Alex Boulton reviews the newest innovation in vintage shopping.
First founded in 2016, Vintage Weigh and Pay paid a visit to Motion on 19th February and Epigram Style tagged along to see what it was all about. The basic premise is that you pay however much your haul weighs, with one kilo being £15. The stock comes straight from wholesalers, providing customers the opportunity to shop at trade prices.
There was typical vintage clothing on sale, similar to that you’d see in Sobey’s or another vintage shop, except at a fraction of the price. Both men’s and womenswear is stocked and it was all very organised, kudos to the numerous assistants constantly tidying and adding new stock, and clothes were organised dependent on type. There was everything from jeans to shirts, shoes to bags, mostly on hangers or in piles. The organisers reasoned they didn’t organise dependent on size due to the constant addition of new stock and I don’t think this was a problem at all as sizing isn’t exactly a priority when vintage shopping. The only thing I would say, it was hard to dig through the stock in piles, especially the jean pile, so perhaps the organisation was let down by this.
Entrance was £1.50 from 11am, or you could arrive an hour earlier for earlybird entry and pay £3. I’m not sure how worth it this is, considering new stock is added all day. I arrived at 2pm and there were still plenty of finds. On entering, you get a clear bin liner to put clothes that take your fancy in and a stamp so you can leave and re-enter as many times you wish. While you are shopping, you can use the scales set out to estimate how much you are spending and there are changing rooms provided and mirrors around the room to try before you buy. Once done, you head to the paying scales for your bag to be weighed and tied up. Payment was by cash or card.
You could go below or above one kilo and there were some bargains to be had, my favourite being a number of silk scarves that weighed so little they were practically free amongst the rest of my purchases. There were many branded pieces, an abundance of Levi jeans and converse. I weighed a pair of Converse and it was revealed they only cost £10 with this system.
All very easy and stress free. Perhaps the only downside was how far away it was held. Motion isn’t that convenient to get to at the best of times and the distance from campus may well have put many people off. Ultimately though, the prices were unbeatable, especially for lighter objects. Vintage Weigh and Pay promises to return to Bristol soon, so keep an eye out for future events.
Would you try Vintage Weigh and pay? Let us know?
