Salvation Army

Salvation Army is a well-known store that offers a wide variety of merchandise.  I chose to visit the Salvation Army in Oxford.  This was a moderate sized (not big but not small) store compared to other Salvation Army stores in the Metro Detroit area.  As with all Salvation Army stores, it offers lower priced merchandise as a charity business, in an effort to make sure that all people can afford the essentials in life. 

One of the things that make Salvation Army unique is that on any given day there may be a different array of merchandise than the day before or the day after.  In other words, you hardly ever find the same thing twice at one Salvation Army, nor do you find the same thing at different locations of Salvation Army.  Therefore, it can really be a hit or miss shopping experience.  You can go in looking for something specific and you might find it but depending on the luck of the draw and the luck of the day that you chose to go there, you may or may not find the specific item you are looking for. 

The majority of Salvation Army merchandise is clothes.  They have racks signifying all different type of clothes (dresses, coats, pants, shirts, skirts, under garments).  There are men’s, women’s, boys’ and girls’ sections, just as with any typical store.  Yet, all the clothes here are previously owned.  You can find some of the clothes that still have the original tags on them, so they were never actually used, but most of the clothes sold were lightly worn by previous owners who donated them to be resold at Salvation Army. 

The advantage of buying clothes at Salvation Army is that all of the clothes are really inexpensive.  However, the disadvantage of buying clothes here is that you must have patience to find the golden needle in the haystack, so to speak.  Personally, I would not shop here on a regular basis for clothes because I do not really like the idea of wearing something that strangers previously wore, when I shop at outlet stores with almost equally inexpensively priced clothes.  Similarly, I do not have the patience to rummage through an entire store to find something cute that is luckily also in my size.  Nonetheless, my seventeen year old sister refuses to shop anywhere else because she loves the Salvation Army in Oxford so much.  So this store is not for everyone but it is some people’s saving grace.

Salvation Army also has a lot of furniture.  I was impressed and shocked by the pristine quality of the couches, mattresses, tables, chairs, desks, and other furniture.  Particularly, I really wanted one of the couches there but unfortunately it was already sold.  It was kind of disappointing seeing it and falling in love with it, only to find out that this one of a kind couch was already sold. 

Salvation Army has a little bit of everything.  There were skis, snowboards, ice skates, sports balls, stuffed animals, VCR movies, DVDs, TVs, hair straighteners, blow dryers, cleaning supplies, jewelry, shoes, grills, dish wear, art, and decorations of all sorts.  Basically, any household necessity you could think of, Salvation Army sells.