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| - I visited Upshift for their Krazy for Kitties event. I saw on Facebook that you could play with kittens and get half off the swap fee, so that was enough to convince me! The swap fee is usually $20, so $10 was even more of a steal.
The owner of Upshift, Lindsay, was there to give me a little intro to how things work. I liked the low-key feel of the swap, as in there's no one looking through your bag, and it's not an item-for-item swap. If you bring in two brown bags, you get to take home up to two brown bags! The store is pretty small, so having a bunch of people (and kittens!) in there made it a bit crunched, but everyone was polite and I felt like I had enough room.
As usual with thrifting, you have to be ok with digging a bit for jewels. At first I wasn't sure if I'd find things in my size and style, especially since there were some teenagers there browsing with their moms! I wondered if I was too old to be there! But, after just a few minutes of looking through the racks I was able to find some nice pieces -- some casual, some professional, some nice brands. I think that as more and more people start swapping, the options will be even better.
There are 2 dressing rooms that you can pop into to try things on, and the lighting and mirrors were great. I love the idea that you can just take something home to try it out, even if you're not sure if it's quite your style -- it doesn't add any cost, so why not? At the same time, it didn't bug me to put things back on the rack -- I was only paying $10 so who cares if it's just a select few items I take, it was still cheap. I also like that I wasn't pressured into taking as much as I brought to swap. I am trying to minimize a bit, so bringing more than I take home is actually quite nice!
There is also an online swap available, which is a really interesting idea.
Overall, I would come back here to swap. If I have a bag of clothes I'm giving away, might as well take a look for a couple of new-to-me items.
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