I can't believe I've never reviewed the original Good Cheer Thrift Store! I'm always surprised that tiny, super-quaint Langley has a thrift store right in the middle of its touristy main drag, but I'm glad they do... even though a recent cleanout has thinned out its kooky hoarder-house charm.
Like its sister store in Clinton, Good Cheer is a combination food bank and thrift store, which explains some of the store's more unusual features. Periodically they'll have ground coffee or cookbooks for sale, and sales benefit their nonprofit work. There are also lots of donation boxes and tip jars scattered around the cash register and doors. The Langley store has something really neat: a discreetly placed vending machine in one of the side rooms, where people who are hungry can go and get something healthy to eat for free (sandwiches, yogurt, veggie sticks, etc.).
As the older photos show, this used to be kind of a dark, cluttered maze of rooms piled high with random antiques, boxes of postcards and vintage photos, and a mishmash of crowded shelving units with narrow aisles. Since my last visit, they've cleaned things out, widening the aisle space and reducing the clutter. There's even room for an art display at the front of the store! On one hand, it's nice to be able to move around more easily without having to squeeze past, but on the other, that means less glorious STUFF to dig through for treasure, so I'm a little conflicted about it. The antiques and clothing sections in particular seem to have much less inventory than before. They still carry collectibles and fine china at the front of the store, though.
Prices are mostly reasonable, and most of the clothes and accessories follow the base price list posted on the wall. So you don't get the colored-tag sales that other thrift stores offer, but the everyday prices are pretty good. The book selection is quite decent and prices are good -- all the paperbacks that I saw were $1. So if you forgot your vacation reading or feel like stocking up the bookshelf at your B&B, grab a stack of books for cheap!
I don't find things to buy every time I shop here, but I like their mission and try to support it by visiting whenever we're on Whidbey. If you've got sticker shock from the cool-mom gift shoppes of downtown Langley, stop in here for an eclectic selection -- and maybe a bargain. read more