There's this bright pink sign catching your attention on Cascades Road, which immediately signals…read morethis is no mechanic shop along a busy industrial district. What a Girl Wants is a second hand store, but packed with top quality bits and pieces. There are bags, clothes, shoes, books, furniture and ornaments, all geared towards the classy women of East Auckland. I thoroughly enjoyed having a browse, and picked up a nice singlet for a whopping $2! It's next to a coffee place and also an antique store, so your vintage tastes can be quenched, along with a nice spot of coffee afterwards. You can just park on the gravel outside, which is really handy. The shop assistant was friendly enough, and the way things are set out is really eye catching. It's awesome to see some creative thought going into the layout of a thrift store, considering most of the time, you have to rummage to find anything particularly useful. Here, it's all on display, in order of size and product. Good stuff.

What a Girl Wants would be a solid four star shop if it weren't for the staff…read more The two times I've been in I've wanted to stay longer, they have some amazing bargains and a very well organised shop, and overall the quality of their stock is excellent. The problem is, the two ladies who work there were very, very loudly talking politics both times I went in. As there's a dance school directly above them, it's fair enough that they need to raise their voices a little to be heard. But maybe don't stand on opposite sides of the shop? Or don't go on loudly about how much you dislike beneficiary bludgers who just sit around all day doing nothing. I mean, you're running a second hand shop, people...perhaps put two and two together and come up with four?

Second Debut has long been a great preloved clothing shop, and happily it was recently taken over…read moreby the very lovely Mary and Harriet, who have given it a new boost of energy. You have to come here next time you're in this part of town. I'd say it's even worth a special trip if you're serious about your preloved clothes shopping, or if you want to have some clothes sold on commission for you. Second Debut focuses on the mid to upper end of preloved clothes - its not all very high end, but you won't find cheap clothes in here. It's more like quality over quantity here. The new owners alos seem to have brought more of a fashion focus to the shop, which is great. Aside from women's clothing, they have a well-edited range of handbags, jewellery, and shoes. I never walk out empty handed!

I toyed about whether I should write a review on this place or not, mostly because it's one of my…read morelittle secondhand treasure troves and I don't want too many people knowing about it. But good places have a habit of making themselves known, so I'm sure me holding off on a review would do much. This place is massive - it's a warehouse full of cheap, good quality secondhand goods. I generally go for the clothes, so I skip past the homewares and furniture and make a beeline for the back area. On a single trip I have come away with as many as 20 new pieces of clothing, and my average haul is anywhere from five to 10 new pieces. Lots of people in the Eastern suburbs appear to not want their vintage dresses, gorgeous one-piece swimsuits or sweet shorts any more, so now they're mine! I'll also take all their yellow '70s Tupperware off their hands too, thank you very much.

What I love about this place is that the staff are always so, so nice. I mean, obviously you have…read moreto have a certain sense of altruism to be working voluntarily at a hospice shop in the first place, but these ladies always seem to go above and beyond and they are super polite and chatty, so it always makes me feel good about spending my dollars here and rewarding these hardworking ladies instead of going to the similar shop down the road. In terms of the stock, I always often find goodies in here - whether it be books, clothes or trinkets, most of the time I walk away with something in hand. A little bit out of the CBD if you're a traveller, however if you're a local in the area then I would definitely say that this the best opportunity shop in the Glen Innes/ Glendowie/ St Heliers region by far.

She's a pretty rough old op shop but she does her best…read more As a general rule of op shopping, if you want to good stuff, shop in the places where the well-to-do donate their expensive, unworn castoffs. The rule holds true for the Salvos in GI, which is what you'd expect really; people in this suburb have more essential things to spend their money on than label clothing. It's a pretty big shop though, and fairly well organised too, so if you're among the hardier type of op-shopper you might just be lucky here. The clothes feature a high prevalence of such sought-after labels as Pagani, Garage, and Shanton, and if you're lucky, a little bit of Glassons action. Also, there are plenty of second hand sheets and duvet covers. Snuggly. Selling the poor their worn-out clothes back to them does get up my nose a bit, but I guess the Salvos do good work with the profits, so I wouldn't completely avoid this place.

I was actually really impressed when I walked into the Salvation Army today in Glen Innes - what…read moreused to be quite a hard-to-navigate jumble of junk is now an extremely tidy selection of quite good quality second-hand goods. The books are all sorted by genre, the clothes are sorted by type of garment, and everything is well marked with a price. Speaking of price, I was also pretty impressed by this - even though the service and the standard of the shop has become higher, they haven't compromised with their prices which is something I appreciate. There is also heaps of good quality furniture and crockery available, so if you are furnishing a new flat near by then I would definitely recommend stopping in here first and taking a look to see what you might find.

Compared to its many competitors in the surrounding Glen Innes area, Circle is not so good. The…read morerange they have is pretty small, and the quality of some of the items was pretty questionable. In saying this though, I think its because it has been quite a new addition to the shops in Glen Innes so they are merely just starting out; but unfortunately from a relatively quick glance around I couldn't really find anything that tickled my fancy and also that second-hand clothes smell was noticably pretty bad here which can always be a bit of a turn off. Maybe if I return in a couple of months I will have found they have got off the ground a bit and improved, but its definitely not at the top of the list of my favourite op-shops down in GI.

This is a massive Shanton. I can generally only browse about half the shop before I get tired and…read morehave to give up. So come here post-coffee, and not before! It's probably a shame that I conk out before I get down the back of the shop, because that's where they keep all their discounted stuff. I once got a really cute beach bag here with a Japanese style blue and white design on it, and I've picked up a couple of plain skirts and tops for work too. It's worth having a look just because the prices are so low, but if you're looking for beautiful fabrics and timeless tailoring, you'd better look elsewhere in the mall.