Short Version: This is a pickier version of a thrift store…read more If you enjoy secondhand items and are okay with higher prices to ensure that you're choosing from good-quality items (instead of sorting through all of the junk), the Main Street Exchange is going to be perfect for you. However, the prices are definitely higher than standard thrift store prices. Long Version: This is like the higher-scale version of a thrift store. While I love shopping at thrift stores and picking up items for less than a dollar, it really does require some digging to find things that are in good shape and are something that I really want to purchase. I'm glad that most thrift stores carry the lower-quality items because everybody has their own budget and price range, but I'm looking for second-hand things that don't look so...secondhand. That's where The Main Street Exchange comes in. They are like a high-end thrift store. All of the pieces are sorted through when they accept them, and it looks like they're choosey about what items come into the shop. The clothing all appeared to be in good condition, and the furniture, DVDs, and books all seemed like they were still in "Good" to "Very Good" condition. While typical thrift stores may have dusty, dirty, or broken items, everything seemed to be well-cleaned and in very good shape here. However, along with that comes higher prices. You'll be more likely to find something you actually want to buy (versus a thrift store), but you might have to pay a bit more for the convenience. Nothing seemed insanely unreasonably priced, though, but I'll admit I didn't pay much attention to the clothing. This store sells a good range of things. They have a lot of clothing, and that makes up the bulk of their items, but they also have a book section with adult and children's books. They also have dinnerware and other knick knacks. Downstairs, you'll find some furniture and children's toys. Some of the furniture is on the affordable side ($10 for end tables and whatnot) while the larger pieces definitely cost more ($120-ish for a large wood dresser). I came out with 5 books in really good condition for slightly over $4. Most of the books were priced at 99 cents or 1.99. DVDs were priced around $1.99 to $2.99. Staff was pretty friendly. They were cleaning and putting away things when I came, but when I asked where to check out, one of the employees was happy to point me to where. She even mentioned their current promotion in case I wanted to go get another book for just a penny. I passed, but it was nice of her to let me know that. As a sidenote, there does seem to be a Christian, religious theme going on in this store. There's even a Christian quote printed on the receipt I received. It's nothing that's going to annoy a non-religious person, but there are religious items and books for sale alongside the regular items.

Great place to consign but they are particular which makes them an even greater place to shop!read more

This review is for the World's Window and its sister store right next door (and with an entry point…read morein the back of the store as well) The Cob Mercantile, which doesn't have its own Yelp page! I love the duology of these two stores! Anything you find at one store you can then take over to the other store to purchase, so you can browse both stores before making your final purchase! The World's Window contains products from all over the world that they have sourced globally. Meanwhile, The Cob Mercantile showcases products from local Iowan artisans! I love the dichotomy of the local and global goods and it's such a fun way to organize the two stores. We entered through The Cob Mercantile and was greeted with the friendly shop owner, who chatted to us about what the store contained and told us about World's Window too. From there, we went off shopping through all the different displays, nooks, and crannies in both stores that highlighted different goodies from different artisans throughout. There are SO many great options and variety here for yourself and gift options for all your loved ones as well! I made many mental notes on great gift options for so many of my loved ones and will definitely be back soon! The pricing is all reasonable and I love nothing more than being able to shop small! This set of stores is a must visit when you're in Cedar Falls, I love its prime location right in the heart of downtown and will definitely be stopping in every single time I come to visit from here on out!

Every time back in town I'm amazed at the breadth and quality of their fair trade itemsread more

This is a must shop when you are downtown Cedar Falls! Every time I visit Cedar Falls I always…read morestop to see the cute fun items they have to update my home and wardrobe. Great customer service and if you follow them on social media you can see all the fun things that just arrived before they sell out.

This is my favorite boutique. I love the cute shirts, pants, shoes, and jewelry they have. The…read morestaff is so helpful in helping you create such amazing outfits. There is such a variety of stuff they sell like candles, hand lotions, soaps, and antiques.

This is rue21 store inside the Crossroads mall on the upper floor. It carries men's clothing, men's…read moreaccessories, women's clothing, and women's accessories. It does NOT carry the Rue21 Plus-sized line (not a single store in Iowa does!) However, they will accept online returns from your rue21.com purchase. They do carry socks and shoes, but the shoes are sized in "S, M, L, XL" instead of actually shoe sizes, so they may not fit everyone fine. This is a nice location. When they're super busy over the weekends, the clothing may not get folded correctly or the hangers may not be hung up in size-order. Most of the time, however, it's a pretty clean store - though it has a lot of merchandise in it, so it ends up feeling a bit crowded if there are a lot of people in the store. rue21 regularly runs sales and whatnot for half-off or 30%-off or so. It may be worth asking the cashier if any of those sales can be applied to your purchase. If you sign up for their e-mail newsletter online, you'll know. I hate paying full-price here because I know they regularly have these sales. With the half-off sale price, though, you can end up getting pairs of good jeans for less than $20, trendy shirts for less than $15, undies for $3-ish a pair, and surprisingly comfortable bras for around $8 each. It's not a very expensive store, but they do carry a lot of trendy clothing for very-affordable prices with the coupons. The staff is nice enough here. They mostly leave you alone, but they'll usually great meet when I come into the store. They're usually happy to answer questions, and while they seem busy or focused on what they're doing, they've never been rude to me. However, you should expect to take a bit of time to check-out. I rarely see both registers open at once, and they only seem to open them whenever there are 3+ people in line to check-out. Depending how many items each person ahead of you bought (and the sales associate does need to remove those security tags and refold on every. single. item), you might wait about 5 or 10 minutes to check-out here. It's usually closer to 5, though. Final thoughts: If you want affordable and trendy clothing that's pretty decent in quality, Rue21 is surprisingly good. I wish they carried their plus-sizes in-store, but they do not. They only go up to a women's XL in-store. It's a decent shopping experience, and while I'm not always fond of the trends they're selling, I've gotten some really cute clothing here.

ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE! My daughter found her…read morewedding dress here and we placed an order for it the day she tried it on. We paid for the entire dress in March 2018, over $1200 upfront, for a wedding to be held in October 2019. As the time grew nearer, we began to inquire about our order. The short story is THE WEDDING DRESS NEVER ARRIVED and most likely never was ordered. The owner, Andrea Stallman was incredibly deceitful to my daughter & I about the whereabouts of the dress order many times. We were told it was still being made, it was stuck at the distributor in Tennessee, and then she said we would have to work with another bridal shop, as she was going out of business. No attempt on her part to resolve. She never set 2nd bridal shop up for us and never offered a refund for her transaction FAILURE. She did not give 2 sh*ts about her customers. We needed to find the dress again at another dress shop and paid for the exact dress a second time. I am not holding my breath to get a refund. Did anyone else get taken by Andrea? You can email me and make this right Andrea, egiap@aol.com. I thought I would support local acquaintance and chose wrong.

I found Simply I Do to be pleasant and easy to shop. We went on a Monday and if you know Cedar…read moreFalls at all, a Monday was q-u-i-e-t. Which was great, easy to pop right in and we had the store to ourselves. They had a pretty large selection for a small shop and were happy to let us browse and pick what we liked. My best friend helped me in and out of dresses so I actually had very little interaction with the girl minding the shop. She was kind and reasonably helpful -- I felt like maybe she was not as knowledgable as some bridal store employees. She didn't speak up much. But she also did not pressure me into a sale, so that's good. All in all, pretty nice and easy. Better than I was hoping for CF!

Short Version: Very-cute little store of vintage and upcycled items. Everything is extremely clean…read moreand in good condition. Surprisingly great prices. Lots of chalk-painted furniture. Very friendly owner, and she collects/redesigns/repaints the items herself. Definitely lots of cute stuff here. Directions and Hours: This store is ONLY OPEN the first Thursday through Saturday of every month. The first day needs to fall before the Thursday of that week. (For example, if April started on Friday, the store wouldn't be open until the proceeding week. If April started on Monday, it would be open that week). The store is located BEHIND Simpson's Furniture on Main Street. It's a bit tricky to find, but you'll end up seeing a tiny sign on the property. Turn onto E 23rd street, and even when it turns into gravel, KEEP GOING. Go until the gravel "ends" then turn right. You'll quickly see Hatchlings and Hen's signage. The store itself is down the driveway. Long Version: This is a neat, home-run type of store. As far as I can tell, it seems to be a small shop in a workshop. The directions above will help you find it. The area feels like shopping a garage sale - but in a cute and fun type of way. No bathrooms or anything because of that. Hatchlings and Hens sells a variety of neat, repurposed and vintage-esque type of items. It looks like a lot of items were repainted or cleaned up in order to be sold, and the owner does a surprising job of finding fantastic sets. For example, there was a kitchen table with a matching 4 chairs available for purchase (only $175 for the set! I would have bought it if I needed a kitchen set). There were also other sets like matching bird decor or awesome wall art. There was some industrial-type of furniture and whatnot too - as well as industrial salvage that might help you out if you were looking to do some DIY for yourself. I didn't end up purchasing anything today, but I plan on coming back in the future. The owner was super friendly, and I really did fall in love with a coupe things that I can't quite think of a place for at the moment. I'm looking forward to seeing how the stock and everything changes from month-to-month.

I hosted a baby shower and onesie making party here today. Katie was so patient and kind and the…read moretore is adorable. It is a must-see shopping gem in Cedar Falls. Tons of adorable thins at affordable prices!

Customer Service is extremely disappointing. I ordered a wooden enamel tray, and it was only…read morepackaged in a plastic envelope/bag. Of course, the enamel broke in many places. Michelle refunded the $17.99 for the tray, but refused to refund the $8.99 shipping charges--"hope you understand" were her words. I do not understand as it was someone in her shop who carelessly packaged the tray in a flimsy bag. I will not be ordering from her ever again.

Neat place! Super cute shop in Cedar Falls off Greenhill. They have very limited hours though!…read moreThursday's, Friday's and Saturday's only. They sell home and garden decorations as well as some women's clothing. The items are nice but in all honestly... not a lot of them are "deals". I've seen other extremely similar items at various other places (HomeGoods, TJMaxx, Goodman's etc for less). But it's nice to shop local. Super cute merchandising displays in the store too and the staff was nice.

I have been shopping at this cute little purse shop since it opened on Main St. and I love it. The…read moreowner is an absolute doll and she always has new things in. I moved to Dallas and still shop there when I'm back home because she's up-to-date with fashion in big cities. Leaps ahead of other shops in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area. Prices are very reasonable and she's very willing to accomodate special requests. I've earned points for shopping there with her reward program & gotten $10 off my purses on countless occasions. LOVE it.

Purse N Ality is exactly what is sounds like...a store full of purses, clutches, billfolds, and…read morecoin purses. It's a very small shop (we were in there maybe 5 minutes). They have some cute stuff, but since it's so small there isn't a lot of variety. It's like a lot of the shops in this area where they have some different things and it's all very cute, but we didn't buy anything. Also, it would have been nice if the girl working there would have greeted us.