Pros and Cons of Thrift Store Shopping

Hey loves! I'm back from an impromptu blogging break (sometimes a girl has just gotta take it easy for a minute) to share with you guys the pros and cons of thrift store shopping! It's definitely no secret that I love thrift store shopping! (This blog is called Thrifty Toppings for goodness sake.) But, as with anything, there are pros and cons to thrift store store shopping, and in this post I'm going to break those down for you guys. If you've been recently getting into thrift store shopping or have been considering it, perhaps this post will help you figure out if thrift store shopping is for you or not!

PRO: Inexpensive clothing
You can often find good quality and name brand clothing for much less than what you'd pay in stores.

CON: Harder to find the correct sizes
If something doesn't fit, you can't just go get a different size to try. In department stores you can try on all different sizes to see which one fits you best; however at thrift stores you're stuck with what you've got and it either fits you or it doesn't.

PRO: Proceeds don't go to the same place
There are certain brands that I don't like to support because of the things that they stand for or the way that they run their business, etc., but when thrift shopping it's okay to buy those brands because it doesn't support that brand at all.

CON: Proceeds don't go to the same place
This can also be a con, however, for brands like TOMS; when you buy a pair of TOMS new, a pair is donated by the company to needy children. When you buy a pair of TOMS from a thrift store, no pair is donated because it wasn't bought directly from the company.

PRO: Thrift stores usually support good causes
 Despite the last con, people in need can still benefit from you shopping at thrift stores because almost all thrift stores support some charity or donate to the needy in some way.

CON: Takes more effort
When thrift shopping, there's normally a lot of low-quality things that you'll need to sort through in order to find anything worth buying. In this way, thrift shopping takes more effort than going to a department store and shopping. In department stores everything is organized and everything is expected to be good quality and up to date with he latest styles and trends. When thrift store shopping it's a lot harder to find anything that is good quality and stylish, and harder to find anything specific that you're looking for because thrift stores are not as organized.

PRO: Better chances of finding vintage and unique things
If you're looking for unique pieces that you know you won't be able to find in stores, thrift stores are definitely the place to look. Plus you obviously won't be able to find anything vintage in stores.

CON: Bad exchange policy's
Thrift store's return policies normally are not as good as regular store's return policies, so you have to be pretty certain that whatever you buy fits and that you like it before you buy it.

PRO: Always getting new things in
Thrift stores are constantly getting new things in and as things are being purchased the items in thrift stores are always changing.

CON: Environment is not as nice
The overall environment in thrift stores is generally not as nice as you'll find in regular/department stores. Every thrift store is different and some are worse than others; some seem to be actually dirty and others only have curtains for their dressing rooms, etc. It's just overally a better experience shopping in regular stores.

Are there any pros or cons that you would add to this list? What do you think about thrift store shopping?