Unique Thrift Store

Clean and friendly staff. I’ve been twice and found something nice each time. I especially love that aisles are comfortably spaced and clothes and shoes are sorted by size and style.

I bought a great piece of furniture for a really low price, but had a hard time finding any employees to help me. The manager was super rude and one of the cashiers wouldn’t help me find someone to assist because she was headed to her break. Very rude. I also was worried about getting a vehicle there in time to pick up the furniture – I needed my dads truck who loved 100 miles out of town. They told me if I didn’t have it picked up in 24 hours they would resell it to someone else even though I paid for it! Ridiculous! Great thrift store – HORRIBLE service

I usually only visit here on sale days. 25% off Tuesday and Friday. (Tuesday if you’re a member, which is free).
I have found many great things here! Staff is so-​so, as you would expect. Some staff members are great and the rest will ignore you. Your typical thrift store with a large selection.

Yep Unique you have gone down hill as everything does that was once popular. Less brand names than usual… Forever 21, Old Navy, and Target brands dominate here. They are asking more money for used cheaper brands than they used too.

Unique was really awesome up until a couple years ago. Their expansion has been for the worst. Yes, they can sell a lot more items but the prices have gone up while the quality of items has gone down. Back in the day it used to be really easy to find a good piece of art or vintage clothing items for under $ 10 but now I feel like its popularity has caused Unique to go downhill. Damn you Macklemore!
For some reason Unique now sells new, unused merchandise, which defeats the purpose of it being a thrift store. Though they do also still sell used items, their price point has sky rocketed over the years. For example, there was a forever 21 purse on sale for $ 15 – I can actually get a purse from Forever 21 for the same price without it being used…
Overall, the space is large and the store is clean but the only time you can find a good deal if it is a holiday and everything in the store is 50% off. If you are into treasure hunting and antiquing you MIGHT stumble upon something worth buying but generally speaking, there’s just a lot of junk.

Place tends to have some decent items, but management is clueless on how to price jewelry. A 3gram platinum ring is not $ 299.
Prices are way high, be warned!

Well I’ve been wanting to review the unique for sometime, but I’m lazy when it comes to doing Unilocal reviews. On with the show.
The one of the meanings of the word Masochist in the dictionary is as follows.
gratification gained from pain, deprivation, degradation, etc., inflicted or imposed on oneself, either as a result of one’s own actions or the actions of others, especially the tendency to seek this form of gratification. This is how i feel when I walk into the unique thrift store because there is nothing thrifty about this place!
Here’s an a example of my pain. Last Halloween I was dressing up as a zombie Dr. Being a blue collar guy I have no dress shirts for other than funerals, court, or weddings, and needed one for my costume, so I head to Unique. I look in the men’s shirts and find plain white dress shirts running 10 to 15 $! Come on!!! I’m not paying that for some bedbug, semen soaked shirt that looks shitty, which would have worked for my costume.
I swung by the Walmart down the street and found a new dress shirt for 6 $ BEWARE when you go to the Unique their prices are high for a thrift store. People shop around you just may find you can get things you need cheaper else where. With that said, I’m heading back to the Unique for my pain therapy.

Awful … Awful … Quality went down a few years ago go to savers in columbia heights best thrift store find a lot of hems better quality and brand new clothes

I like coming here. Lots of selection and there are tons of people that are there to help. Sometimes though it can get pretty crazy.

This unique location is not bad at all. They have a ton of clothes for men and women as well as children. For the most part all of the clothing is in good condition and laid out well by styles and size. They also have other household items in one section of the store, I didn’t shop around there much because I had no need to but from what I saw it looked just like any other thrift shop selection; a bunch of old quirky tid bits. I’m not a fan of the only 3 items at a time in the dressing room rule but it is what it is. For a thrift shop it’s not a bad place.

Indoor garage sale all year round! I like the fact that you can dig in here for hours and find some fun stuff.
What can be a challenge here for me is the crowded isles and pushy people.
I’ve found that some of the prices are much too high for a used item and other times the prices are just right.

I have mixed feelings about all of the Unique Thrift Stores… I have found incredible bargains (i.e. a NWT girls’ embellished jean jacket and capris that sold at Oh Baby! in the Galleria for over $ 100, for $ 7.00), and they do seem to know some brands, but that’s the kicker… They will price items like Ralph Lauren, Levi’s, Gap, etc. on the higher end, so it can be hard to get basics at a decent price, but, like I stated earlier, I can find true boutique brands such as Boden, Baby Lulu, Oilily, etc. there. The housewears sort of drive me nuts… they’re not really organized unless it’s holiday mdse., and many items are bagged together in plastic bags as a lot. It’s hard to look through everything thoroughly.

If you thrift and haven’t been to this store you are doing it wrong.
The clothes are actually organized (by size for adults) and the selection is enormous.
Friday’s and Tuesday are 25% off with a super savor card.

This place is a mix between consignment and a Savers-​like mega store.
I have mixed feelings about it. The pros are: lots of name brands, items are in good condition, and everything is very well organized.
Apart from that, I have a hard time accepting their pricing. It seems way over priced. There are items you could get at a garage sale or small thrift store for way cheaper. I often leave aggravated that they charge so much.
Be that as it may, I have bought one of my favorite pairs of shoes and 2 of my highly complimented purses there. The purses were well priced and the shoes were too much for something that was used.
I guess what I get annoyed with is they actually recognized good quality and price accordingly. A thrifter nightmare!

