San Francisco runs on fog, sourdough, and rent prices that make a $5 vintage Levi’s jacket feel like a personal triumph. It’s also a city that treats its castoffs with real reverence, which is why the best thrift stores in San Francisco hold their own against anywhere on the West Coast. Skip the obvious and you’ll turn up Japanese designer resale in the Haight, luxury consignment in the Castro, and big-hearted charity shops in the Mission, all wrapped in that cool, calm, collected Cali style.
High rents and higher style standards have made fertile ground for secondhand here, with finds that lean eclectic, designer, and one of a kind, often for less than you’d spend on lunch. Sure, you can always stop by SF Goodwill, but the independents below are where the real scores hide.
Related guides: Best Online Thrift Stores | Best Online Vintage Stores | Tips on Vintage Tags | Sustainable Clothing Brands
The Best Thrift Stores in San Francisco at a Glance
Best for designer consignment | Cris Consignment | Four decades of Hermès, Chanel, and Louboutin in Polk Gulch.
Best vintage | Afterlife Collective | Twenty-plus vendors of ’80s and ’90s gear under one Mission roof.
Best charity shop | Community Thrift | Proceeds support 200+ Bay Area nonprofits, and you choose which one.
Best for a cause | Out of the Closet | 96 cents of every dollar funds HIV/AIDS care.
Best Japanese resale | 2nd Street | Designer and streetwear flown in from Japan to the Haight.
Best for furniture and housewares | Salvation Army Family Store | A rare full-furniture thrift in the Mission, funding addiction recovery.
Map of the Best Thrift Stores in San Francisco
Open our interactive map to see all 16 San Francisco storefronts pinned, so you can plan your route across the city.
Index: Best Thrift Stores San Francisco
- EcoCloset Jump to store
- 2nd Street Jump to store
- Afterlife Collective Jump to store
- Jane Consignment Jump to store
- ReLove Jump to store
- Community Thrift Jump to store
- Cris Consignment Jump to store
- Out Of The Closet Jump to store
- Sui Generis Jump to store
- Crossroads Trading Co. Jump to store
- Additional Thrift Stores Worth Exploring in San Francisco Jump to store
EcoCloset
Going purely off the reviews, EcoCloset earns its place among the best thrift stores in San Francisco.
This women- and Latinx-owned shop sources much of its stock from estate sales, so the racks stay full of name-brand secondhand clothing, shoes, and accessories, plus the odd home good and bit of electronics. You can build your own eco closet in record time, and on a budget.
Price Range: $–$$$
2nd Street
If you’re a Japanophile, this one’s for you. 2nd STREET makes the cut as one of the San Francisco thrift stores offering the sweetest deals on clothes, bags, shoes, watches, and other accessories. Hailing from Japan (and where they happen to source the majority of their stock from), they provide unique, on-trend casual and designer clothing.
You’ll only find a few select stores in San Francisco and NYC.
Anything unsold is recycled, used to clean up factory oil spills, or resold to developing countries to create job opportunities.
Price Range: $$–$$$
Afterlife Collective
Looking to pull off double-denim ala Bon Jovi or prefer to channel your inner grunge?
Home to more than 20 local vendors and operated by two families, Afterlife Collective has one of the best vintage thrift store collections in San Francisco. Find ‘80s and ‘90s era t-shirts, sunglasses, jackets, bags, jewelry, and other accessories and you’ll be reliving those Glory Days like the Boss.
Price Range: $–$$$
Jane Consignment
With consignments from a variety of eras, cultures, and genres, there are few better places to find unique women’s fashion, jewelry, and gifts than Jane Consignment.
As one of the more inclusive San Francisco thrift stores, they also stock sizes 00 to 3X from both designer and mid-tier brands. If you’re on a budget, be sure to check the $5 and $10 clearance racks.
Price Range: $–$$$
ReLove
ReLove’s motto is “less waste, more style.” Black-owned and serving *lewks* since 2014, they’ve curated a range of designer, vintage, and independent labels.
More than that, they’re also a community space to spark imagination and you’ll be met with warm smiles while you peruse their aisles. This unique vibe and welcoming atmosphere make them one of the best resale shops San Francisco has to offer in Polk Gulch.
Price Range: $$–$$$
Community Thrift
For more than 40 years, Community Thrift has been recognized as one of the standout best thrift stores in the Bay Area—and not just because their giant pink facade literally stands out on the street.
They’ve helped many a thrifter re-home donated merchandise. Offering a new-to-you range of low-priced kitchenware, furniture, and home decor, as well as antiques, men’s and women’s clothing, accessories, and shoes.
Some reviewers also call them the best used book store in SF. This shop is a certified San Francisco Green Business, and your purchases here will support over 200 Bay Area charity partners.
Price Range: $–$$
Cris Consignment
Featuring a well-maintained selection of boutique pieces and discount designer clothes, bags, shoes, and accessories, Cris Consignment consistently makes the top of the local lists for high-end brands like Hermes, Chanel, and Christian Louboutin.
Price Range: $$–$$$$
Out Of The Closet
Scattered around the country, Out of the Closet has two thrift stores in SF, filled with clothing, books, houseware, and more.
Shoppers can feel especially good about their secondhand steals here since 96¢ from every.single.dollar spent goes towards HIV/AIDS health services. As a result, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is able to offer free HIV testing, pharmaceutical delivery, and more.
Price Range: $$–$$$
Sui Generis
Of all the consignment stores in San Francisco, there are few that will make you feel like the star you are than the award-winning Sui Generis.
