UCSD's Secret Store

It's pretty surprising how many people don't know about the International Center's Resale Shop.

I must admit, it took me a year to find it. When my friend Josh told me about it, I thought he was talking about iHouse (International House). I scoured the place trying to find this thrift store extraordinaire but I couldn't.

When I started living in the Muir apartments last year, most of my Psyc classes were in Center Hall and I would walk the back way through the Old Student Center and straight past the International Center to get to class multiple times a day. I still didn't get it.

It wasn't until they put a chalkboard easel out on the path advertising their annual Christmas Sale that I finally figured it out. This was the thrift store Josh has been talking about.

I started going in once a week, picking up new books, kitchen supplies, clothes, whatever. I don't think I left without buying something. I am a huge thrift store junkie. It's been a family tradition of ours to get up early on Saturday mornings in the summer, make our normal garage sale circuit throughout town, then head to downtown to look at the thrift stores. My biggest obsession with thrift stores has always been to find books. I read like a crazy and love books, especially when they're so cheap! And this summer, I started a new obsessions of pouring through piles and piles of dirty, dusty records ever since I got a record player for my birthday.

Now, I know San Diego has some good thrift stores scattered about the place, but they're never really my scene. Take Buffalo Exchange for example. They do have some really awesome things, but they aren't really thrift store prices. At home, everything's what you would think a thrift store would be. I don't really seeing paying $20 for a t-shirt that someone else has worn and is now dirty, but because it's labeled "vintage" it's the same price as something brand new.

And that's why I love the ICRS so much! It's a real thrift store!

Gayle Barsimian runs it everyday, pulling things out of the large storage facility the shop has in the International Center, finding things that students, faculty, alumni, and those random people who come in just because they love. It's run entirely by a group of volunteers, myself included, who enjoy seeing all the new faces who come and those who come all the time.

The store is open from 10-4 in the International Center, opposite of Center Hall on Library Walk.

THe best part-- all money goes to scholarships to send students abroad!

So go and do a little shopping, folks! And if you pop in Friday morning, you might just see me as well!