St. Louis-Area Thrift Stores Ranked

By Monica Obradovic on Sat, Jul 22, 2023 at 4:52 pm

Thrift stores are great. They’re an affordable option for buying clothes, and they provide jobs and training for employees who may have a hard time finding jobs elsewhere. But not all thrift stores are created equal, unfortunately.

We sifted through bins of items caked in mysterious goo, combed through countless racks of clothes and even drove to the characterless suburbs of St. Charles County to find the best chain thrift stores in the St. Louis-area.

This list does not include antique shops and local institutions such as Found Vintage, Avalon Exchange and Found by the Pound. They’re clearly in a whole different (and better) league.

We wanted to sift through all the standard thrift stores — the Goodwills, the Savers, the St. Vincent de Pauls — so you could thrift efficiently. Here's our assessment, from worst to first.

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MONICA OBRADOVIC

Goodwill Chesterfield
(11 Forum Shopping Center)

This place is also always loaded, but it’s much cheaper than Savers.

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GOOGLE MAPS

Goodwill Outlet Midtown
(3728 Market Street)
You never know what treasures you’ll find for a steep bargain here. For the uninitiated, this is where all items that didn’t sell at other area Goodwills go. It’s less expensive than normal thrift stores. The cost of your purchase is determined by the weight of all your items instead of each being individually priced. So you could get a multitude of items for just a few bucks. But digging through the bins can be one person’s joy and another’s chore, and depending on when you go, this place can be a little crazy. Just make sure to wear gloves.

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ROSALIND EARLY

St. Vincent de Paul Fenton
(625 Gravois Road)

There is furniture galore here, rows of couches and dining room tables. You can get dining room chairs for $5 a piece and a China cabinet for $20. The clothing selection gets way less floor space, though there were some fun outfits on the mannequins. What really impressed us was how organized the store is: The shoes are grouped by color and nary a one was out of place.

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MONICA OBRADOVIC

St. Vincent de Paul Ballwin
(13986 Manchester Road)

This store is very organized and clean. Lots of brand-name clothes, funky furniture and a decent vinyl selection. But if you’re coming here for children’s clothes, look elsewhere, the selection here is slim.

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MONICA OBRADOVIC

Goodwill Florissant
(445 North Highway 67)

This may not be the best Goodwill, but it’s the most underrated. You’re almost sure to find something good here.

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MONICA OBRADOVIC

St. Vincent de Paul Bevo
(4928 Christy Boulevard)

This is, hands down, one of the best thrift stores in St. Louis — which is good, considering it’s one of the few within city limits. What this store lacks in clothes selection (most thrift stores have more), it makes up for with its huge art and furniture stock. And like most St. Vincent de Paul stores, it’s much cheaper than other thrift stores and has a ton of new and affordable bedding items to pick from. Plus, there are fitting rooms!

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MONICA OBRADOVIC

Goodwill Chesterfield Commons
(17355 Edison Avenue)

This is the Taj Mahal of Goodwills. It’s huge. We found lots of name-brand clothes here and cool furniture.

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MONICA OBRADOVIC

Goodwill Jennings
(8007 West Florissant Avenue)

This place is immaculate. It’s full of vintage items and clothes you’d actually wear, and the housewares section is seemingly always stocked with offbeat appliances or grandma chic items.

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MONICA OBRADOVIC

Goodwill Outlet Bridgeton
(5665 St. Louis Mills Circle)

The Goodwill outlet in midtown gets all the hype, but this is the superior outlet. It’s far less chaotic and so clean that you almost don’t feel like you need to wear gloves — although you definitely still should. You never know what you may uncover. Like these pleather crotch-zipper shorts.

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MONICA OBRADOVIC

Goodwill University City
(7531 Olive Boulevard)

This is the platonic ideal of a thrift store. The clothes are nice, the furniture eclectic, the prices reasonable. The meticulously organized shelves are full of treasures. It even smells nice. We want to live in this place.

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MONICA OBRADOVIC

St. Vincent de Paul Outlet
(1225 South Florissant Road; Cool Valley)

Absolutely undefeated. She’s an icon. She’s a legend. She’s the moment. She’s so beloved to us she’s like a person. The deal here is the same as Goodwill outlets. You pay for your stuff based on its weight. But it’s even cheaper here. And unlike any of the other thrift stores, this place has genuinely cool stuff that has gone unpicked over unlike in those thrift stores in south and west county.

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