Clothes Encounters of a Second Kind

I have a consignment shop in Montana and when I travel I like to tour the local consignment shops to get ideas, learn things and, of course, shop!
The shop is small and packed with great find! I came away with a great dress and an Armani tie for my husband. Importantly, the two gals working there were so lovely! They and one of their loyal customers made it a completely enjoyable experience. Highly recommend visiting.

I like this place a lot — both for buying and selling. You’re not going to find any insane deals here but everything is high quality and decently priced. There’s no cheap h&m or forever 21 type stuff.
The way consignment works is that if they decide they’re interested in your piece, they’ll take it and give you the price they think they can sell it at. If they sell it within a certain time period, you get 50%. If it doesn’t sell, they’ll return it to you. Very reasonable and transparent.

I often babysit in Eastern Market and yesterday was the first time I had the opportunity to check out Clothes Encounters of a Second Kind. I love second hand stores, but this store is WAY too small and cramped. While second hand stores are hit or miss, I often have a hard time finding stylish clothes as a petite woman. Maybe I need to give it a second chance on a day other than Saturday, but I personally prefer Frugalista in Mt. Pleasant.

Super cute consignment store! Good selection for all ages. It’s nice to pop in while visiting the flea market. They have shoes, bags, and lots of clothes at good prices. A good portion of the clothing is designer and in good shape. Lots of fun!

I have lived in Eastern Market for a few years and I never walked in until today. (honestly I was wasting time until my nail appointment). I’m not a huge fan of consignment/​second hand stores unless it’s Halloween but I was pleasantly surprised by the selection inside. I will say a majority of the clothing is for the older generation but I found A TON of Lilly Pulitzer at fantastic prices.
I’m giving it three stars because the customer service isn’t great. I inquired about a pile of Lilly clothes behind the counter and the women who was pricing out the clothing wash not very friendly. She did eventually let me try on one of the skirts but didn’t seem happy I bothered her. I’m not going to buy it without trying it on, so I was a little surprised she was so hesitant to give it to me.
I doubt I’ll always walk out with such great finds but I will definitely make a point to stop in every once in a while.

The clothing, accessories, and shoe quality and selection are consistently high. The dress selection in particular is very classy, and easily can be worn for both work and nights out. The prices are very reasonable as well. The selection changes often, and is in sync with the current trends and seasons.
In addition, I have had a great experience with the owner (Linda) during the times when I went to the store to consign items. She has accepted (and sold) everything from ski pants to stilettos. If the item had been at the store for a while, and she had to decrease the price, she always asked beforehand — incredibly nice of her to do.
I definitely recommend checking out this store — right on the beaten path at Eastern Market.

Uh, NO!
Besides the fact that the store is mostly for the aging population, the selection is poor, and there isn’t much turn over, the service is horrid.
I went in with some designer jeans to consign and maybe even do an exchange for something. The shop keep was at the front and rolled her eyes at my mere attempt to even fathom she would want my jeans. When she finally took the extreme effort to glimpse at my jeans, she noticed they were indeed designer and suddenly seemed interested. Finally, she gave me a completely lowball offer on a pair of 7 jeans, and R&R. While she did me the «pity» of looking over my things my sister browsed the store and found something she wanted. I decided to take my items elsewhere in hopes of a higher offer and when I informed the shop owner, her response was «UGH, well then get out. It was certainly a pleasure NOT doing business with you. ever.» My sister attempted to buy what she found, and the shop keep refused! «I don’t do business with people like you. Nor will I ever.» My response was that the nature of her business revolved around people changing their minds and it was not unreasonable for me to change my mind. She threw the jeans back at me, told us to get out and «please never come back.»
And certainly I won’t.
There are so many other worthwhile, friendly, fashionable places. Don’t waste your time with this stinky witch.

I come here almost entirely for the shoe selection. The ladies who own this place have an eye for high-​end and, more importantly, functional footwear. You know, that magical pair of 6 inch heels that you can wear for 2 miles walking because the designer bothered to get the geometry right for your feet?
A lot of the footwear is non-​branded, but the quality and condition of the stitching and leather is a dead giveaway. Expect to find ECCO and FRYE sandals and a few fine cowboy boot specimens as well (though if cowboy boots are your thing, make a once in a lifetime purchase at Heritage Boot in Austin, TX and be done with it).
I usually browse the clothing section as well and have found a spring belted trench and a few tank tops that were conservatively designed but with enough to keep my interest: Off-​centered vertical functional wooden buttons, a variance in material used in the front v.s. the back etc.
Four stars as there seems to be very little consistency in pricing and it takes an average of two visits to find one good item… but that one item will be amazing.

