Saturday Adventure: Weekend Goodies Part I

One of my favorite people (Megan) agreed to do a little secondhand shopping and eating with me on Saturday (pho post later).

I reviewed a list of local secondhand and consignment shops before deciding with Megan that a stop by the Loehmann's Plaza Plato's Closet would be convenient on the way to lunch — not to mention I hadn't set foot in a Plato's in three or four years.

And now I remember why.

Sure, Plato's closet has plenty of denim, trendy tops and cute shoes, but its offerings didn't speak to me as much as I'd hoped. Regardless, Megan and I spent about half an hour trying on just okay various tops, bottoms and dresses.

Plato's doesn't do consignment; instead, they take inventory from walk-ins, process it and decide what to keep, pay the customer for what they want to sell — then give back the rest. At one point, Megan said something to the effect of, "Now that I'm seeing the quality of what's in here, it's kind of shocking that I've had friends have 75 percent of their stuff rejected here."

Lots of denim, including men's...

and women's

Lots of cute shoes upon first glance (mostly trendy, inexpensive shoes)

Megan tried on a dress and a few pairs of jeans. She did end up with a great pair of 7 for All Mankind jeans for $18 (they looked barely worn). Some of the brands we tried on included Old Navy, American Eagle, Vigoss, See Thru Soul and Paper. Inventory at Plato's ranges from items originally from Target to originally from Neiman's.

Despite the 10 pairs of jeans and three tops I tried on, I only purchased a cocktail ring and some peacock feather earrings. Jeans are not currently my friend. Sigh.

I felt like Goldilocks (this cardi was too small — and these jeans were too short). Jeans were by See Thru Soul, cardigan is Merona (Target)

And this top, while the pattern was cute, was too unflattering. Top is Marimekko for Anthropologie. Jeans are Vigoss.

These $18 7 For All Mankind jeans were a fit for Megan.

My purchases: a red accent ring with gold flecks and some peacock feather earrings.

I ran into a former colleague who looked cute from head-to-toe so I photographed her, too (hi, Monica!)

Plato's Closet PROS:

• When available, they keep original tags on items to see how much you could have paid in another store
• A large selection of denim
• Reasonable prices
• Options for both men and women
• Good inventory organization

CONS:

• Styles cater to more "juniors" looks (i.e., there isn't a range of attire or much mature attire — it's mostly teenager casual-looking); to be fair, I suppose juniors are their target demographic
• The majority of the shoes are the cheap PVC type you buy from Forever 21 and Charlotte Russe

(Shout out to Sarah Beth Lewis, a cool employee we met at Plato's who's also a blogger, new Atlantan and aspiring chef. Check out here stuff here.)

After lunch and bidding farewell to Megan, I felt empowered to swing by an old favorite. "Maybe they will have something I can get excited about," I thought to myself. And so I parked myself in the lot of Last Chance in Decatur. Sadly, it had been way too long since I'd perused the aisles of this location of the thrift store chain.

And I wasn't disappointed.

I grabbed dress after dress, a cap-sleeve blazer and some jeans to try on. I also met two fabulous ladies (hello Tammy and Stephanie!) who were finding some great items of their own.

I thought Tammy looked so cute in this red sweater (at Last Chance: Decatur) so I asked if I could take her picture for the old blog. Cute!

I had high hopes for this vintage dress — it was a no go though.

I did snag this Riders khaki cap-sleeve blazer (feels new) for $7. More items from my Last Chance visit to be posted this week.

Of the eight items I tried on, I kept five (and one pair of jeans I rejected were perfect to the cute mom-of-two trying on clothes next to me). Stay tuned as I post more items from the weekend. I bought enough for nearly a week's worth of outfit posts.

Lessons from Saturday's shopping:

• My style (or lack thereof) is too eccentric for the Plato's Closets of the world; I'm much more comfortable at Goodwill or Last Chance
• Fellow thrifters are fabulous and encouraging
• My bottom half is growing at a faster rate than the other half. I need to stick to flattering dresses and avoid jeans for now. Argh.