Central Florida Thrift Store Crawl: Thrift Mart Ocoee

This is my first in a series of the "Central Florida Thrift Store Crawl". Kinda like a pub crawl, but no alcohol ;-).

It is an opportunity to share the wide variety of thrift stores in my local area. Every other week or so, I will document a local thrift store and share it with you all!

First up is Thrift Mart. It is in Ocoee Florida and occupies a former big box hardware store.

Here is a little history on the store from their website.

" Central Florida’s newest “upscale” thrift store in Ocoee is the brainchild of Jacqueline Siegel. Aptly named Thrift-Mart, the store features both new and used clothing, household goods, appliances, furniture, electronics, toys, tools and more. Some of the store sales will be donated to Locals Helping Locals, a tax-exempt (status pending) non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

“Thrift-Mart’s motto,” according to Jacqueline “is locals helping locals. The decline in our economy has severely impacted the financial support that charities are receiving. We think this is a good way to raise money to help people in need, right here in our community. It also gives our customers very reasonable prices for many household goods and clothing so it’s a win-win. Our mission is to raise funds through reducing, reusing and recycling gently used donated items. We turn the donations into cash which can be given to charities that help local people in need. We are here to make a positive difference in or community.”

Thrift-Mart is located in the Westgate Resorts facility at 10770 W. Colonial Dr., Ocoee, FL 34761 (on the corner of W. Colonial and Bluford.) The public is welcome to drop off donations at Thrift-Mart during regular business hours – Monday through Saturday, 10:00 am until 6:00 pm or to leave contributions in the outdoor bin. In addition, pick-up of large items is available (within a 10 miles radius of the store.) All donations are tax-deductible."

The inside of the store is roomy considering all the stuff they have in there. The clothes occupy a large portion of the right side of the store,

Everything is priced with easy to read tickets. The prices were okay, and the day I was there it was 40% off of all their clothes.

What was nice is that the dressing rooms were daily roomy and easy to find.

To you left as you walk in is the big furniture and they had a lot of it. I was here a month ago and everything pretty much looked the same. Maybe their furniture doe not move very quickly.

Or it is from the resorts that the Siegels own and it all looks the same.

 

They have a lot of glassware,but I did not find a lot of what I usually buy. I picked two mugs the day I took these pictures.

The toy area was a mess and kinda junky.

Another part of the store was specific to higher price and a little better quality items.

This is a sucky picture ,but the price tag on the TALL vase is $899.00. Yeah....that might be there a while.

 

I have visited this store twice in the last two months. They have a lot of bigger ticket items, things that I don't typically thrift for. Their selection in cups, mugs and vintage is rather stale. I did not see that they had a good turnover in that kind of stock.

 

This is what I found my visit, a Dooney & Bourke cell phone case. A little beat up, but I went ahead and put it up for auction.

 

Overall,the store is well stocked, it has big spacious aisles and the items they have are well displayed.