Until recently my shopping experiences in Wisconsin had been limited to stops for gas and the occasional bag of cheese curds while driving up to my native Minneapolis. But I’m a thrift-store hound, and figuring there might be better pickings if I got out of Chicago and into a vast hipster-free zone, I scoured the Internet and assembled a Wisconsin quest.
Lutheran Counseling & Family Services of Wisconsin (lcfswi.org), which runs six thrift outlets.
After some calls, I mapquested an elaborate route and hit the road. The southern leg of the trip, with five stops at stores around Lake Geneva, Beloit, and Janesville, was so abysmal it’s not even worth mentioning where I went. Unless you’re in the market for dirty sweatpants, unpaired earrings, or the vases that FTD flowers get delivered in, forget it.
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My most fruitful stop was at Saint Vincent de Paul (2320 W. Lincoln Ave., 414-672-2040), which had a lot of 70s and 80s dishware, including a large selection of mugs. (I got one with a unicorn and a rainbow that read “Kentucky” for 60 cents.) There are some slightly overpriced religious artwork and some vintage clothes, but the furniture selection is really the reason to go: vintage armchairs, living-room sets, end tables, and desks galore. A section in the back called Antique Alley has dressers, headboards, and end tables dating back to the early 1900s; some pieces were battered, but most were in decent shape and fairly cheap. There were plenty of lamps, pillows, and more art, from kitschy (framed photographs of vacation homes) to downright bizarre (a large string-and-nail project, supposedly in honor of somebody’s ordination). When I stopped there a second time, an elderly man was singing and playing gospel hymns on an old organ by the door to the obvious delight of the shoppers who gathered around and clapped along. According to the staff he comes in a few times a month.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustrations/Paul Dolan.
