Goodwill - Central Texas

This post is more about "City" than "Spatula". 

Budget minded, but seeking to see all of Austin metro, I sought out as many Goodwill stores as I could find.  Last time in Austin I went clothes shopping, but it was haphazard.  Since we have been having great success in Raleigh with consignment stores, I started there.

Steve was spending the days at the Onion Creek Fields officiating for the Aussie Rules Football finals.  What could I do that would give me an opportunity to cruise Austin, and not spend too much money, and not eat - since we had a tight dining schedule? SHOP!

After hitting a few consignment stores that were too pricey, or uninspiring, I hit on the chain of Goodwill Stores of Central Texas! (Besides, I found Austin's first Trader Joe's, and a bunch of new restaurants along the way! - See Verts and P. Terry's)

Score:
1.  All the stores had a similar layout, identical and interesting logo'd signs marking each area.  Reassuring and had a sense of organized marketing by the whole Goodwill of Central Texas. I walked into each store and got the lay of the land quickly.  Clean, and not cookie-cutter buildings.  Each were unique, but the clean bright stores and signage UNIFIED all of them.  Cool.  Very cool.

2.  Clothing is sorted by type and color.  Saved so much time!  Bless their hearts, we can't expect them to sort the whole store by size, but by color, yup.  And it looked good, too!  (Pretty rainbow colors!!!)

3.  Pricing.  This was interesting.  In the less desirable neighborhoods, the t-shirt pricing was in the $1-3 range.  The nicer parts of town had prices as high as $6.  The men's shirts were a little less, and men's small sizes were considered kids shirts in half the stores and went for $1!!

I eventually figured it out: find the men's smalls first, to find shirts for me, Alex, and Niki.  Then go to the women's shirts.  It would take maybe one to one and a half hours to go through each store.

Austin is a capital city, like Raleigh is.  It is a university town, like Raleigh.  But, hey!  Austin is weird, right?  I found so many interesting and fun shirts for all of us.  I could have spent time looking for purses and pants, etc., but the "Shirt Safari" was plenty entertaining!

Yet another "activity" for our next trip to Austin:  hitting up more Goodwill Stores.  Yup.  Another wonderful first world dilemma!

Five CHA-CHINGS out of five!