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Private Equity Killed My Thrift Store

Georgia Avenue Thrift Store Center. Photo courtesy: Sara Anderson.

Gol dang it. On top of everything else going on in the world, they had to go and close my thrift store?!

The Georgia Avenue Thrift in Washington, D.C.’s Brightwood neighborhood was one of my happy places for more than 20 years. Nothing gave me a reality-escaping retail rush like the killer deals I scored in that store. And for many of us bargain hunters, the Georgia Thrift was also a community space.

On one visit in January 2009, I was trying on dress shoes when another shopper asked if I was going somewhere fancy. After I said I’d gotten a ticket to an Obama inaugural ball, she and two other women excitedly helped me select the perfect pair of sparkly heels. I felt like Cinderella — only with nice step-sisters.

Another time I went with a friend who got into a conversation with a shopper who’d just lost her home. Before we left, my friend was able to buy the woman a whole new wardrobe for about half the price of a pair of Lululemon yoga pants.

The store had just two mirrors, so customers often crowded around them, offering fashion feedback while waiting their turns. Sorta like the judges on Project Runway, except without any of the snide criticism.

A typical recent scene: A woman was looking skeptically at her reflection after trying on an........

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