4027 N. Kedzie, 60618

Alright, I've reviewed a southside store.....and a further-southside store, Northside-it's your turn!
So, I set my GPS to Kedzie avenue and I happened upon Village Discount! Well, well this is was quite an experience. I don't know if I'm prepared to share this hot spot with the rest of the world!

Alright, here we go with the pros, drumroll please....
PROS:
As many people know, I am a shoe lover. Well, this store is for a shoe-aholic in us all. Once you walk in you are greeted with over THREE long aisles of shoes. There are also a few stray shelves of shoes in that vicinity that kinda just come at you, further overwhelming you with the bombardment of shoes. Here's a pick pic of one of the shoes aisle:

Then, once you find a pair of shoes, what girl doesn't need a purse? Well, guess what? There's a bunch of those as well! I picked up a cute Vera Wang gray shoulder purse (had to put it back bc I didn't have adequate money and it was the purse or the shoes...you can see the bind I was in, right??). The purse aisle is very long, and is covered front and back with purses.
Well, as if it's not enough to have an amazing purse/shoes section, it doesn't stop there. The Women's section has everything. I saw alot of Ann Taylor, Express, Apt 9, and New York & Company items. What's even better is that the clothing is sized for more than just size 2, in fact, many items I couldn't buy as they were too large on me, even up to 2X! (sure doesn't hurt to HAVE to pass on an item bc you're too small for it!Yay, my diet is working)The clothing is very modern, most is in great condition, and the arrangement and organization is all thanks to a staff that is diligent about keeping their store clean. In fact, the store as a whole is clean and well maintained.
This store, like all of the Village Discount stores, also has a "nicer clothes" section which definitely delivers.

Boys/Girls section, well didn't have too much of an opportunity to look there, very crowded with people, which I can only assume means that there were alot of parents there finding some nice clothes for their kids...I guess it doesn't help that I don't have any children of my own, but it looked great, just like the rest of the store.
Initially, I thought that men were out of luck in finding clothing here, as the whole store seemed to be nothing but shoes, purses, and women's clothing (actually that doesn't sound half bad, haha), but THEN I realized that the store is much larger than I thought it was. I think I actually shrieked in excitement when I saw this. This wasn't just the men's section, but the jewerly counter, glass/china, and trinkets area. LOVED IT!! Glasses and plates are nice and organized, and there's alot of really cute designs that I resisted the urge to buy (I have no room in my house! haha)
Annnd on to the Jewelry counter! It's HUGE!, several counters actually. The items behind the counter are highly visible and there's a great selection of items. Also, "Ghost Dad" was on sale, and who doesn't like that movie?
Should I go on? Yes, I think so! There's a section for sport jerseys in the men's area, which is something I have never seen in a thrift store, and I was highly impressed by this. The books are arranged nicely on a few bookshelves, decent amount to choose from, and I was able to pick up a nice hardcover book :D

Finally, I must mention the pricing/tags special. The prices were very reasonable at this thrift store, and I ended up spending $9.11 for the following: Lace Express shirt, New York & Co. Cami, Ann Taylor dress, Charlotte Russe shoes, and a hardcover book. This was thanks in part to the special today which was half off pink, orange, and yellow items. I commend this thrift store for not hiding all of the the sale colors, since I was able to take advantage of this sale on 2 of the items I got (dress & lace shirt). I felt like I got an excellent deal!

Now, the CONS:
The parking lot is tiny. I almost had to street park, but someone was coming out so I was able to claim a spot. Then I went inside looking for a cart and there weren't any. I asked one of the employees and he mumbled something, then pointed to a corner. I went to the corner, and saw-suprise-no carts. I then asked another employee for a cart, and she pointed to a shopping cart with items in it, which I told her had stuff in it. Then she reluctantly gave me her cart. Its never a good thing to feel like an inconvenience while going into a store. The entire staff seemed to have an attitude, almost like the store full of customers was bothering them. But, I will give them credit for a nice, clean, organized store.
Also, I would recommend that they put up more mirrors, as they only have a few near the purses and it's a tight squeeze if you have too many people congregating and trying things on at the same time.

With the cons being so minimal, you know this is a store I will be visiting again. It's a definite find and I want to go back :D
In fact, they're having a memorial day sale next monday, so take advantage and enjoy this fabulous, well organized, and memorable thrift store!

7443 S Racine, Chicago, 60636

Welcome to my second review! And continuing with the Village Discount, here we go :)
So, the first thing I noticed about this thrift store is the PARKING LOT, it's great! It's one of the bigger lots I've seen for a thrift store, it's great. So, I walked inside very optomistic with this place. I promptly walked around the store to get the "feel" of the store, snapped a few pictures, mumbled to myself, and dashed from aisle to aisle, and caused a few people to look at me in curiousity.

Pros:
Again, the parking lot-I can't say enough how nice it is to not worry about parking.
I loved the size of the women's section, it was definitely on par with what you would want to see in terms of selection, brands, colors, and arrangement. They really used the space in the women's department well. I saw Ann Taylor, Aeropostale, Forever 21, Merona, and a few other mentionable brands that would cause a fight if 2 ladies saw the same top at the same time, he he. The clothes for the Women's, Men's, and children's department were of good quality, and I happened to pick up an Ann Taylor Crisp, white button down summery shirt that I loved. (Stay tuned to see if I bought). Here's a pic of an aisle in the women's section, color coded!


