By Kailyn Huynh
Looking for new clothes? If so, the Soul Real Thrift Market is just the place! Here you’ll find a variety of fashionable clothing, accessories, jewelry and random knick-knacks and stickers made by the merchants themselves.
On Sunday, Oct. 22, Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) hosted the Soul Real Thrift Market for the first time. I decided to check it out, since I had been searching for some new clothes to wear.
Upon entering the market, I was greeted with energetic music and the sight of numerous vendors and shoppers perusing around. The atmosphere was welcoming to any passerby, filled with the chatter of happy customers, friends meeting together, and stylish buyers flaunting bags full of recently purchased items.
Just viewing the scene made me excited. The typically empty, and rather glum, FVHS parking lot was full of life and bright colors on an arbitrary Saturday afternoon.
Of course, like many other markets, I expected to be faced with gouging prices, not really cost-friendly for the average high school student. To my surprise, there were many places to find clothes under $20 a piece. Even people as frugal as me, constantly scouring clearance and sale sections, were able to explore the clothing options offered by vendors.
On the topic of clothing, both my friends and I thought that it was a rather nice selection, with relatively nice items and reasonable pricing. However, after about a few minutes of searching, I soon began to realize that most of the vendors had pretty similar styles for their products and there wasn’t much of a variety.
It seemed that most of the clothes were catered for a specific demographic of people interested in either streetwear, vintage or Y2K style clothing.
Although I had a fun time looking around, I felt that this part of the experience was a little underwhelming. In reality, I could only spend around 30 minutes there before getting bored. While at the event, my friend and I circled around the whole area about four or five times, ensuring that we had seen every stall at least once. Still, nothing of interest caught our eyes.
Even one of the vendors said to us, “It’s you again?”
My take is don’t expect to spend too long here because although there are many vendors, you might find yourself seeing double due to the similarity of products.
However, since this was the first time the Soul Real Thrift Market took place at FVHS, I was quite surprised by how well-put-together the event was. Even with my opinion of their limited selection, there was a good handful of clothes I would find myself wearing.
I still think that it was a good experience and found it very enjoyable talking to the friendly vendors and learning about their small businesses. One vendor explained to me how she hand crafted all of the items for purchase. Her booth displayed stickers, keychains, notepads, planners and more.
From what I experienced, the Soul Real Thrift Market is a special gathering place where friends can meet up to shop and local communities can be brought together.
