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shopping tip

Thrift Shopping at thredUP IRL Stores

February 6, 2019 By Kat

In recent years, I’ve been hearing more and more about a company called thredUP which started as an online website for people to sell and buy secondhand clothing.

A couple years ago, I tried out Poshmark, which is another website to buy and sell fashion. I tried to sell a bunch of items, but had little luck – I sold one item. While buying things from Poshmark was tempting, I wasn’t sure of the quality of the items from the photos. It seemed like a lot of hassle to deal with an individual seller if I ended up not liking the item.

Meanwhile, I heard about how thredUP started opening up stores – called thredUP IRL (“in real life”). <~ Millennial talk lol. They had a pop up shop in Walnut Creek in the Bay Area, but that’s pretty far from me. Then another one popped up in Los Gatos and I was considering going there. But then one day, I was walking down the street in downtown Burlingame and saw that thredUP IRL had popped up there! I was excited to walk in and check it out.

It was a small store but the merchandise on display was very well done. The outfits they had picked out for the mannequins and on the wall were very cute and made me want the items!

Flirty with an edge
Heart eyes for that black and pink Kate Spade purse!
This furry jacket is to die for!

So you basically browse the store and the racks, and then try stuff on! Everything has a thredUp tag on it with the discounted price. They have a range of brands available – from affordable ones (JCrew, H&M, Ann Taylor) to more designer brands. They have jackets, shirts, dresses, jeans, pants, shoes, and more. This store only had women’s clothing at the time that I went (in October 2018) but you can find the other types of stuff like kids clothing on their website: ThredUp.

I would also say that the quality of the items are pretty good. Many of the items look new or are in very good shape. thredUp is highly selective about what items they accept, which makes it easier for shoppers browsing their inventory.

Plaids are great and cozy
Clothing is organized by color, type, and size

Once I picked out a couple items, I headed into the dressing room to try them on.

Right away, I loved this maroon faux leather jacket! It looks badass, especially with the quilting detail on the shoulders. It fit perfectly as well – snug!

The best part was that it was only $14.99! Yes! Thrifting for the win!

I didn’t have as much luck with the other items. They didn’t fit as well, so they were meh. I didn’t get them.

So in the end, I decided to take home the maroon jacket. Woohoo, what a deal!

I had a great experience at the thredUp store – the staff is very nice too! There are other discounts as well (see below). If you sign up for their mailing list, they’ll also email you when they have in-store sales.

After your visit, they may send you a survey about the in-store experience where you can also score some free $$ credit to use in the stores!

So the summary is if you’re looking for some trendy items at a lower price point, I highly recommend you check out thredUp online or in-person at their stores! Shopping secondhand is great for the environment as well!

Next up, I’m going to order a kit so I can send in some of the clothing I no longer wear and see if I can get cash/credit for them. Whatever they don’t accept will either get shipped back or you can choose to have them recycle it for you. I’ll let you know how it goes! 😉

Source: thredUp

Check it out for yourself – get $10 off on thredUp online with my referral code!

Or check out their store locations here. I’ve been to the Burlingame location and the Stoneridege Mall location in Pleasanton (pic below).

Happy shopping!

Related articles:
Nude Nails
Birdies: Cute and Comfortable Flats
Returns for Online Shopping Made Easier
Shoes from Recycled Plastic Bottles: Rothy’s
The DryBar Experience: A Hair Blowout for Special Occasions

Filed Under: Fashion Tagged With: bay area, fashion, jacket, secondhand, shop, shopping tip, style, styletips, thredup

Returns for Online Shopping Made Easier

September 28, 2018 By Kat

The returns process for online shopping is such a headache.

EASY TO BUY, HARD TO RETURN

It’s so easy to get carried away when online shopping though. Sometimes I get so excited about a great deal that I forget to check the shipping costs, and much less, the return policy.

Only after I receive an item I don’t like do I look up the return policy and realize how annoying it will be. For example, for Gilt, it costs $9.99 to return something and get your money back, or it can be free to return something but then you get merchandise credit. I don’t want to buy things I don’t need (just to spend my credit), so I opted for paying for the return.

Getting the item mailed is another hassle: print the return label, pack it up, and then drop it off at a FedEx or post office location. Also, when I tried to return a pair of shoes in the original big box (which came with more items), the FedEx person told me I would have to fill the box with extra paper so that the items don’t shift around. Or pay them to fill it for me for $5.99. -_-

It’s such a pain to return these items that we may end up keeping things we don’t like, just to avoid the process. Or we avoid online shopping. Or sometimes I only buy from places where I can return to a physical store, but that’s still troublesome.

AN OPPORTUNITY

In any case, my point is that there’s definitely room for improvement in this process. There’s been so much innovation (like Amazon Prime) with getting fast shipping, but now we need something for fast returns.

HAPPY RETURNS

This isn’t the silver bullet, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out about a service called Happy Returns.

happy returns stanford mall

They only work with limited brands, the ones I recognize are Everlane and Rothy’s, but here’s the process:

You buy something online from a place like Everlane. The nearest store location to me is all the way in SF, and I do not want to drive to SF just to return a shirt. Instead, you can just bring it to a Happy Returns location, several locations in the South Bay – including Stanford Shopping mall and Westfield Valley Fair mall (a lot more accessible and easier to park at).

You go to the Guest Services desk and they’ll scan it and process the return for you. I even forgot my receipt, but they found the transaction. The service was a lot quicker and more pain-free than I expected.

To see if there’s a Happy Returns location near you, you can search here. And these are the supported brands.

happy returns guest services

Anyhow, I hope they open up more Happy Returns locations and that they also have more retail partners that they support!

Filed Under: Fashion Tagged With: fashion, fashion tip, online shopping, shopping tip, style

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Hello, I’m Kat Kuan! I love to teach and share what I’ve learned.

I am an MIT grad, former Google engineer, children’s book author, and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley.

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