The Thrift-Off

It’s not every day that a new thrift store opens in town but that’s exactly what happened today!!  Value Village opened a new location in Spruce Grove!  

I consider Spruce Grove to be part of my “town”; I live near Beaumont, so basically Edmonton, Leduc, Sherwood Park, St. Albert, Spruce Grove, and Stony Plain are all around the same driving time for me and all their VV Boutiques are fair game!  Naturally, I was thrilled to learn about the new Value Village, especially having consulted to some of the Spruce Grove schools for my day/only job where, let me tell you, the staff were well dressed which can only mean there is good thrift hunting to be had!  On Tuesday while you were busy drinking wine, labeling school supplies and wondering why hot lunch doesn’t start on the first day of school happily at home, I was happily hitting the Sneak Peek event with fellow thrifting aficionado Adina of Blue Collar Red Lipstick…

AND we both had hot little $50 gift cards to spend courtesy of Value Village!  We are both fairly, er, comfortable with thrifting, so to make it a little more interesting, we challenged each other to a Thrift-Off!  (Well, that’s my term because I watch too many dance competition movies and always wanted to be in some kind of a _____ – off.)  The terms of the challenge, each worth a point:

1. Best/biggest score of the night
2. Best retail value of items purchased
3. Lowest cost-per-item
4. Most Anthropologie pieces #noanthroleftbehind

The winner takes all!  (Er, there was no prize except mad thrift cred.)  Here’s how my night went…

She also found me this Anthro-brand Fei silk tunic – hand it over Tiny One! – for $8! Likely retailed for at least $100! Adina ALSO found me Eileen Fisher black leggings in mint condition for $8 – regular retail $140!  

Sooooo, who’s going down?!!  Let’s review:

1. Best/biggest score of the night – Adina tried to give me this point for finding her the J Crew coat and Marc Jacobs flats, but that’s just good thrifting fate in action!  She gets the point for the best score!
2. Best retail value of items purchased – I spent a total of $60.84 including tax and the estimated MRRP* was $830 – so I paid about 7.3% of the regular retail cost, surprisingly just under Adina’s percentage; point Nicole. (*I don’t know what this means; I copied it from Adina. :D)
3. Lowest cost-per-item – I selected pieces with a lower-price point so it’s kinda good luck/thrifting fate that I took this category with a cost-per-item of $10.14.
4. Most Anthropologie pieces #noanthroleftbehind – Adina wins this, every time.  Sigh.

Keeping track?!  Yep, we are tied!  So we need YOUR help!  Check out Adina’s post on the Value Village Sneak Peek and help us decide who gets Channing Tatum declared the winner of the Thrift Off!  Leave your comments below and stay tuned for the official announcement!  And check out the Spruce Grove Value Village for your very own great thrift scores, no competition required!