Adelaide’s op shops are not what they used to be – and that’s fantastic | Peter Goers

There’s one true queen of Adelaide’s op shop scene and we owe her our thanks, writes Peter Goers.

I once owned a unique green/brown shot silk shirt. Several years ago I was watching the Australian film Dawn – a biopic of the fabulous Dawn Fraser made by the SA Film Corporation in 1979. I saw an actor wearing my shirt. Unmistakably.

I realised the Film Corp – based in Norwood in the 1970s and ’80s – must have donated the shirt to the Quaker Opportunity Shop on Kensington Rd, Norwood, whence I must have bought it. It’s not often you watch a movie and see your own clothes.

I’ve loved op shops all my life and given the recent op shop renaissance, I’m a pig in poo. The Quaker Shop is 57 years old and was the first op shop in SA.

Prior to that clothes were handed down or bought and sold at Trims and other pawn shops. Churches had jumble sales.

Now, there are hundreds of op shops and all of them provide great opportunity for many charities and many hundreds of thousands of donors and shoppers.

. Female Shopper In Thrift Store Looking At Clothes

Op shops used to be cramped and chock-a-block with musty clothes and dusty bric-a-brac and, frankly, they smelled of dead people and moth balls. Now they are welcoming, cheerful, fragrant mini department stores of the recycled.

O joy, o rapture, op shops hubs have developed and you can shop ’til you drop going from one op shop to the other.

There are five op shops in a hub on Grange Rd, Kidman Park, with Amanda Blair’s Dulcie’s just down the road.

You can while away a half a day in all these shops although, be warned, there is no public loo – but you can buy brand new packets of adult nappies at op shops. That’s an opportunity certainly not to be missed.

There are hubs at Norwood, Sefton Park, Christies Beach and elsewhere and there are stand-alone op shops everywhere. All for charities – Vinnies, Salvos, RSPCA, Red Cross, Save the Children, Goodwill and Lutheran Care, etc. Most op shops depend on volunteer staff and more volunteers are needed and welcome.

Sadly, volunteerism has slumped since Covid. The vast funds raised by the op shop economy are crucial to social welfare.

A little op shop in a little country town of my acquaintance raised $80,000 in six months for its community with almost no overheads.

Ops shops are also important recyclers in the age of recycling.

As a compulsive op shopper I’m often asked which are the best ones. All off them are but it depends on what is donated.

However, Elcies – the new Lutheran Care op shops are special thanks to Babs Deane, who challenged and changed op shops. She worked at John Martin’s of blessed memory and took the ethos of that great department store to Vinnies, then Elcies.

She colour-coded fashion, made the shops bigger, brighter, better and more inviting and brought dignity and class to the whole experience. Other op shop chains followed her lead. Babs Deane is the queen of SA op shops. Thanks.

Op shops are a lucky dip. They are fun, affordable and accessible to all. They are booming. Someone’s trash is someone else’s treasure.

My best ever op shop find was a ridgy-didge Louis Vuitton bag for $25. Op shops are social archaeology. They are middens of fashions and trends.

Look for the midden treasure.

Ten years ago you couldn’t give away ’70s orange crockery and now it’s highly desirable. Op shops are currently coming apart with crystal that no-one wants.

People are divesting nanna and mum’s china cabinets and out goes the crystal. Heavy corduroy trousers are almost impossible to buy new and old chaps are hanging on to them and they’re very hard to find in op shops.

Unsold clothing is sold for rags and often sent overseas. One of the saddest things I ever saw was an op shop in Fiji chockers with op shop clothes no-one in Australia wanted.

But op shops are fun.

There is always the opportunity for a bargain and to help yourself and others. I sort of live in my own op shop.

I search the bookshelves in op shops to find the books I’ve written and I found one at the Salvos in Salisbury for $1.

I donated it to a reader who happily needed the opportunity.

Journalist Margaret Brenton.

Radio presenter John Cronin.

HOT/NOT/VALE

HOT

Tasmania deserves an AFL team and should’ve had one three decades ago.

Carlotta – gloriously evergreen.

NOT

Jetty Rd, Glenelg, loses 29 car parks and a lot of business. The traders wanted this and are now complaining.

The parents of the faceless Archie and Lilibet Sussex

VALE

Losing great old friends – John Cronin and Margaret Brenton.

Originally published as Adelaide’s op shops are not what they used to be – and that’s fantastic | Peter Goers