection of bowler shirts, Lucky 13 products, T Shirts, and belt buckles. I also like the weird kitschy things they sell, like Jesus Action figures.
I love this place!

I love anything and everything about the Haight.
After picking up EDC tickets @ Anubis, I popped into a few stores looking for bandanna’s for Chris and I to wear to etd. POP and for EDC this summer. I had my heart set on neon green for POP and purple for EDC. Cheap Thrills had a bunch of bandanna’s tucked away in a corner. I found my lime green and purple! $ 2.99 each. There was only one purple in stock, so I’ll have to go back to pick up another.
The sales woman was super nice, too, but I didn’t catch her name. Will be back sooner than expected :)