Talking with my friends, I only recently realized how often I go to thrift stores. I absolutely love thrifting in the States, and even more so in Japan. The standards for what stores will take are generally higher than a Goodwill or Salvation Army, so you're getting good quality clothes in Japan.
Watt Mann's is my current favorite thrift store in the area. Before moving to Yokohama, I had never heard of it before. I think it's a Kanagawa prefecture only store. There's one (relatively) near where I work, so I frequent it quite often. I always end up buying more than what I expected to.
As you can see from the exterior, this particular store not only contains a clothes store (what I usually thrift for) but it also has a tech area and a Book Off in it! I'm all for this consolidation (even if my wallet may not be).
 |
| Appliances and other technologies |
 |
| Used camera lenses and bodies |
 |
| Cheap music selection |
They even have a pretty good music selection inside the store. Keep in mind that, even though this is a Watt Mann's with a Book Off inside, this isn't part of that Book Off. The Book Off here contains only books and other print media. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it's just like any other Book Off in Japan really.
Now here's what I come for... The cheap clothes. My one gripe with thrift stores in Japan is that they're kind of expensive and almost curated in their stock. Not here. I'm not saying that Watt Mann's takes anything (because honestly I've seen worse stock at Hard Offs) but they're more willing to take slightly stained or more thoroughly used clothing... Which leads to racks like these:
Now those are the thrift store prices that I'm used to! Unfortunately, there's a lot of not-so-flattering clothing to sift through in the cheaper sections, but there are some real gems. I got a really well fitting black turtleneck in the 50 yen section. It wasn't branded, so I guess they thought people wouldn't be interested and priced it down. Good for me though!
The pricing at this store is all color coded. I'd say there's about one rack for each color. They also seem to price down the clothes that have been here a while but haven't sold. The rest of the store is men's clothing and the "brand goods" which is the stuff with semi-famous labels that they charge a bit more for. (Not to say that those prices are a bad deal because they're usually a steal as well!)
 |
| Shoes section! |
I also like this store because it's near the military base... Which means that a lot of Americans sell their clothes here... Which means Western sizes! Especially for shoes. I'm on the borderline (US 8.5/9 women's) for hard to find shoes in Japan, but I never have a problem finding something here.
 |
| Anime figures |
And what Japanese thrift store would be complete without the obligatory anime and manga shelf. The prices for figures here actually aren't very good. You can find almost anything cheaper at a Hard Off or Akihabara if you want to make that trip.
 |
| Cute One Piece towels! |
...But that isn't to say that I didn't buy anything. Their non-figure goods were priced a bit cheaper or average with the prices I've seen elsewhere. A lot of the anime stuff at the smaller stores are a bit older, which can be great when you're not looking for anything in particular... But if you're looking for something specific, you may be pressed for luck.
They had a map of all of their locations near the register... According to this picture, these are locations in Yokosuka City only. I'm not sure if this means that there are only locations there, or if these are just the ones in the area.
Happy thrifting!
No comments:
Post a Comment