But every time I visit CARITAS Oerlikon, I have the same knee-jerk reaction to a price tag in relation to an article of clothing. And it's always the same sort of article, too - it's the clubby, young and trendy metallic tee or bedazzled tank top. It was clearly made cheaply, and it's in such bad shape I'm looking at it to see if it even could be considered (very likely to fail the quality test in many respects).
And so I look to the price tag. I mean, for 1 Fr., I might be able to re-engineer it, or cut it up for a craft project.
And every single time this happens, this questionable piece of clothing (that I was typically drawn to like a magpie - it was sparkly!) is priced at 10 CHF or more.
And there was no way that this particular item ever retailed for more than that CARITAS price!
I could walk into any Tammy Weijl or Chicoree here and come up with two of those loathsome, clingy, plastic things for 10 CHF in total.
This is what annoys me. There's that Migros shopping centre just two blocks away where I could load up on trashy, disposable (both literally and figuratively!) clothing and spend less. This is no way to entice a thrifting-reluctant public into frequenting your shop.
Further, if people are so inclined, they could simply tram-hop their way over to Werd and buy the same item off the '1-2 CHF Rack' at CARITAS Kleider Netto (Cheap CARITAS).
And that's why I dislike CARITAS Oerlikon.
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| I found two things I wanted, neither of which were clothing. |
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| 5 Fr. for a cheery, functional Le Creuset saucepan. I've been using it a lot recently! |
Maybe they have a different clientele and a different approach. I've meet some strange and unpleasant people there before (a peeping Tom, a pounding-on-the-glass-let-me-in-old-biddy, and a few other oddballs that were more weird than the usual crowd), so maybe the staff at CARITAS Oerlikon has a strategy to deal with them that somehow involves this inappropriate pricing scheme. I don't know.
I did see a ranting sign saying something about the Kultur-Legi card needing to be shown at purchase for the 50% discount, so I'm wondering if there's more 'cheating' going on here and if that's contributed to higher prices.
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| Printed in 1940, in Switzerland, by botantists at ETH. |
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| Now I know which Gentians are which on my hikes! |
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| Added bonus: French and English, too! Wow! Worth the high price tag!!! |
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| Love the 'colour plates'. |
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| I love old botany books. :) |
Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I did come home with two surprising and wonderful and useful things, which I paid a lot for (the book was 8 Fr.). And I was the only person in the shop at the time (which is nice - lots of room and lots of time to look!).
But I still don't like CARITAS Oerlikon. I can't recommend it to you. And, a special plea - if this is the ONLY CARITAS store that you've visited, then please give the others a chance! Head straight to Werd and shop the 3 CARITAS shops on Birmensdorferstrasse and then make up your mind about CARITAS shops. I feel very differently about these particular shops! ;)
Comments always welcome - share the love and wisdom of being an Anglophone-Thrifter in Zürich!
Until next time, my green-hearted, value-savvy friends!
TiZ
