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| - Uh oh! Someone's got their skinny jeans, converse, blue nail polish and disenchanted face on! You know what that means--they're getting ready to either go shopping at Avalon or dancing at brillobox (or, more likely, they're going shopping at Avalon for something to wear to a brillobox dance party). Welcome to PGH's hippest thrift store.*
I tend to wander into Avalon aimlessly and usually end up leaving with something because:
1. Their prices are really good. I found a Marc Jacob's skirt in mint condition for $33 one time. Srsly. I got a Lacoste dress that still makes me light-headed thinking about how adorable it is for $15 and my favorite cocktail ring was only $3.
2. I do my heavy lifting. The store isn't crammed full of things I simply can't resist: I spend an obnoxious amount of time digging through racks of fugly floral-print skinny jeans and hideous H & M rompers before I find a cute plaid tunic or members only jacket. If you want to find the buried treasure you have to dig.
3. Their accessories are tops. The counter is dotted with baskets overflowing with pins (I got an awesome James Dean one for fifty cents), jewelry (snagged a turquoise beaded bracelet for five bucks), headbands, scarves and every other kind of flair you can imagine. The wall as you walk in is lined with a bevy (I used the word "bevy" in a review!) of sweet shades.
4. They don't have a lot of competition. I don't know if the other vintage stores in the city signed some sort of non-compete agreement or what, but Avalon seems to have cornered the market on wearable used fashion.
Like all thrift stores, sometimes you don't find anything, (although from what I can tell, my male friends seem to walk out empty-handed fairly often, so I think the dude selection could use some beefing up), but on the whole this store is definitely worth a visit if you've got a lazy Saturday afternoon with some time to kill.
*Being hip is one thing (I'll let you decide if it's a good or bad thing), but for interesting vintage finds I like Eons in Shadyside, and for stuff that's plain old bizarre and dirt-cheap (we're talking like $1-$4 range) I head to the Goodwill in East Liberty.
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