Best Thrift or Consignment Store

First Place:

Diversity Thrift

1407 Sherwood Ave.
353-8890
diversitythrift.org

Second Place: Hope Thrift
Third Place: It’s Chic Again! Upscale Consignment
Honorable Mention: River Road Cottage

The donations are as diverse as you might expect: taxidermy animals, campy vintage clothes and furs, historical military uniforms and old school mannequins.

Even the paper maché mummy from the now-gone Pyramid Club wound up at Diversity.

Indeed, there are plenty of reasons why readers voted Diversity Thrift tops in the thrift-consignment category. But one big reason is that Diversity is the only Virginia thrift store whose sole mission is to support the LGBTQ community. Over the past 21 years, it has contributed more than $1.1 million back into the community, supporting nonprofits such as Side by Side, which works with LGBTQ youth and their families, Health Brigade, which ensures that everyone can receive quality health care, and the Virginia Center of Inclusive Communities, which conducts anti-bullying training for public schools.

And the good deeds continue to this day. Diversity provides clothing vouchers for clients of homeless shelters and addiction recovery programs while also supporting other nonprofits by providing office furniture whenever possible. Its drivers pick up and deliver furniture seven days a week. And every autumn, Diversity accepts proposals for funding so it can distribute between $30 and $50,000 annually. 

Senior Store Manager Ivan Trittipoe has a background in hotel management where he was taught the value of good customer service: “That’s always a top priority with all of us here,” he says. “This isn’t just a job for our employees. They want to work here because of our open and inclusive environment and they seriously believe in our mission.”

As for the rest of us, it’s all about great merchandise clothing, art, household goods and furniture at wallet-friendly prices. “We have such generous donors that we keep prices as low as possible to keep the inventory fresh,” Trittipoe says. “Our customers know that thrifting is also a great means of recycling.”

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