Recycled Boutique - Hamilton

So today was the grand opening for Recycled Boutique here in Hamilton.  It has a really great location a whole block from my house, so I was pretty excited to be able to roll out of bed this morning, throw on some shoes and walk down to see their goodies.

They are located on Grey St. here in Hamilton East- about 8/10 minutes bus from the centre of the city (or 25 minute walk).  It's near to three or four other second hand stores, with prices in the area ranging from $2.50 - $50+; so if you don't find something you are loving at RB you can always pop into another second hand store and have a look.

What Recycled Boutique??
It's pretty much a consignment shop- you take in high quality pre-loved clothes and they sell them for you (if they are up to their standards).  You get 1/2 the selling price and that's that.  It's been wildly popular in Auckland, Dunedin, and Wellington etc- so It's great that one is now here in Hamilton!

I got there around 10am, shortly after they opened their doors- and it was pretty busy.  People in the fitting rooms, looking through the racks, at the check out- great start to a new business.  It seemed like there were 3 or 4 employees, but none of them came up to me once while I was looking; although they did seem mildly busying straightening the store up.

They have done really good on the insisde design, although I'm still not sure of the set up- it seemed like all shorts where in one area, all dresses in another etc, but then there were a huge rack of dresses in another area, I wasn't sure if that was vintage, most of  it didn't look vintage to me, and there were no signs to tell you. So I was a bit confused..

Highs and Lows:


+ reasonable pricing for most things- from about $18 - $48 for most stuff, dresses were priced around $30+.  They had a small mens section as well, which was nice to see.

+ really good design and how the store was presented.  Lots of displays featuring cute items.

- No one talked to me- Not one of the (I think 4) employees said Hi to me.  I was there for a good 10-15 minutes.  I looked through everything twice, sometimes standing NEXT TO an employee and I had no response.  Not the greatest feeling, but they are a new business so I will let it slide this time.

- No visible plus size section, not only that I didnt see ANY plus size clothes and I looked through the shop twice- Large seemed to be the biggest thing I could find, which is a shame- but then maybe plus size stock has been lacking in what people have brought in. So we will see.

+/- Standards of their clothes; hmm.. the website has some pretty strict rules on what you can and can't bring in.  And some of the clothes I saw there were below these standards- that's good if you want to sell stuff and it's really good clothes with just a tiny flaw, but it's not so good if you are shelling out big bucks on some of these items expecting the high standards.  I am on the fence with this one.

Over all I was rather impressed- like I have said many times, they are new and I'm sure they have kinks to work out- so I look forward to my next visit and hopefully someone will say 'hi' next time.  I ended up not buying anything today, although a few things caught my eye.. After visiting RB I went to another second hand store in the area and I got a rad cat duvet cover, mickey mouse suspenders, and two soup mugs.  Ha, the things I find. 

xxo
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