Lately the
Salvation Army near my house has had something, if not everything, on sale 50% off. They have a huge banner on the building that says "recession rollback" in gigantic letters. You know it's bad when the Salvation Army is having a seemingly endless sale because of the economy. Yesterday when I took Lois for a walk, I was just on my way to get
a cookie but couldn't resist taking a peek on yet another sale day. I'm the kind of person who can always find
something (usually way too many things) at any thrift store, but I think
Bracki-Land in Zurich may have ruined me. My usual round of thrift stores here just don't compare (same goes for
the flea market). It reminded me that I haven't shown the rest of my pictures from the housewares section at
Bracki-Land. I have soooo many more pictures, but these are just a few. All these pictures were taken with my phone, so they're not the best, but you get the idea.
It wasn't until my last visit to
Bracki-Land that I found this room. Can you believe that? There was what I would consider a normal size
housewares section near the checkout area, which I thought was
the housewares section, but on my last day, I noticed a few people wandering into what looked like a back room, or stock room, but they didn't look like they worked there. So, I followed them into the room. It started out as a little hallway, but opened to this! This room was huge and seemed to go on forever. It was great!
Amazing teacups and teapots galore!
Again, I felt like I wanted to fill a U-haul and bring it home.
I also went back to the
insane picture bins to see if I could find more good stuff. There was so much there, but I really didn't have room to bring more home at that point.
A few more pictures from the handbag section.
These little
corduroy shoes were so cute.
I loved this trench. It had what looked like a little raindrop motif stitched onto it around the neck. Nice hanger too!
Cute summer dress.
I wanted this painting for Lois, but with three suitcases (we bought a 3rd), two carry on bags, the stroller, the carseat, and the baby, I
really couldn't bring home one more thing. The zippers on our bags were close to bursting as it was. Oh well. We will be back, maybe sooner than later. Maybe not so close to Bracki-Land, but close enough to visit. More news on that soon!
I've officially decided that the thrift stores here in Zurich are the best I've ever been to. I base that more on the quality of what's in the thrift stores than the prices, though the prices aren't too bad either. Here I barely have to dig to find something great. Just look at my two new paintings above--a stern lady to add to the collection and a vase of pretty flowers. Thrifting culture appears different here than in the states as far as the clientele goes. Out of the handful of thrift stores I've been to, I'm usually only one of a few people under 65 years old (even on Saturdays when I've peeked into places), which means a lot of what a 20 or 30 something year old would be interested in is just sitting there on the rack. Wow, there's so much good stuff here! I had thriftuphoria today at Bracki-Land! But before we go there, lets go to the Salvation Army (Heilsarmee here).
Lets start with the ceramic plates above. I love them! I see these everywhere here in thrift stores. I don't think these would last 5 minutes at Thrift Town in San Francisco. I was looking around at people, thinking, you're not going to buy these?, and you--how about you? These didn't seem to interest anyone here. They're a dime a dozen from what I can tell by the thrift stores I've been to. I wanted to get a bunch of them to sell in my etsy shop, but they are heavy and I don't know if it's worth it to haul them home. Gotta give that one some more thought.
At this Brocki they even had a reading nook with a table and chairs. All it needed was a little barista stand so you could sip your espresso while flipping through books. And they had so many books!
The artwork was really impressive too. Little did I know at the time that the selection here pales in comparison to Bracki-Land.
Welcome to Bracki-Land!
I thought I was in thrift heaven at the Heilsarmee, but then I found the mothership. That's right, I found Bracki-Land (which happens to be two blocks away from our apartment)! I probably had the same look on my face that Sigourney Weaver did in Aliens when she finds that room where she sees all the alien eggs (cocoons?) and the look on her face says, OH MY GOD! That's how I felt, except I wasn't scared and didn't want to torch everything with my flame thrower gun. I just wanted to fill up my basket, though I was good and just got a few things. It also reminded me of how I felt when I went to Tomato in Tokyo then went to Yuzawaya. I thought the first couldn't be topped, but then I was totally surprised and overwhelmed by Yuzawaya. Anyway, that's how I felt here--completely excited and overwhelmed. Just look at this place!! I took these pictures with the camera on my phone, so they're not the best, but I was afraid someone would ask me not to take pictures if they saw my normal camera, which is pretty hard to hide. Covert missions call for covert photograpy action! Bracki-Land is in an old underground parking garage, and the ramp that curves its way down to the lower level is filled with artwork, and it goes around and around and around. Yes, you still have to dig a little to find the good stuff, but not much.
They also have tons of blankets and linens. Guess who I saw in here? (I said that to Andrew and he said, "uh, we don't know anyone here do we?") But it was the owner of Portner, that antique store here that I like. He was in the checkout line with a stack of linens. Now I know where he probably gets a lot of his stuff. The blanket I bought from him may have come from here too.
The scarves! They had hangers and hangers filled with great scarves. So hard to decide on a few, but I did.
And the vintage clothes. Where do I begin. Well lets just say that just about every other piece of clothing is something worth buying.
Great hat selection too.
Lets not forget the coats. No shortage of those in Switzerland.
How is it that almost every umbrella was great? I don't know. They have so much more--shoes, bags, housewares, kid's stuff, etc., but you probably get the idea.
I bought a few things there. My top favorites are the paintings at the top of this post and this scarf. It's about 2 feet wide, thin and with great colors too. Coming soon to an etsy shop near you.
I'll leave you with a close-up of the floral painting. I love it. It reminds me of all the pretty floral paintings Lisa has in her kitchen.
