Village Discount Store

My family has been shopping here for years. Almost everything is under $5 and they always have a selection of items half off, varying by price tag color (I think to keep older items selling quickly).

This Village Discount is much cleaner, better organized, and has better selection than most of the others in Chicago. Of course you still need to look carefully, but that's half the fun of thrift-shipping. They always have an excellent selection of almost-new brand name items in many sizes as well as many very unique items. The staff and management is, I believe, Hindu, and I have found many beautiful salwar kameez, for instance.

Word to the wise: be careful with the price tags - if they fall off you won't be allowed to buy the item. And they can tell if you've reattatched it in the wrong place. There are no dressing rooms. And NO thrift store I know of washes their clothes first. I've never had any problems with bugs or anything nasty like that from here, though. Just get used to washing your own clothes before you wear them.

PROS: Well organized, constant turnover, GREAT deals
CONS: some missorting: lots of small women's in children's racks - no dress room

This place is disgusting. It's filthy and a mess. It seems as though they put clothes on the rack straight from their own purchase - without bothering to wash them first! Once I saw, I kid you not, a used band-aid stuck to the inner sleeve of a child's dress. True, you can wash what you buy [and would anyway], but it is still disgusting. On top of that, they have a strict policy regarding clothing that has lost its tag -- they won't sell it. So you search the racks for something and find it, only to be told it will be priced and displayed the next day, first come first serve, because their inadequate method of STAPLING on price tags doesn't do any good.

PROS: Cheap
CONS: Dirty, messy, unfair sales system

this is the ideal store for broke students! you can get t-shirt for $2, pants for $4, books for 50 cents and a lot more! ok, it's a little messy and you have to dedicate time to look for the perfect clothes because they carry completly torn stuff as well as brand new. but it's worth it if you don't like to spend money on you outfit!!