Thrift Stores in Ithaca, NY

“I have been shopping here for over a decade. I even used to work at their previous location. All of my interactions have been very positive. Great people! It is a great benefit to our community and I hope they are around for many years to come 😊”

“I’ve been to many Salvation Army’s around the state & this by far one of my favorites! It’s huge and the prices are better than some of the other stores.”

“I used to shop here regularly and purchased quite a few things for my child, who is an international student. I've always had a good experience. I found a lovely Wedgwood crockery set that I was really happy with. The only downside is that the prices tend to be a bit on the expensive side. Hope to visit again.”

“Prices on certain things are questionable for a thrift store, however overall, it's a decent thrift store. I was able to thrift a coffee table and an endstand to refurbish for our home renovation. I definitely walked out with a large purchase of books and picture frames too. I'll definitely visit again as I've now been twice.”

“Ah, comrades, let me speak plainly of a small, unassuming place on Elmira Road—this Goodwill of Ithaca. One might be tempted to pass it by, imagining it nothing more than a depot of cast-offs and the refuse of our endlessly consuming society. But step inside and you will find something else entirely: a quiet rebellion against waste, against the tyranny of novelty, against the capitalist delusion that worth must always be bought new and at great cost.

There is a certain dignity in the garments hanging neatly along the aisles, garments that have already served once, and now await another life. Here, a wool coat whose seams still hold strong; there, a cotton dress with history woven into its threads. These clothes do not clamor for attention as the mass-produced commodities of department stores do—they wait, patient and honest, asking only to be useful again. And in their reuse, we resist: we resist the factories that churn out cheaply made clothing on the backs of exploited labor; we resist the cultural indoctrination that tells us to discard what can be repaired, or to replace simply for fashion’s sake.

But beyond the items themselves, what strikes me most is the spirit. The employees work with calm attentiveness, and there is mutual recognition between shopper and institution—that small, powerful idea that value is something created by community, not dictated by profit alone. University students, families, elders, the frugal, the imaginative, the principled—all walk those aisles together, equal in purpose. In such places we glimpse what society could be: functional, resourceful, humane.

So yes: visit the Goodwill in Ithaca. Not merely to save a dollar, though you surely will—but to participate in a different kind of economy, one rooted in responsibility, imagination, and solidarity. In every reused coat, in every restored chair, in every mended shirt, there is the whisper of a better world.”