The Brown Elephant - Northalsted — Local services in Lake View Township

I was very impressed with this store. After searching high and low for a decently priced couch, both online and in multiple stores, I finally came across the Brown Elephant. All of their items are donated, so yes they are slightly used but all of the things they sell there are in such good condition that you can't even tell. Also, because they are donated it allows them to give a much lower price than other places. I bought the couch/futon in the picture for 95 Dollars. Other couches which were a lot more solid/traditional couches were around 100-150, which for how nice they were are prices than simply cannot be beat. Even the Salvation Army's couches were much more expensive and were also uglier and not in as good condition. The only downside was they do not deliver the furniture-- however the clerk was extremely helpful and wrote down 4 different services for me to try which were all pretty affordable/average amount for transporting a couch. As for the rest of the store, I thought it was kind of hilarious that they had an actual DJ playing tracks there....At 1pm on Saturday. But I enjoyed it. Their book and vinyls section was nice and I enjoyed looking through the clothes which had some very trendy options but I didnt spend as much time in those sections as the furniture part. I do plan on going back as I buy more smaller items for my new apartment. Side note-- on the receipt you sign there is a spot to 'tip'...I asked the clerk if this was usual here because I have not seen tipping on non-food store receipts before-- he informed me the tips go straight to the Howard Brown Medical center, which by the way, is what the profits of this shop go to...So yes you can shop for furniture with prices so low that I almost felt like a bandit making off with my new couch, but also you get to feel good for supporting a local health center by buying there....OH and last thing! Do you have some furniture you can donate? Well if you go to their website you can see they will actually pick it up for you...And they even provide you with a form you can fill out which you can keep to write off in your taxes!

Anyways long story short this place is cool and I would definitely recommend coming here, especially if you are in need of some nice, quality new furniture for...

I've always loved Brown Elephant and I was able to introduce my fiancee, who LOVES thrifting, to it today.

Found parking right across the street, and was hailed by no less than 3 employees upon walking in. One told us what the specials were, the others gave a cheerful greeting. I love it when the employees of a place are able to have one person do the spiel while the others let you know they're there if help is needed, rather than getting 4 identical spiels at 7 minute intervals.

We found some great items, including purple and green Chuck Taylors that were practically brand new, ice ball forms in two sizes, and several pieces of clothing/jewelry for my fiancee to wear to her new job. We spent about an hour and a half there. The employees were really nice, helpful, and present without being intrusive, and were wonderful and respectful to my very recently out trans fiancee.

I love thrifting here, of course the stock is variable so there are days that you won't find much, but that's the thrifters gamble. The items are always clean, beyond reasonably priced, and the store is arranged more like a high end antiques shop than a place where you can buy 9 scarves, a gorgeous 10 person place setting of china, 12 pieces of jewelry, 4 dresses, 5 t-shirts, 3 skirts, 2 bookcases, a coffee table, and a living room sofa 3- piece for less than $75. (Seriously, there's a comfy 3 sectional sofa sitting there rn that's free. FREE!!)

The fact that the proceeds go to benefit the Howard Brown clinic/center is just the awesome cherry on top of an already awesome sundae... or awesome ice cream on an awesome pie. Whichever...

I went to this store today with my future SIL. For reference, I am not remotely from the area. Everything was on a 50% off sale today, which was great because I bought a dress I typically would not have paid full price for. However, something strange occurred. When I was in line at the one dressing room in the upstairs portion of the store, I unknowingly walked into an area where customers were not allowed to go. One of the staff members chose to shout at me in front of the entire store. I thought it was a rather… strange choice in terms of customer service protocol. While I was not angry or anything, the choice the staff member made to “resolve” the situation definitely startled the entire store and definitely took away from my experience because I’m super introverted and hate causing trouble. (Additionally, the staff member literally starred me down as I picked up my items and walked away, which was honestly pretty humorous yet supremely bizarre.) I think I was more so bothered because there was no visible signage, gate, et cetera blocking off the “forbidden” area. I truly felt bad for having unintentionally caused such a ruckus for the entire store, and so I looked for any sign forbidding the public from entrance. There was a sign posted, but it had fallen over and was not visible at all. It was all very weird. Make sure if you go to look on the ground for important signs — lest you risk unintentionally causing a scene, ha!

Overall: higher pricing than many thrift stores I frequent, but absolutely lovely. I’m quite excited about a colorful decorative vase...