Also, when I looked at the jewelry counter I was pleased with some of the movies and music that they had for sale. There wasn't alot of movies, but the ones they had were somewhat modern and in modern format(DVD's and Cd's). I was dissapointed that there weren't any "buns of steel" tapes, but you know, I survivied...and besides I could always go to another thrift store for that.
The formal dresses they had were also of good quality and I am sure that the right girl could find her prom dress here without a problem (sadly, I was too big for the sizes available :/ but they were in good shape).
The appliances/knick knacks were average, here's a pic of one of the shelves, which was very well stocked.


Cons
Well, I'm afraid the cons section is going to be larger for this store. First of all, the size of the store, eh. It was only a fair sized store, I felt that if the store was a little larger it would have alleviated many of my "cons", but alas it isn't. The arrangement of the store was only ok. The aisles and the departments meshed together. This isn't a make or break for me, but I feel cheated if I'm searching for something in the store and am about to leave only to discover I've missed an entire aisle. Not a good feeling! Also, speaking of clothing the men's and children's sections are smaller than other thrift stores. I wouldn't make this my destination store for strictly men's or children's clothing, but as I said the selection is a good quality.
Another plus for this store is that they accept Visa and Mastercard. I'm sure most of the thrift stores do at this point, but it's still helpful to know prior to loading up your cart :)
I was very dissappointed with the jewelry counter as a whole, as there was alot of open space. The selection was only ok to begin with, and the gaps didn't entice me to buy. They had alot of shoes and purses stacked behind the counter, but without a good display it wasn't easy to see what was available and I had some difficulty locating a clerk to even help me with these items. This is a pic of one of the counters

Although this counter is neatly arranged, but the gaps are what bothered me.
One glaring ommision that I was sad about, no furniture. Furniture can be such a treasure at the thrift store, and there wasn't even anything to browse over. Furniture is an important part of my thrifting experience and this definitely dissappointed.
When I went online to get the address and hours, the store is open til 9 Mon-Fri. However, at 7:55 it was announced that the store was closing in 5 minutes! When I approached the clerk he said that they are only open til 9 on fridays. Hmph! I didn't really have all the time I had wanted to browse the store and check out every department like I had planned. I felt totally betrayed by the website! Also, another problem was they had ALL of the carts in front of one of the walls which had women's skirts and clothing. Argh!

The average departments in my opinion were the linens, books, and shoes. They weren't terribly small, but they didn't overwhelm me either.
So, for that Ann Taylor blouse, I did not buy it sadly because I picked it up shortly before it was announced that the store was closing and I had more perusing to do. I feel I could have bought that shirt if it wasn't for the store closing :(
All in All, I don't think I would go to this store too frequently, since there are others that are alot closer and it wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

52 thrift stores in 52 weeks.

This is my new project, and I am really looking forward to it! I am a woman on a mission to find out the best and worst thrift stores out there in Chicagoland.
My plan is simple: Visit one thrift store every week and review it. I'm beginning with Village Discount Outlet chain. Every week I'll post a new location, so any suggestions on where to review are welcome!


So....my first stop, Village Discount Outlet located at 6419 S.Kedzie.
This thrift store is one of my favorites. Really there's so much to love about it where do I begin? First of all they have a website, yay for that! Here's the website:
http://www.vdoil.com

Pros:
First off, it's got a great selection of clothing, especially Women's clothing, and has many name-brand labels including Ann Taylor, New York and Company, INC, (you know the ones that make you do a double take). I'll admit, this is where I spend most of my time, haha. I also love that there are sizes that fit a wide range of shapes, since I usually wear a large/size 12 and I frequently walk out of this store with nice fitting shirts and pants that often times will look brand new or close to it.
But the men's and children's clothing are definitely nice for a thrift store, and there is even a separate area for toddler clothing, although I am not a fan of the back of the store, it seems a bit creepy back there. This back area also has several shelves of trickets, glasses, kitchen stuff, and some decorating items. Here's a pic of one of the extremely full shelves of trinkets. (These are taken from my phone, so they aren't the clearest, but you get the idea).

The linens are back here in this section also and although there's alot of sleeping bags and well worn bedding, they do have some blankets worth digging for. The store is well organized and ususally has pretty clean aisles. Plus, you've got a good chance at finding a big piece of furniture like an entertainment center or a desk, as a bonus, when you get tired there's usually couches you can pass out on, yes! I also love the amount of shoes, there's a ton of them. I could just go shoe shopping here! There's frequent holiday sales :D For instance, this weekend is a Mother's Day sale on Saturday and Sunday.
The jewelry counter is an interesting stop. The selection of jewelry is bigger than some of the other stores I've been to, and they also have those little "extras" behind the counter, such as knick knacks, purses, shoes that are of a better quality than what's available on the sales floor. And here, one more picture of the long aisle
(See that red dot I circled? That's the other end of the store!)


Cons:
The parking lot is pretty small, so there's a chance you will have to street park (ugh). Plus, the nicer clothes are priced higher with white tags and grouped together in their newer section, so be prepared to pay more (and sometimes ALOT more) for that top from Banana Republic. You could expect to pay anywhere from $7 to $12 for an average piece of clothing in this section with the white tags, whereas the other items might average $3-$5 per piece.
Also, I feel that the store should probably get rid of a good portion of their inventory, since some of it is very old and I've seen on repeat visits, prompting me to hold up many of these shirts just to bask in the ambiance of sequence and chiffon. This seems to be most true for the Women's tops and the purses they have on display.

This is a great store, and I will continue to shop here. Definitely glad I found this one!