Thrift Shopping

I learned the art of thrift shopping from some documentary videos about the effect of fast fashion industries. Thrift shopping is buying stuff from thrift store, which is basically a place that sells used clothing (and other items) for cheap prices (but sometimes not so cheap). By thrift shopping we could cut the amount of waste from clothing and we could reduce our carbon footprint. Even though, the connotation of thrift shopping (in Indonesia) is sometimes referred to low-quality products being sold in a nasty places. But it’s not always the case. Yes, there's a lot of junk there, but you can find something nice for very reasonable price if you look hard enough, plus you can help save the planet.

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I’ve been dying to get some affordable leather jacket with decent quality and some pair of boots. Hence, I planned to find them in a thrift stores. After doing some research about the thrift store whereabout in my city, finally i found one! There’s a store called "Vintage Vibes" located in The Flavor Bliss BSD, Tangerang. From the name, we can assume that the store sells vintage products like from the 80s or the 90s. That made me more excited to visit the store.

The anticipation was high but it took me months to finally went to the store. It was either due to the fact that I never had a chance (I have been very busy for the last couple months) or I had no eager to do so (I am such a lazy-bone and the store is 9 miles away ugh!). then comes yesterday (September 1, 2019) when i just got my pay-check and i had a time off from work. Furthermore my friend said yes when I asked him to take me there.

So here I am. Finally going to the place that have been saved on my to-go list.

No sooner had I arrived then I thought that this place was so nice. Very clean and neat. Everything was put in place. The room has enough conditioning and seems very spacious.

In the store you will find a collection of secondhand products such as books, home decoration, clothings, bags, and music (Vinyls, CDs, or Cassettes). I took my time wondering around the stores. At the books section, there were a lot of old novels, comics, magazines, references, and children's books. Most of them seemed dusty and worn tho. 

I found some antique jar, paintings, ornament for home and wall decoration in the store. Some probably dated from the colonial era. There are also furniture such as bench, dining-table set, container, and lamp stand available on display there. They seemed kinda pricey tho. But it’s worth the price maybe since it had good condition and had been cleaned.

The music collection was not so many. I found Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, and some other Jazz and Rock n’ Roll singers from the past. Not much that I recognised tho. There were also CDs from some recent musician like Demi Lovato, Ed Sheeran, etc.

Then I finished the tour by going to the clothing and bag section. There were a lot of women cloths and bags. A lot. The cloths such as shirts, pants, jacket, and dress were very very cheap I guess. The clothes start from ~Rp30.000. While the bags were priced above Rp1.000.000 due to its flashy brand such as Balenciaga, Michael Kors, and Hermes.

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Soooo... I think "Vintage Vibes" is a great store because it doesn't reek like any other thrift shop instead it is very neat and clean and the vibe is so vintage (duh), just like the name.*insert regina_george_vintage.gif* (again???!). Some of the books is kinda dusty, maybe because not like any other secondhand products there, it's hard to clean a book. I was expecting a lot of Vinyl but it wasn't that many available at the store. AND the the thing that bothered me the most was that barely could i find any men’s clothing. The clothing section entirely filled with women’s clothing only (go women!). Maybe it's not a problem for girls out there in fact it's heaven for them. But what about me? I need clothes too! I feel so disappointed that what I actually looking for was not available. There were no men’s leather jacket nor boots. 

So sad that i had to exit the store empty handed after that anticipation that I had to this place.

p.s. I didn't take pictures of the goods there because I don't think that's appropriate.