Second Hand Story: Choose your adventure

This week's post is a change in format from your regular reviews while I go and locate more thrift stores to tell you guys about.  As you must have guessed from the title, I've put together a little simulation of sorts for those of you who don't have the time to go thrifting. 

Based on a true story

Part 1:  

You have an hour to kill between classes, work, or some other engagement.  You remember someone saying something about a thrift store in the area, and you decide to give it a look because you're a little short on cash after spending too much on an expensive lunch and, more importantly, bored. 

Click below to continue!

Part 2: 

The thrift store in question is, for lack of a better word, quaint, sandwiched between a coffee shop and a bakery.  You enter the store and immediately take note of the other customers, there are five.  A man behind the counter is reading a James Patterson novel, but looks up at you as you enter, smiles and says good afternoon.  As you enter, there are shelves of random knick knacks organized in no particular order.  In the back of the store there's a wall-to-wall bookshelf.  Men's, women's and children's clothes are on metal racks lined up parallel to one other. 

Where do you want to look first?

A.  Go for the books at the back of the store, no one's there

B.  Browse through the clothes

C.  Sift through the knick knacks

If you chose A go to Part 6

If you chose B continue to Part 3

If you chose C go to Part 7

Part 3: 

You decide to browse through the clothes, skipping over the jackets with holes, the shirts with sweat stains and the seemingly endless supply of clothes with shoulder pads.  Finally, something catches your eye on the rack.  You reach for it but as you're about to claim your prize, someone else snatches it away.  You look up and see an impossibly tall man (which is possible, he's there) who glares at you and says "I saw it first, it's mine."

Do you:

A.  Let him have it, but silently voodoo him in your mind.

B.  Argue by saying "No I saw it first" and make a scene.

If you chose A go to Part 5

If you chose B go to Part 8

Part 4:  

The shelf of knick knacks looks promising, so you head over to sift through all the half-opened packages of lightbulbs, broken children's toys and balls of yarn.  While you're looking you spot

which turns out to be a book about how pigs have affected art over the years.  And then you see

What the heck is that?!

Looks like you didn't find anything good here, go back to Part 2.

Part 5: 

You put your hands up as a sign of forfeit and the man grunts and walks away.  The next couple minutes you convince yourself that the shirt was haunted or cursed and you're certainly better off without it.  Then, after going through another section of clothes, you spot something else.  Learning from your previous mistake, you grab it with cat-like reflexes (or something else that's quick) and admire the piece while searching for faults.  After close examination, you determine it's perfect.  But you're worried that it won't be in your size.  The store has a dressing room, but you're worried and uncomfortable about going in. 

Do you:

A. Decide to buy it, put it in your cart without worrying about if it fits or not

B. Brave the dressing room

If you chose A go to Part 10

If you chose B go to Part 9

Part 6:  

You come across a book you've been wanting to read for a while, congratulations!  But upon opening it you realize-

-it's the Spanish version.  If you don't speak/read Spanish then I'm sorry, you'd better keep looking.

Go back to Part 2

Part 8:

You yell at the man and wave your arms around, signaling for the store owner to leave his position behind the desk and find out what's wrong.  After you both refuse to stop arguing, the employee kindly asks you to leave.  Oh well, at least you were able to kill a few minutes.  

Game over!  Never get angry at the other customers/employees at a thrift store (or any other store for that matter)

Part 9: 

You hesitantly push open the door to the dressing room and notice two things: it's full of mirrors and the walls don't reach the ceiling.  Apparently it's an added room/closet space and you can hear the workers sorting through donations on the other side of the thin wall.

But, in any case, you try on the clothes and they fit!  It's a miracle.  You get out of the dressing room as quickly as possible and go to the register and pay.  

Game over!  You go and pay for your finds and end up only spending a couple dollars!  

It is always wise to try on clothes before you buy them, so if the thrift store you're going to has a changing room (albeit a shady one) make sure to take advantage of it.  

---

Thanks for playing!

I hope you enjoyed this different format and got an idea of what my trips to the thrift store are usually like.

Please comment below if you have any suggestions or feedback for this post.  

Until next week!