I love this place except I just went there and the lady behind the counter said «she was insulted that I use a credit card on a $ 2 item»! Well, I would have preferred she say that they «don’t take cards under $ 10.» However, another sales lady saved her butt by being nice. Great deals but bring cash. For the record, I bought 4 items worth $ 8 — there’s no sign at the cash register stating that there was a credit card minimum. The $ 2 item keeps bringing back into the store even with a rude cashier. They have Michael Kors, Coach, Fendi, etc — BUT, you have to look.

I love this store! The prices are great, considering the inventory they carry. You can always find something great! The costumer service is also top notch.

The staff is weirdly unfriendly. Also, I wish the window displays were neater!

Most discriminatory owner I’ve encountered in Eastern Market. The owner told me that although she was hiring I need not send any teen mothers to apply because they won’t «fit in». Wonder if that’s because I’m a young black woman my girls won’t fit in. Smh wish I could rate this no stars!

I was just about to ring up my purchase when the owner found a small little hole in a scarf with her eagle eye. She offered to charge me only $ 2 bucks instead of $ 12 — without any sort of urging from me. How honest can you get?
I scored with a gorgeous St. John’s skirt, a scarf, a banana republic jewel color top, and lovely silk skirt all for the price of one cheaply item from the mall. Can’t beat that deal.

My God this place is horrifically TRASHY.
The only reason for the additional star is AT TIMES (rarely) you will find a good deal here, but no more a better deal than say a super sweet find from the GoodWill.
To me, the purpose of a consignment store is to take what people don’t want and resell them. What sets them apart from a thrift store, is that the items are of higher quality, thus removing the «dumpster diving» feeling associated with thrifting. That being said, the clothes here are atrocious and in horrific quality. I tried on a dress that had armpit stains. Gross. They claim to only accept top quality pieces but clearly nothing is looked over. A BCBG dress had broken straps that was attached with a safety pin — and for $ 50 bucks?! THE FUCK.
And what a big waste of time this place is… they carry Faded Glory and Chicos brand clothing from 1999 (or so it seems… hard to get an accurate date because the shit is so worn down).
The bigger question is — who are the people consigning here? Probably the same people the more upscale consignment stores turn down. Pilled shirts, broken straps, ink stained purpose, worn out shoes… Gross.
I looked at a Tory Burch bag that was in God awful condition and they wanted $ 150 for it. The bottom of the bag was worn to shit. Then, (get ready to LOL!), they had a Jimmy FOO bag. That’s right, Jimmy FOO. The knock off of Jimmy Choo, for $ 300. COMICAL!!! They tried to pass that shit off as authentic by putting an Ebay receipt in it. First… let’s pretend that shit was real. The bag had ink stains all over it, inside and out. If it were real, have some class and refurbish it before selling it in your store. The «Jimmy Choo» label was GLUED on, not stitched. Do not buy any purses here. They had other knockoffs such as FUI VUITTON and FRAUDA. Don’t do it kids… knockoff handbags make you look cheap!
Lastly, do NOT consign here. There was a group of ladies (note, not one of them greeted me or assisted me as I was shuffling through all their shit) going over a consignment that was brought in. They would take whatever items to add to their store and what they didn’t, the lady would say «donate.» Another shop worker asked if she could just keep it. ESCALANDO!
Boring. Lame. Cheap. Fraud. No.

+ Good purse selection. Tons of shoes too, but I was too impatient and tired to go through everyone of the bins.
+ Conveniently located two blocks from the eastern mkt metro and across the street from the mkt if you want to do both your grocery and clothing shopping at the same time!
— Clothes just weren’t my style. They have a section of pants and skirtsuits that looked really cute. But the sizes and style were for an older and bigger crowd. It’s hard to find something if you’re petite.

What turned into a sunny saturday, made a beautiful trip of shopping around Eastern Market. I happened upon this store and was delighted to find some good bargins in it, with out too much searching! I found two really cute dresses that looked brand new, but are a cool vintage trendy style. BCBG and Nine West. $ 20 each! I don’t know if that is normal, because most dresses were priced higher, but I was delighted with the name brand bargins.
I also found a really cute summery purse in PERFECT condition for oh-​so-​cheap.
Delighted that I just walked in and found fantastic stuff in 20min of searching!
The only con is that the space is rather small. There were a lot of people in there shopping, so the tightness was accentuated. But people were super friendly, as well as the staff. The sunshine makes everybody happy!
I would check it out. You might get lucky, like I did!

