I checked out a fascinating new store today. It is the Unique Thrift Store Bazaar in Wheaton (Rockville? Aspen Hill?). Half of it is much as I’d expect a Thrift store to be. Lots of cheap clothes and other random cheap items. The other half though is quite different, and this part was the most intriguing for me. It reminded me of Gibraltar that I went to a few times as a kid outside of Detroit.

Lots of booths selling all manner of different things and providing different services. Movies, electronics, perfume, cell phones, jewelry, toys, stuff to trick your bike out with, a few barbers, a place to take passport photos, various clothes stores, and even furniture. Each booth/kiosk was run by someone else and seemed to be a distinct business. This was pretty much a mall. A mall for low income folks.

This I found most interesting of all. The Unique Thrift Store Bazaar opened up like a year or two ago, and it seems to me (based on no real evidence) to be a response to the backlash against the Westfield mall in Wheaton. That is a more traditional mall, but it has earned itself a bad reputation over the last few years. Many people, like this woman, refuse to shop there citing security concerns. None of my friends want to go to the movie theater there anymore (despite its convenient location halfway between us). They say it is “sketchy” or “rundown”. Of course what they really mean is there are too many poor people, black & brown people, and young people there.

No doubt preferring the more numerous dollars of the middle class folks like my friends and that obnoxious lady from the article, the Wheaton mall has pumped $140 million into a renovation of the mall and is bringing in more upscale stores such as Macy’s. Maybe if everything was more expensive all the undesirable people will just go away.

Well people never just go away, but it seems their clientèle may instead be going to the Unique Thrift Store Bazaar. More power to them. Since it opened it has been busy non-stop. A once empty parking lot behind the building during its previous tenant (I forget who) is now bustling with activity, and seems to be home to a permanent taco truck (excellent stuff, I had lunch there today). So while it unfortunately didn’t have what I was looking for, I think I’ll do my best to patronize this business in the future over more elitist or wannabe elitist establishments elsewhere.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 6th, 2006 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.