Plato's Closet — Attraction in Gainesville

Update at the end of the review. Terrible experience selling clothes. It was my first time selling clothes at Plato’s closet. The staff on the desk were not paying attention to customers. When I dropped off my bag, they told me to come back in 30 minutes. The check-in website told me 45 minutes. I went back after 45 minutes and the website told me my order was being “sorted”. As I perused the store, I saw that the counter staff were messing about, I even saw them braiding each other’s hair at one point. Basically, not sorting through the massive backlog of clothes being sold. I stood at the front of the store between the entrance and check out area, not a single member of staff asked if they could help me or even seemed to notice that I was lurking in the entrance for 30 minutes. Once the time since drop off reached 1 hr 30 mins, I went to the desk to ask about their progress. The person struggled to find my bag, had to ask the person on the previous shift where they put it (by text) and only then could they find it. They told me it would take 20 minutes to sort. I got the text notification after 10 minutes. Out of my bag they only took one pair of shorts. While there were a lot of clothes from UK brands that were not taken (which I completely understand, I hadn’t realised until I looked around the store that they wouldn’t be taken), they missed a Zara jacket, Under Armour leggings and a Hollister shirt. And when I received the money for the shorts, I was given the wrong amount of money. All in all, the staff were lacking customer service skills and I wasted 2 hours of my day for a measly couple of dollars. Very disappointing Update: the manager (Annie) called me personally to rectify the situation, assured me the staff would be spoken to and asked if I’d like to come back, and she would look through my items personally. I did just that and sold some of the items I previously bought. The manager was lovely and I’m very happy with how the situation was dealt with. I would suggest selling to this Plato’s Closet on weekdays when it’s quieter, it’s a bit a chaotic...

This is the best thrift store I've ever been to. If I had all the time in the world I would have stayed there all day and just bought myself a new closet worth of clothes and accessories. This thrift store has literally everything you could ever want. Well maybe I'm exaggerating, but when you compare this place to other thrift stores you will see what I mean. When you go to other places you have to really take your time and sift through the garbage to find things you actually like. Not this place. You will find something as soon as you walk in. Or if not you will at least be intrigued by the selection. It is truly a selection of things that people want. The clothes are organized well. They are organized by size and color. There were some sections that organized clothes by brand as well. And also for the most part they were in good condition. I was there for over an hour and I think I only found one shirt with a stain. Everything I looked at was in a good shape, no missing buttons or broken zippers. The shoe selection is a selection of trendy and relatively clean/good condition shoes, which is hard to find. Most other thrift stores usually put nasty, disgusting shoes with toe jam in them. Ew, who wants to sort through that? Also, this is a huge bonus, they have a lot of changing rooms. You know how it is when you go to a thrift store and there's a bunch of teenage girls there taking forever in the changing rooms. Well we can't escape that, but at the very least we will have to wait just a little bit less. I recommend going here to everyone. This is such a cool place, and if you love fashion and thrifting then you will have so...

As a purveyor and seller of fine vestimentiary goods, I found my experience at Plato’s to be somewhat mixed. From my own perusal of their men’s section, I would recommend that Plato’s employees try to avoid collecting articles of clothing that propagate the dingy, tacky, tween-skater look that will inevitably come about as a result of shopping in their store.

Granted, I was tempted several times to come away with a truckload of purchases (including skinny jeans and a fake-silk-sweater-hoodie thingy) and did capitulate to a made-in-the-USA Patagonia (quite valuable since they don’t make Patagonia’s in the USA anymore), but my better senses prevailed.

One important note on the pricing: throughout your time in the store, you will feel pressured by exuberant, enthusiastic, disembodied voices to stock up on department store quality goods that cost a mere 70% of their original value (value meaning the sticker price since most stuff is made cheaply in China nowadays). Beware of this, because the pricing quickly adds up. Most of their goods are between $8-12 which can become very pricey when multiplied several times. When you consider that this is all used stuff—molded to someone else’s body and worn to a thread—ask yourself if you really need it.

I brought in a slew of classicly stylish shirts, shorts, pants, and shoes totaling 56 items and Plato’s Closet took 12. I can’t claim to know or understand their selection process, nor do I think Plato’s can claim to have one. My best advice to getting stuff chosen is to bring in a lot of really good items and then pray. Then, take the items they...