St Vincent De Paul Thrift

One of my favorite thrift stores in Ann Arbor. This is a few minutes away from where I work, and after living in Ann Arbor for 4 years, running by it everyday, I finally decided to visit on my lunch break.
There is very convenient parking in the back, which they share with the Northside Grill. For the past 3 months that I have been going there, they have always had 50% off everything in the store. Turn over is so-​so, especially with shoes and clothes. I always manage to find something that I need or want, and the staff is extremely helpful. They are always chit chatting with me and remember me from the last time I visited.
There are 2 small changing rooms available, which is pretty useful for trying on clothes. I have also gotten a bit of jewelry from here, the jewelry display is a lot nicer than most thrift stores I’ve gone to, and it makes me more likely to buy them.
Prices are fair, and they have a loyalty card where you get a punch for ever $ 5 you spend, and when you’ve gotten 10 punches, you get $ 10 dollars off your next purchase. Great store.

As other reviewers noted, the selection is small (hey, the store is small!), but I have managed to come by every time they happen to have 50% off of everything in the store and found some great things. The clothes are usually very reasonably priced and with the 50% off, other items are affordable as well. The money goes to a very worthy cause. The people are always pretty helpful and friendly. Why not give it 4 stars? Because when things aren’t half off, I find the non clothing items to be a bit pricey for a thrift store.
Updated ¹²⁄₂₀₁₅
New management has taken over. There are less clothes to choose from and there is a new color system (with colors posted throughout the shop) where the top two colors are full priced things, then it goes down to 25% off, 50%, 75% off. However, it seemed like everything I was interested in was full price (ie, what I would pay in the store for the same thing if it was new!). I saw some nice slippers, yes house slippers, for $ 20 there and at FULL price! I walked out of the store buying nothing. In fact, the last 3 times I have gone in since the store has been under new management, I have walked out buying nothing.

Would avoid the men’s section. I usually like to look for sports coats, so I went to that area. It smelled very strongly of old man in that section. I don’t think they clean their clothes. I understand that suits might be dry clean only, but gosh, please just throw it in the laundry or something. Better to be clean at the risk of damaging the jacket.

Usually has broken/​ugly/​useless garage sale leftovers for too much money… unless you look in the jewelry case. There they have overpriced pretty cool stuff, but the prices on the jewerly are often similar to what you’d expect to pay retail, not resale.

I was staying in Ann Arbor for just a month, and only needed a few basics. My dad wandered in here and got me what I needed for an incredibly affordable price; it was really nice, too! A beautiful, white, Pottery Barn scalloped bowl; silverware; and another bowl, very Provence style. Plus a lovely framed Picasso!

I feel like maybe I’m a blackbelt thrifter and that’s why I keep having very different experiences of thift stores other seem to dislike.
I walked in, spent about 10 minutes looking and found:
1. A *brand new* pair of Joe’s Jeans in my size (although a bit long) for $ 4.
2. A whole set of glassware to match the glassware I have from Cost Plus World Market (thick, patterned pint glasses). (6 of them for $.50 each)
The Joe’s Jeans I had specially altered for $ 27 at Ojen’s State Street Alterations (why not splurge? they were so cheap!) so they look like they were literally made for me. Yes, for about $ 30. So happy!

This small store has been here forever. It seems to be organized much better than any other time I have been in here over the last 20+ years. They have mens and women’s clothes, shoes, books, and just about a little bit of everything else. Seems like they have pretty good quality these days. I did not see anything that was junk. Overall prices are good. Some of the really good items, however, are priced accordingly. For exampel, they have several Coach purses behind the counter priced 20 – 30 dollars.

This thrift store doesn’t have the largest selection I’ve ever seen. If a huge selection is your main criteria, then check out one of the local Value World stores or the Ann Arbor Reuse Center.
However, this St. Vincent DePaul has a really nice atmosphere going for it. They do a nice job of keeping it tidy and clean and all the clothes are well organized on racks. It’s almost as nice as some retail clothing stores I’ve been to. They also have a small collection of books, VHS tapes and DVDs, some record albums, toys, jewelry and kitchenware.
In terms of clothing sizes, there’s not much selection for women over size 16, but that’s a common problem for resale and vintage clothing shops and not unique to St. Vincent.

A really small store, and not the best selection of anything.
Mostly clothes and a couple of shelves of books. Anything else, they really just have a smattering of.