Broke and Bespoke

People Really Don’t Thrift Enough…: A Cautionary Tale; or, What I’ll do to Save $9

I just got back from a local thrift shop, one of the ones that has raised its prices over the last year or so. Among the items hit hard by this price increase have been ties. What used to cost about $2 or $3 can now range anywhere from $6 to $15. Sure, the money goes to a good cause, but I’m loathe to spend that much on a tie regardless of the virtue associated with such a purchase. Does that make me a bad person? I hope not…I’m just someone who has rent and bills to pay, and who likes to dress ‘above my station’ while sitting in my tiny apartment doing so.

Anyways, I was in this shop about a week and a half ago and I saw these two Zegna ties. They’re really nice, one a lovely purple with a subdued blue and olive neat pattern, and the other a fine textured wool, viscose, and silk blend on a charcoal grey palette, perfect for Fall and Winter. They were priced at $9 each. Signs in the store that day were advertising a 50% off sale on the 17th and 18th, and so I decided I’d wait and see if they were still available when that date rolled around. $9 is more than I’m likely to pay for a tie, but $4.50 I can do. And, I thought, if someone else bought them in the meantime it’d be to the good: just one more stylish gent on the road.

Lo and behold, I arrived this morning at the shop and the ties were still on the rack. Needless to say, I bought them both. But this brings me to the ‘cautionary’ aspect of this short tale, which is that when you don’t pop into a thrift store, you’ll never know what you’re missing. Lots of people failed to pop into this store over the last week and a half, and they missed a couple of great ties at prices far less than retail. 

Or, maybe they did pop in, and, like me, thought $9 a bit too pricey and were planning on going back today…If that was you and your plan, I apologize. ;-)