2nd Ave Thrift Superstore - Union, NJ — Attraction in Union

The atmosphere of this store is amazing. The friendliest staff of any thift store I've ever been to. Probably because their employees actually have benefits. This store is absolutely beautiful. Very inviting. The store is clean and organized (save the toy section, but thats to be expected). The air smells good. Great ventalation. Really good stuff. Better than other places. They have a free rewards system. The employees are always nice and helpful. They also give their employees benefits and fair wages. And if I have to pay a few pennies more for friendly employees with benefits, a good HVAC system that gives clean air, an organized store, and great items, then I will happily pay more, because those things are priceless. Hours are great. They open early, and close late, even on Sundays. So I always have time to go there for a little shopping. I always go out of my way to give all my best donations to Green Drop, because I know they will end up going where they rightfully belong.

The only things I don't like are that there is way too much clothing. Takes up about 75% of the store. And they don't have much large sizes of anything. And there are vultures who wait in the back by the doors, and snatch up everything to resell before they even make it to the floor. They need to impose strict rules against that. I understand that they are just trying to make a living, and the store is trying to sell stuff as quickly as possible. But that's a very minor annoyance compared to other thrift stores, such as myunique. I would rather get a root canal than shop at myunique.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I have been to other thrift stores that have really cheap prices, but the stores are awful. The stores are disorganized, the employees are mean jerks (myunique thrift), the air is stale, and there's nothing worth even buying. I just want to get out of these as soon as possible (except myunique, I would never step foot in that store again). You really get what you pay for at 2nd Ave. An ultimately nice...

This is basically the same review that I posted on Yelp. Unfortunately, I omitted some positive points I had intended to mention.

The store is always well-kept and neat. Items and sections are easily identifiable. I always start in Housewares and will make a second sweep of the store before heading to check-out. I do this because they are constantly restocking and putting out items as you shop. Many times I've found some gems on my second go round. Staff is normally very pleasant and helpful. Restrooms are clean and attended to well.

I have been going to this establishment since they opened in October of 2019. I too have noticed a SIGNIFICANT INCREASE in their pricing. What thrift store prices their items higher than when the items were new or at pricing that is equal to department stores? Seems like somewhere along the way they forgot the "Thrift" in their name!!! Though they still have some very nice items, many of them are not worth the price. They also could do a better job at cleaning items before placing them. There was a microwave there once and when I opened it I could not believe how filthy it was. First of all, whomever they got it from should have cleaned it. But the store definitely should have cleaned it before it was put on the selling floor. How gross! I've looked at several pairs of shoes that could have used a nice wipe off before being placed on the shelf. The condition of items makes a huge difference as well. If I pick up something and it's completely filthy I'm not buying it. PERIOD. No matter how much I might like it.

Management needs to read these reviews and offer genuinely sincere replies instead of the same template messages. Although I'm sure they're still making money, they are definitely losing money and customers because my family and I don't shop there anywhere near as much as we used to. One night 6 of my family members and I spent over $100+ each. The pricing and quality of our purchases was phenomenal. Sadly, I think those...

This place has gone so downhill it's hard to know where to begin, so I'll start with immediately pulling into the parking lot.

The front parking spots are practically reserved for Alfa Romeos, Teslas, Lexus', Audis, etc. Us poors have to park in the last spots.

You enter the store, and the first thing you see is the line of carts outside of the doors to the backroom. The vultures driving the aforementioned cars get first pick of anything that comes out of the back as soon as it comes out, before it can even make it onto the shelves. If you made the mistake of donating here thinking it would go into the hands of people that need it, sorry to say it's just being bought by a well off person to re-sell so they can maintain the payments on their expensive car lease. Meanwhile, I got lectured by an employee for going through a bin that was sitting on the sales floor next to the movies and he demanded I wait until the items were on the shelves. Make that make sense.

Maybe that alone isn't an obvious sign that 2a caters to the privileged and their side hustles, so consider the inflation on outdated media (pictured vhs) over just the past 2 months. Open the full picture to see how it's gone from $.99 to $2.99 in TWO MONTHS. Inflation like that on secondhand items? Consider that they removed the fitting rooms, they don't care if you need to try on the clothes, the vultures will buy name brands no matter what the size. Consider that they will put a price tag on an item right next to the price tag of where the item was previously bought FOR LESS MONEY.

If you want reasonable prices, go to Unique on 22. It's the same company, but the greed hasn't taken...