What I like the best about Unique Thrift Store is their HUGE arrays of knick knacks. Where else could you get naked barbies, sea shells, old newspaper adds, and so many other odd things in one shop? It’s so much fun browsing for some unique items.
However, their price tags for clothings, shoes, and bags here can be totally off. I often find used clothing brands from Target, Walmart or some other Marts for more than 10 bucks.
Well, I mostly come here to browse knick knacks and earings anyway.

Not my favorite Unique Thrift Store by far.
The store is recently updated, both in layout and, apparently, in pricing policies. It’s completely asinine to complain about price at a thrift store, I know – but welcome to the Land of Arbitrary Pricing.
In the Land of Arbitrary Pricing, you’ll find all sorts of things. Worn sandals start at $ 9.99 at this thrift store instead of $ 2.95 at the other UTSs. A particular shirt (and not a *designer* brand, or anything) will be $ 19.99 with the brand «cited» on the tag.
«Merona — $ 19.99»
Oh *really* Land of Arbitrary Pricing? You think that a used Target shirt is worth $ 19.99? O-​kay. On the other hand, sometimes a genuinely good find (perhaps a *real* designer brand) will be $ 5.95. It makes no sense. No sense at all.
I did see a tacky-​ass king sized bedroom set made of blond-​colored veneered particle board there for $ 5000.00 last weekend. You know – just in case anyone is in the market.

This place is huuuuge.
All the Unique/​Valu Thrift stores, the clothes, accessories and furniture are relatively well-​organized and then you get to the big blob of a department that we’ll call «houseware/​wooden bird/​ashtray/​mismatched ceramic bowl/​etch-​a-​sketch» section and forget it. It is a frenzy of shelves that look purposefully messy. It’s just odd, and I wish it was slightly more organized in those areas like it is in the rest of the store. They could also use a separate shoe section, because the shoes are spread out all over the store on top of the clothing racks. It doesn’t seem to be separated by size, so it’s a bit tedious.
Their selection is hit or miss, like most thrift stores. I found a cool ‘80s sweater (I’m aware that sounds like an oxymoron) for just $ 5 and this interesting skirt-​suit that I didn’t end up buying. It was in the tiny vintage-​y section of clothes in the corner. I didn’t even know that section was there the first time I came here. It is also a good place for me to get Unilocal party props, so I appreciate that.
Holy 50% off MLK Day… this sale was madness. I mean that in kind of a bad way. Everything was so picked over and you had to dodge a hundred people just to get some elbow room. The huge parking lot was full. They do sales like that on most Monday holidays like Memorial Day, MLK Day and Labor Day. I get the email newsletters about it so I know when they are coming.
I’ll come back occasionally, but it’s not on my go-​to list.

Largest and strangest thrift store ever, besides the Salvation Army that is. I was alarmed by the size of this place. It was packed and I was impressed. The shelves were stocked, even though it is in a peculiar/​haphazard way. The prices were the strangest thing of all. Nothing really made sense. Some great finds were dirt cheap and a lot of junk was way overpriced. I couldn’t figure out their pricing scale! Clothes seemed decent priced, furniture was kind of a steal, but all the randoms were not priced to sell. If you’ve got time, go digging for your own treasure.
Give props to this place though, they are very diversified. Signs are in spanish and english. And they give announcements in spanish also. Very welcoming to all.

What a beautiful thrift store. Everything is displayed beautifully. Prices are a little high for a thrift store but it was very clean and enjoyable to be in.
I like that the little stuff was all sealed in plastic bags.

Dear Unique Thrift Store Columbia Heights,
This is the hardest Unilocal review I’ve ever had to write. We used to go so good together, lazing our way through a Saturday afternoon, exchanging hugs (a.k.a. cheap crap) and kisses (a.k.a. money) without a care about the future.
But the future is now. You’ve changed, honey. You got bigger, which obviously is fine by me. Size matters, Unique Thrift Store Columbia Heights, and we’re not lesser creatures for acknowledging it to be so. You’re cleaner, too. I hardly ever smell that nasty spicy cinnamon spray that has saturated your innards so gratuitously in years past.
The changes haven’t all been positive. Now when I walk in the door, I am greeted by an employee demanding that I hand over my purse for less-​than-​safe-​keeping behind the counter. Why? Because you don’t trust me anymore. Savers trusts me. Value Village trusts me. All the other thrift stores (YES THERE HAVE BEEN OTHERS) let me keep my purse. Only Sex World and Cheapo have made such a request of me before, but at least they do so consistently. With my luck and your lack of attentiveness, my credit card would slip out, you’d mark it «30», stick it on an odd shelf and I’d never see it again.
You know what you need to change? You need to change the horrendous pricing practice of defacing perfectly good books, toys and every other non-​clothing item with a black oil crayon. Either it stays forever, ensuring that everyone knows I paid $ 1.80 for Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, or it comes off on my hands or arms while I’m shopping, thus leaving the ultimate price decision in the hands of the cashier. On a lucky day, the cashier will make an offer, usually no higher than $ 2.80, and I’ll gladly pay it. Most of the time, I’m told that I can’t buy the item. How you toy with me! You very rarely gouge (unless that shit came from Target, because Target is like heavens to you), so the reluctance to make a sale is confounding to me.
Like one of the greatest groups of four similarly dressed men used to say, We’ve come to the end of the road. Maybe I’ll forgive you; maybe you’ll try. In the mean time, I’ll stick with the Winnetka location for all my cheap-​crap needs.