Thrifty Tips

1. Thrift shopping is having a moment. More and more people are giving pre-loved clothing a second chance at life, and for a good reason. Not only can great quality pieces be found for too-good-to-be-true prices, but by buying secondhand, we’re keeping still-wearable garments out of the landfill. Plus, who doesn’t love a good thrift shop find?

   1.  Understand what you’re looking for before living in you’re home. Thrift shopping is exciting due to the amazon things that you could find for less. However, make some plans at home before living for thrift shopping as this will enable you to target the most critical department for your shopping.
   2. Qualitown makes thrift shopping easy, scan the aisle and move straight to find what you are looking for. The signs on the aisle give a clear indication about a particular item. E.g., if you’re looking for a coffee maker, you may want to go straight to the kitchen aisle to allocate the department for the coffee machine. 
   3. For clothing, know your sizes and go directly to that selection to start looking for your choice of style and fashion. You may start from the first hanger-on that selection as you look through it gradually. Pay attention to brand names.
      

      Signs of high-quality Items

      3. There are several telltale signs of quality in clothing. Knowing this will come in handy when you come across an item with a brand name you don’t recognize, find an item with the brand label cut off, or only want to buy top-quality items.

      • Well-made items have nicely sewn seams. You won’t see raw or roughly cut edges at seamlines. Seams should be sewn neatly and tightly with matching colour thread.
      • Higher quality clothes have linings. Whereas fast fashion items will be a single layer, high-quality garments like dresses and jackets will have an inner lining.
      • For clothes with patterns on them, they should match at the seams. Stripes and plaid continue without looking disrupted, despite having been sewn together.
      • Buttons and buttonholes fit well together. Buttonholes are well-sewn and reinforced without any fraying to the area.
      • Clothes will usually be made of silk, wool, linen, or blended with cheaper materials like polyester.

   Know your measurements

   5. Clothes from different brands can vary widely in fit, even if they have the same size listed on the tags. One way to know if an item will likely fit without trying it on is to measure it.

   Take the measurements of your best-fitting clothes and carry those with you when you shop. That could be the waist, inseam, length, and rise for pants and the measurement from armpit to armpit for shirts.

   You’ll need a measuring tape to measure items in the store. Ask our staff for a measuring tape. You can also measure clothes compared to your hand or forearm length. For example, the waist of a pair of pants could be equal to one arm’s length.

   Check the go-back rack.

   6. The go-back rack is the rack by the dressing rooms that people use to hang clothes they don’t want. Those clothes are nice enough that someone else selected them to try on, but they decided not to buy them for whatever reason.

   Lucky for you, those lovely items may be just your size or style.