Stakeout: Abbotsford Salvation Army Store

Can you believe I’d never been to this store? It’s one of the most well-known Melbourne op shops, the matching pair to the hep-cat St Kilda Salvos (I used to work right near this Salvos and had plenty of good loving from it, though it’s definitely a victim of its own success and gets picked over regularly etc etc).

Anyway, back to Abbotsford and a word on directions. When I looked up the Melways, it seemed like the most logical way to get to this store (it’s on Victoria Crescent) was to take a tram up Victoria Street to Church Street and then hang a leftie, then another leftie and follow the road, which curves around. This I did, and it worked fine, but on the way back I realised that it’s much faster to take the street before Church Street (as should be abundantly clear by now, I am a dunce when it comes to directions and maps).

On to the store. Well, well. It’s a bigun – a cavernous room with clothes to the left, shoes and homewares to the right, and books and furniture out back. There were quite a few people rifling away through the racks (a combo of hip daddy-os and locals) so it’s probably advisable to get there early. Another point worth remembering is that there’s a ‘New Arrivals’ clothing rack to the left as you walk in – it’s worth checking this first, as that’s almost certainly what store regulars do, and it represents your best chance of scoring genuine vintage threads.

The stock here was decent, but don’t think you’re going to stumble into some kind of Aladdin’s cave/the set of Bewitched/everything the Prop Shop has ever owned. The secret is well and truly out; vintage clothes are deliberately sent here (and to St Kilda) by distributors, and so people who are on the hunt for retro treasures scope this place out thoroughly. 

Thus, while there was vintage stuff – a few dresses, some coats and woollen skirts among the more contemporary Spicy Sugar/Supre/Katies garb, most of the clothes were of your more typical Salvos bent. Plus the racks were pretty thin in places – it seems like when good stuff hits, it’s snaffled fast, while other stuff is left to languish for weeks on end.

Moreover, the older (60s, 70s) stuff wasn’t so great – a few polyester fright frocks, some gathered waists, some shapeless trenches – you know the drill. The kind of stuff you see, yank out excitedly, then feel deflated when you realise it’s not as good as you thought it would be.

The jewellery was almost entirely contemporary; there were a few decent pairs of shoes, plenty of glassware and crockery to sift through (and about fifty bajillion “Irish Coffee” glasses) and the book section is one of the best I’ve seen – not only is it huge, it’s well organised into categories and contains better merch than your average op. I was very tempted to buy a 1997 Carter’s Antiques, but at $30 I decided against it.

The other point of interest is the cabinets to your right as you walk in – this is where all the recognised antique and collectable stuff goes, and it’s worth having a gander for fascination value alone. When I was there, there was some Carltonware (it seems to be popping up everywhere…), some antique figurines, a pair of Miu Miu shoes, a pink Chanel handbag (which, by the way, was really ugly)…the list goes on.

Overall, I would recommend going to this op, but when you go be aware of the status quo. This op is like the hip bar that everyone knows about – it’s cool and all, but, as some Hollywood wit once quipped about a hot new restaurant, ‘Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded’. So if you do decide to venture in, go early and go in hard – competition is fierce, and as some clothing chain in the 90s warned on TV, ‘first in…best dressed.’

Gosh, now I’m getting all nostalgic for the days of Brashs and Hot Tuna.  

Ever been to this most famous of op shops? Does it deserve its tragically hip reputation?

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