Made a run up to Waukegan and found time to snoop around. Last time I was in the vicinity, I headed towards the north shore and came away with a quite a haul. This time I headed over to Gurnee and Community Thrift Store.
The place was huge and it was packed with people, even during work hours on a weekday. Thrifting knows no bounds! The records were junk – all religious and symphonic stuff with a couple Phase 4s thrown. However I have never seen records packaged this way…or seen them packaged so well outside an actual record store.
They were all in ‘jackets’, really just 12″ bags. The width fit fine but they were a bit long. They were also a strange plastic that was really slippery. Combine that with the big of bagginess and every time two rubbed together during your flipping and everything threatened to dump out onto the floor. This was all exasperated by the fact that they were just in heaps. The records themselves were removed from their jackets and laid inside the bag, sans inner sleeve. I guess this was so you had a chance to examine their condition and confirm that you had the right record for its corresponding jacket. At any rate as I said – all crap. I did find a Pyrex bowl for my girlfriend, the lone piece they had in the store.
I had to stand in line for a while to get out of there, one person ahead of me was making a purchase of a few items all in change. They had a few cashiers working and they were doing well but there were just so many people in line! Never been in a thrift store this busy, ever.
When I had pulled up I had to park way the hell around the corner….this place was built to accommodate many customers at once. Anyway, as I had rounded the corner behind the building I noticed a Salvation Army across the street. As soon as I exited Community Thrift I made my move across the street.
As soon as I walked in my eyes darted left and right. Where are the records? Where are the books? (the two are generally near one another…find the books and vinyl is near). I either way something or just had a hunch about a small room just inside the entrance, to the left. What I encountered is probably the biggest dump of records I have ever come across. It was honestly unnavigable even by someone with as much patience for filth as myself. I’ll let the pics tell some of the story.
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| Not 5 seconds before I snapped this pic, this person was bent over with their buttocks on full display. Maybe they found a belt during their thrifting. We can only hope. |
Every time I thought I found all the vinyl, there was more. The shopping cart just made the whole thing absurd….someone needs to light a match and burn all that Mantovani to Hades. You’ll be shocked to find out that I bought positively nothing once again. In a way, this was a wasted jaunt (besides what I bought for my girlfriend) but I don’t mind – once you give up on places like this, you have just given up on the whole thing and your passion has gone down the drain. However, this is one of the first posts in a long time (or ever) that I not only did not buy anything, I didn’t even see anything remotely noteworthy to mention. It is kind of depressing to write about and I find myself searching for words to be somehow entertaining at least and I know I’m coming up short. Better luck next time!