Christmas shopping at the thrift store can be a treat

Ewww! or Oh!

That gift you received is from a pawnshop or thrift shop — how do you react?

About one in four of those readers who responded to an online poll in St. Louis regarded second-hand shopping to be cheap and not acceptable gift etiquette. But they are in the minority. About half saw nothing wrong with the idea as long as the price is right. Which is also the most common reply we received when questioning random shoppers on the street.

Dan Frey, owner of Mid America Pawn & Jewelry, Maryville, Mo., said people can save by shopping at pawnshops compared with a jeweler, but he said some have misgivings.

"Some people have to have new stuff," Frey said.

Walk into Jim's Pawn & Jewelry in Collinsville, Mo., and you might be distracted enough by everything inside the shop to miss the giant moose head on one of the walls. Price of the moosehead? $2,000. Ritter said he learned about the pawn business from Jim Hudson, who still runs a pawn shop by the same name in Granite City.

"There are people who would buy a used car who would not buy a used ring," Ritter said. "Jimmy used to say, 'They're sellin' the sizzlin', not the steak.'"

A person may not balk at buying used jewelry or tools, but clothing?

"The younger, trendier crowd is into retro clothing and retro furniture," said Kristy Tourville, who oversees the Goodwill Store in Granite City, Mo. "The college kid who finds bell bottoms and a peasant top — they're in heaven. It's called shabby chic.

"We don't want junk in our stores," she said. "We want to make sure when the economy turns around people still consider us as a place to shop. We have wide variety and low prices."

Nice Twice Retail Shop in Waterloo, Mo., is a three-story building that used to be a railroad depot, is owned and run by Lutheran Child & Family Services of Illinois.

"We have everything," said the manager, Cindy McNew, of Waterloo. "New clothes, old clothes, shoes, games, books, furniture and gently used toys. We get great donations, which means money. We get a lot of new clothes with the tags still on them."

Clothes sell for a dollar each or a big bag for $5. She said a person is likely to find Abercrombie & Fitch or other brands.

Regulars frequent the place. Blaine Schmiedeskamp, 45, Columbia, Mo., was in the store last week with his two children, Claire, 3, and Wesley, 1.