When I need clothes, I tend to check out the thrift stores first. It is a habit after living in Africa so long. Did you ever wonder what happens to the donations of used clothes that Good Will is not able to put in their retail store? They get bailed up and shipped to Africa and other places. In the Congo we would occasionally have someone wanting us to exchange a 1 or 5 dollar bill into the local currency. They got it from the pocket of a pair of pants they bought from a seller of used clothes. These used clothes sellers buy bails of pants or shirts or other clothing and sell them retail. TIP 1: Before you give clothes to charity, check the pockets. I do not put my thrift store tips up on any social media site. They are exclusively available to readers of Adventures in Suburbia.
In Dakar I shop at the Saturday market. It takes place on the narrow median strip of Frond du Terre Road. The individual shops put up awnings and line the median on Saturdays. On the median strip of Front du Terre Road and at yard sales there are no changing rooms. TIP 2: Before going to the thrift store, use a piece of string, to measure the length of the folded waist of a pair of pants that fit. Use the string to pick out yard sale and thrift store pants that fit without trying them on.
In a US thrift store I bought a nice warm jacket that was issued to an employee of Ben Franklin Plumbing. I love the jacket, but didn’t feel so great walking around with the Ben Franklin Plumbing embroidered logo on my coat. Tip 3: Buy an “iron on” patch of your choice to put over the undesirable embroidery logo on any thrift store purchase. In my case I needed a little Walmart fabric glue to compensate for minor “iron on” failures. It also took a little work with a black permanent marker to cover an exposed spot in the original embroidery. I found the 4 trout patch that you see in the picture on Ebay. The seller threw in a few extras into the envelop without charge. My guess is that the seller has a large inventory and they weren’t selling well.
Adventures in Suburbia 