Housing Works thrift...including Buy the Bag...

Over the past 3 days I've been to two of Housing Works Thrift stores, the Buy the Bag store and the bookstore. Across the board they are so utterly fabulous I felt they needed a post of their own. The Housing Works brand is instantly recognisable with it's grey exterior and pink logo accents. This, along side the exceptional in-store visual merchandising, links the stores together leaving each one the space for expressing it's own individual style too. 

Here's a few pictures to give you a flavour of the thrift stores, and below them I've told you all about the Buy the Bag store:

Soho Thrift Shop, 130 Crosby Street, Manhattan (next door to the bookstore/café).

Love the visual impact the high of these displays give

Spot the hen...can't believe this didn't come home with me!

 

 

Gramercy Thrift Store, 157 East 23rd Street

 

 

Saving the best until last...

Buy the Bag Store, 159 28th Street Brooklyn

The Buy the Bag store has been the most exciting for me. The store concept can most easily be described in their own words - 'On December 1, 2012, Housing Works opens its brand new and exciting Buy the Bag shop! Customers pay $25 (£17) and get a bag to fill up with contemporary, designer and vintage apparel – some in need of a little TLC. Known as “thrifter’s heaven” by savvy shoppers, bloggers and media, including The New York Times and The Today Show, Buy the Bag is not your typical retail experience'.


It's a concept that is new to me (they don't know of anyone else doing it yet either), so getting the chance to see it was a real priority of my NY leg.





I have to say thanks again to David Raper, VP at Housing Works. He arranged for me to spend time with the store manager, Alan. Alan not only gave me stacks of information on how the concept had grown from a monthly warehouse event into it's own store, the stock rotation systems, demographics of shoppers and the hiccups and learning curves of the early days but shared all this with a passion that made we want to join his team. Thanks Alan!

Walking in for the first time it feels more warehouse than store - very high ceilings and simple white walls with large wall art bringing the space to life (the artwork is pictures blown up and pasted onto the wall - a thrifty way to make a big impact on a low budget). Large metal pens filled with piles of unsorted textiles and a few with shoes (50% of all stock changed weekly) run along the sides and down the middle of the store. The ambient music and a warm welcome from the staff gave me the urge to rummage for a week not just an hour.





There were about 40 shoppers in the store while we were there, Alan tells me they can usually be split into 3 groups - locals shopping for their own families (it's predominantly a low income neighbourhood), re-sellers and ethically aware young professionals and students - the latter is the customer base they are keenest to build upon. 



The 'bag' itself is equivalent to a large reusable shopping bag. You can stuff it as full as you like but it cannot be filled over the top of the rim. Most of the shoppers were making a large pile and sifting through it at the end to work out what they wanted. For research purposes only, you understand ;-) it felt important to experience Buy the Bag first hand...

Alan told me that the very best stock would probably already have sold as it had been picked over for 3 hours on the busiest day, Saturday. All I can say is, if this is the 'bad stuff' the previous shoppers must have been ecstatic - after a short hunt we had found:

• A small (ipad sized) brown vintage leather bag with handles - made in Brazil
• An 'as new' Gap kids hoodie
• A 'brand new with tags' Gap ladies Alpaca cardigan 
• A pair of HUE skinny jeans
• A selection of random hats and t-shirts the kids managed to smuggle in (just like shopping in Sainsbury's at home - ahem). 

Our bag was approx. 2/3's full in the end, as we were off to Coney Island afterwards we didn't want to lug too much around.   

Thrilled we our purchases and full of inspiration for new ventures once home we headed off for some fun in the sun which had finally decided to show it's face after 3 days!



So that is it for my New York leg, project wise. We plan to make our final day in NY a relaxed and thrifty one with a picnic in Central Park, followed by a trip on the free Staten Island ferry (offers great views of the Statue of Liberty apparently).

We head to Philadelphia for project number two on Monday so more then...in the meantime have a great weekend wherever you are. The blog stats tell me that could be UK, USA, Russia, the Philippines, Serbia, Italy, Greece, South Korea or Spain!