Wanna hear something really cool… my mom introduced me to this place. Now with that being said, my mom is a bad a**, in a good way. She’s got the whole «finders keepers» thing going for her and clearly she passed that on to me as well. I went here with my old roommate and got her hooked immediately. They have one of the BEST shoe section a lady could ask for. Nice purses and old school jewelry too. So what did I walk away with most recently? Shoes,…shocker. These weren’t just ANY ol’ pair of shoes though, these were hands down some of the most in your face shoes I’ve seen in awhile. Stiletto high heel (with a candy cane strip style going down the heel part of the shoe) all in midnight blue pleather… not everyone can pull shoes like that off… but this lady can ;-)
If you want to bring clothes in for consignment, you must make an appointment and they only take seasonal clothes, so wait until the right season hits. DC needs more vintage in its life… here’s tipping my hat to one of them, with many more to come

Clothes encounters of the scheming kind… So I go to clothes encounters on a regular basis so I figured why not sell my items here as well, I took a tweed COACH Pea Coat in there to sell. She told me the policy and said the most she could sell it for was $ 150 and that I would recieved half of that and I was ok with that. I know it was worth more but I had no use for it anymore so I figure why not profit from it. I went back maybe a week later and she claimed the coat was sold, so she cut me a check for $ 75 as we agreed.
Well since I go there frequently and I still have other items there for sale, I went today. As I walk in the first thing I see is my COACH coat, (which I was previously informed had been sold) and to my surprise for retail at a much higher price than what she quoted me for. She had the coat on sale now for $ 250, the exact same coat. So I asked her did someone bring my coat back and her response to me was” THAT’S NOT YOUR COAT.“
What are the odds of the same exact coat ending up at the same store? I don’t believe it and I’m highly upset. I have sent this lady numerous customers and for her to rip me off has left me disgusted. I am appalled with her lack of professionalism and that her establishment fails to follow the policies they claim to have.
Therefore I or anyone I know will no longer support her. Also, I shared the story with my co-​workers because I was completely appalled and my boss told me his wife had the same experience 10 years ago. Once a scam artist always a scam artist and I will be reporting her to the better business bureau.

I don’t even know what to say about this place. Don’t get me wrong, I love used clothing, but this store has some of the most unfriendly employees I have ever encountered! I have probably come in here over 15 times since I moved from Colorado to DC, and this store really lives up to DC’s antisocial, tense reputation. I just keep to myself and try not to have any run-​ins with the employees. Not that that would matter because they would ignore me anyways. Come to think of it, I can’t think of one time they have EVER greeted me when I walked in. Ever. Come on, Clothes Encounters. Where’s the Southern Hospitality (since we’re kind of in the South)?
I do find items that I like in this store, including petite, small sizes, shoes, and business casual attire. I don’t think that this store has sales, and I wish that they would prorate their prices like every other consignment store in the area, so that after a certain time a piece of clothing is in the shop, it’s discounted.

If you want to consign something to this place, save yourself the trouble and just donate it, leave it on the curb, burn it, because the 50% you might make IF they accept your consignment and IF someone buys it isn’t worth the frustration.
I brought in a Wilson suede coat in great condition and they took it without a problem. Then I tried another time, on a rainy day, to bring in a Kasper dress (available at Belk, Nordstrom, etc) which was worn ONCE. Some rain drops fell on the dress, so the woman thought it was stained and told me to get it dry cleaned. Thank god I didn’t take her ignorant advice and waste money dry cleaning it, because the next day, the spots were gone because the water evaporated.
A few days later, I went again when I was in the area with the Kasper dress, and the lady looked up my account, saw that I had already consigned the Wilson coat, and said she wouldn’t take the dress because the labels were «too common.»
I thought «WHAT? She’s going to refuse selling perfectly good clothing in mint condition because the label is just from an everyday department store and not some haute couture fashion house that no one gives a {bleep} about anyway?»
I’ve also shopped in there a few times, and I agree with the other comments. The crowded racks are filled with clothing that is usually dowdy or matronly; the prices are a bit high; and the ladies are not warm to anyone, either customer or consigner.
And that’s not just from personal experience. As a former retail worker, I take note of how cashiers and customers interact whenever I’m in earshot. They have never been nice when I’m in the store.