front porch trash

front porch trash

Monday, September 10, 2012

ROAD TRIP...THRIFTING IN ATLANTA

 I made it back all in one piece. No mis-adventures, none that I am willing to talk about. In this case if it happened in Atlanta, it stays in Atlanta.

My daughter and I took a little road trip to Atlanta Labor Day weekend and the week after. Smarta** went to DragonCon in downtown Atlanta and I took the opportunity to thrift in a different town. She was originally going to drive by herself but she does not like (absolutely hates) interstate travel and that was all there was to get to Atlanta and around town. So we worked out an arrangement for the driving. I drove and she slept.
Downtown  Atlanta Freeway
I dropped her off every day at the convention and then I took off thrifting in a different direction. I must say it was an adventure and very interesting. I don't get to go to Value Village very often. The nearest one is in Charlotte, 4 hours away, and we don't have any St.Vinnie's either. My favorite at VV is the little bags with a hodge podge of stuff. It seems like they aren't as good as they used to be. All I found this time was tiny stuffed animals, Beanie Babies and broken stuff and bags of puzzle pieces. I did find two vtg MLP in one bag for 60c. The stuff in the bags really makes no sense at all. In the MLP bag were the two ponies, a 1/3 c measuring cup, a golf ball and a magnetic clothes pin from Publix. I guess they just grab stuff to fill the bags and you get the luck of the draw.

Here in Eastern NC we don't have colored tags at Goodwill and there is no sale days or senior discount. Heck, they don't even have a bathroom that customers can use. So it was good to go to Goodwill and look for the color of the week and  get a senior discount. 

On the way home we avoided Charlotte because of the Democratic convention. We came back through Savannah and Charleston. And of course we got to thrift in each of those towns. Savannah, not so much, but we did get to go to the Outlet Store in N. Charleston where everything is sold by the pound.

We got to the outlet store before it opened and got in line. There were two "ladies" who knew each other and they took command of the purse bin. No one else even got a whiff of a decent purse because they got them all first. They must have missed the padded guitar gig bag and the Camelbak, complete with bladder.I did get about 20 pair of shoes and some other assorted stuff.

The back room at this place was the worst place I have ever seen. Rows of bins filled with trash. I mean TRASH. Broken glass, broken toys, odd pieces of stuff and just plain junk. Piled high on the table were boxes and plastic totes of stuff. It would have been much easier if they had just removed the boxes and totes so you could actually look through the stuff.
I did get command of the shoe bin for a few minutes and managed to get a few good pair.

This was at VV. So stinking cute that we had to set it up in the hotel room just to ooh and ahh. Alas, it is too small for us to use for a sleepover!!

Of course a bag of plush and a doll or two
This and more was packed very carefully in the car.


So far, this is all I have cleaned.

I asked Smarta** if she would go back next year and she will try to get the holiday week off. Her boss doesn't like to give employees the same holiday off too many times in a row, so she may not be able to get off. If she can, we plan to go back next year.

It was fun. Now to get all of this crap store inventory cleaned, photographed and listed.

2 comments:

  1. Sounds fun...I would love to do that. Every time I go thrifing or garage saling, I am always in a hurry and would love to do something like this knowing I have all day to thrift without having to get back home to the family or work! :)

    I thought it was only our Goodwills (here in Chicago) that were bad as I always hear about 50% off days, etc. We have 50% off a specific tag color only on Sundays and Monday...I guess I shouldn't complain after all!

    Welcome back!

    Margaret @ Live Like No One Else

    ReplyDelete
  2. I keep complaining to the mgmt at our GW but it does no good.
    I still don't understand how a retail store gets away with no public restroom. Don't they know little kids have to go. I have seem Moms just dump a arm full of stuff to go "potty" and sometimes they don't come back.
    It was fun having 3 whole days to thrift. But, boy did my feet hurt.

    ReplyDelete