Don't Thrift on Your NYC Vacation
You can thrift here, but should you?
I love indulging in a pre-vacation fantasy. I’ve been planning a trip to Italy that’s still several months away, but a little chunk of my brain is devoted to perpetual daydreams of velvety cacio e pepe and romantic cobblestone side streets and the smell of leather. For those of you that travel to New York, there’s a high likelihood that part of your city fantasies revolve around fashion. The New-York-trip version of yourself is fabulously dressed, sipping Aperol spritzes at a West Village cafe with chic paper shopping bags resting at your feet. Inside of those bags are all of the special pieces that you’ll forever be able to describe as “something I found in New York.”
I’ve been living in the city since 2012. As a vintage dealer/writer/bartender with pretty good taste, I’m asked for a lot of recommendations. I love telling people where to eat. I’ll enthusiastically share my favorite parks and museums, or explain which tourist spots are actually worth your time. Of course, what people really want my opinion on is shopping, especially when it comes to vintage. Which neighborhood should I go to? What’s your favorite store? Where can I thrift? And this is where I start to struggle. Don’t get me wrong, I love shopping in New York. I am literally part of shopping in New York. The shopping landscape here is all of the things you’ve heard it is and more - it’s beautiful, it’s inspiring, it’s varied, it’s interesting. But one thing it rarely ever is, is cheap.
Thrifting exists in NYC. Of course it does! Amongst the never-ending places to spend your money there are great deals, incredibly lucky finds, and hidden gems. However, the hunt in this city requires something equally as precious in return: time. Unless you’re here with weeks to spare, I truly don’t believe that thrifting is the best way to spend your precious and limited hours.
Despite its many flaws, New York is still vibrant and exciting, and that one-of-a-kind energy is captured best in the city’s small businesses. I feel that essense most in skinny little boutiques, in my favorite aggressively well-lit Chinatown restaurant (shout out 456 Shanghai!), and at the bakery where me and my neighbors pick up our CSA boxes. While there are certainly some locally owned thrifts scattered throughout the city, most of the “thrifting” here is done under the umbrella of the same soulless corporations we know and hate - Salvation Army, Buffalo Exchange, Beacon’s Closet, Goodwill.
While the locally owned vintage stores might not be selling $7 designer blouses, they function as places to experience something so much more valuable than cheap clothes. Curated shops offer a point of view, inspired collections, thoughtful merchandising, and employees that want to help you find a skirt in your size and tell you where to get the best sandwich in the neighborhood. I feel like “grail” hype culture and the endless churn of thrift haul videos have turned secondhand shopping into a contest where bragging rights trump all. Don’t let the imaginary allure of getting to say “I found these Pucci shoes for $10 in New York” keep you from experiencing the incredible local shopping scene at full price.
Every single dream piece of vintage you’ve ever wanted is waiting for you in New York, it just isn’t in a thrift store. The magic of this city, the reason I live here and the reason people want to visit, exists because of the little guys. If we don’t give them our money, eventually all we’ll be left with is a thousand Duane Reades and Crossroads and Chipotles. So save up, support a small business, and come prepared to pay for what you really want.
And all of this advice is coming from a girl who, like many of you, can’t think of a better way to spend a day than in an endless lineup of thrift stores, estate sales, and yard sales. The summer my cat had cancer, I would drop him off for his chemo at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center and go silently sob in the aisles of the Goodwill on 61st and 1st. I actually found some pretty good stuff during those heart-wrenching June mornings, but never anything that I couldn’t have found elsewhere.
I’ve spent countless hours in countless thrifts across the country and beyond, and New York City thrifts just rank very low on my list. The stores here are often smaller, the prices are higher, and there’s way more competition. And just like any Goodwill in Arizona or Pennsylvania, the Goodwill in NYC feels eerily familiar. Expect lopsided mannequins inexplicably missing their pants and glittery BRIDE TRIBE tank tops, all set to the tune of the world's worst playlist. It doesn’t matter if there’s a Michelin starred restaurant across the street, or a cornfield - a thrift store is where the locals dump their crap.
With some of the highest living expenses in the country, New Yorkers aren’t ditching their last season designer at the Salvation Army, even the rich ones. Wealthy older fashionistas frequent local consignment stores as both sellers and buyers, while the Y2K-obsessed downtown trust fund kids hawk their cast offs to their followers via Depop. The corporate girlies might take some of their 260 Sample Sale pieces to Beacon’s, but their best vintage goes straight to the RealReal. Most people in America can’t afford to just dump nice clothes these days, and people paying NYC rent prices are certainly no exception.
I don’t say any of this to deter anyone from thrifting, or to perpetuate the idea that there’s nothing good to be found in thrift stores here. The circular economy is absolutely vital to protecting our planet and its people, and we should all be shopping secondhand as much as possible. If you’re here on vacation and you walk past Housing Works, by all means, go in! If you’re just looking for that treasure hunting experience, plan your trip for a weekend and visit one of the city’s amazing outdoor markets. But don’t take up all of your time here hung up on the notion that you need to scour the thrifts for something special, that your “real New York moment” is waiting for you in the dark corner of an L Train. Sure, you could spend your afternoon hunting down an amazing score. Maybe you’ll even find it. But why would you, when you’re guaranteed to make real memories spending your afternoon exploring the Cloisters or eating hot dogs on Coney Island? This city has so much to offer, the worst thing you could do is forget to accept it.
I know just how expensive this city can be, so I’m working on creating a little guide to the most affordable curated vintage in NYC. I want to really do my research and make it thorough, so don’t expect that anytime soon. But I am working on it! And I’m very happy to take any leads in the meantime :)