Recognized by the likes of Refinery29, GQ, and the New York Times, they’re THE place to get carefully curated items from European luxury designers like Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Gucci, as well as hard-to-find pieces from Japanese fashion houses like Comme des Garcons. Try on clothing, accessories, gowns, shoes, outerwear, and vintage fashion.
Equipped with on-point stylists, men and women can expect not only designer deals, but a personal shopping experience.
Price Range: $$$–$$$$
Crossroads Trading Co.
At a crossroads and need to decide what SF thrift stores to check out?
Definitely add Crossroads Trading Co. to your list. For 30 years, they’ve been helping conscious shoppers avoid fast fashion by making designer clothes more accessible. In doing so, customers have access to gently-used designer and name-brand clothing, shoes, and accessories.
All damaged and unsold clothing is donated or recycled.
Price Range: $–$$
Additional Thrift Stores Worth Exploring in San Francisco
A few more secondhand spots worth a detour, even if they didn’t make the main list above.
- Relic Vintage is a jewel box of carefully curated 1920s-to-1980s clothing in the Haight, run by a former La Rosa manager who knows the eras cold. Location: 1475 Haight St, Haight-Ashbury.
- Wasteland is a big, light-filled Haight store stocking expertly curated designer vintage (Chanel and Balenciaga turn up), with buy-sell-trade on the spot. Location: 1660 Haight St, Haight-Ashbury.
- Salvation Army Family Store stocks real furniture, housewares, and electronics alongside the clothing racks, with proceeds funding local addiction recovery. Location: 1501 Valencia St, Mission.
Why Shop Secondhand in San Francisco?
San Francisco throws away a remarkable amount of clothing. The city’s Environment Department estimates San Franciscans send 4,587 pounds of textiles to landfill every hour, more than 39 million pounds a year, which puts textiles among the top three things the city buries. Every rack you shop secondhand reroutes a little of that.
To its credit, the city was an early mover on textile recovery. Recology offers residents free textile pickups, and what gets collected goes to the St. Vincent de Paul Society to be sorted and rehomed instead of dumped. The rest of California is catching up too: 2024’s SB 707, the Responsible Textile Recovery Act, made it the first state in the country to put the cost of recycling clothes back on the brands that make them.
Still, the simplest fix is keeping clothes in use in the first place, and that’s the quiet superpower of a good thrift run. It supports local shops and charities (several stores above send proceeds straight to HIV/AIDS care, community grants, and more), keeps decent clothing out of the Bay, and usually costs a fraction of buying new. To extend the low-waste streak past your wardrobe, the city’s zero waste stores are worth a wander too.
San Francisco Thrift Store FAQs
What are the best days to go thrifting in San Francisco?
Midweek mornings are usually the calmest time to browse, and you will often beat the weekend crowds to freshly stocked racks. The Mission and Haight shops get busy on Saturdays, so go early if you want first pick.
Where is the best thrifting in San Francisco?
The Mission and Haight-Ashbury are the two densest pockets. Valencia Street in the Mission packs Community Thrift, Afterlife Collective, and the Salvation Army Family Store into a few blocks, while Haight Street lines up 2nd Street, Wasteland, and Relic Vintage. Polk Gulch is a third cluster, home to ReLove, Cris Consignment, and Out of the Closet.
What is the best thrift store in the Bay Area?
It depends on what you are after. For charity-run bargains, Community Thrift in the Mission shares its proceeds with local nonprofits. For designer consignment, Sui Generis and Cris Consignment are strong picks. For true vintage, Relic Vintage and Afterlife Collective lead the way. The full list above sorts all 13 stores by what they do best.
Are thrift stores in San Francisco expensive?
Prices tend to run higher than in many US cities, since SF resale and consignment shops often carry designer and current-season pieces. Charity thrifts like the Salvation Army Family Store and Out of the Closet are the most budget-friendly. Consignment stores sit closer to retail for premium labels, so shop the charity stores and midweek sales if you are watching your budget.
What is the difference between thrift, consignment, and vintage stores?
A thrift store is often charity-run, like Out of the Closet, and sells donated goods cheaply, with proceeds frequently funding a cause. A consignment store, like Jane Consignment or Sui Generis, sells items for their owners and splits the proceeds, so quality and prices sit higher. A vintage store, like Relic Vintage, curates older pieces, usually at least 20 years old, chosen for their era and style.
Final Thoughts
San Francisco has never been shy about reinventing itself, and its secondhand scene runs on the same restless energy. Whether you’re chasing Hermès in Polk Gulch, ’90s denim in the Mission, or a $6 lamp to make a shoebox studio feel like home, the city’s thrift racks reward the curious and the patient.
Bring a tote, wear shoes you can climb a hill in (those inclines are not a metaphor), and leave a little room in the budget for the piece you didn’t know you needed. Shopping your way down the coast next?
Our Los Angeles thrift guide is the obvious next stop. Otherwise, point your sensible footwear toward the Mission and start digging.
Joy has been a passionate advocate for the environment since she was a small child. She grew up in South Africa and has been lucky enough to be exposed to the wonders of nature not just in Africa but all over the world. She founded Sustainable Jungle (together with her husband Lyall) back in 2017 after becoming enraged by the devastating impact of palm oil. She then founded the Sustainable Jungle Podcast and together with Lyall interviewed remarkable people from all over the world who were finding ways to create positive impact. Outside of Sustainable Jungle, Joy has always worked in the corporate world, starting out as an auditor and later moving into management consulting. More recently she specialized in Climate Investing for the Asia Pacific region. Given her experience, her current passion is Brand Ratings. She is very much enjoying going deeper on what it really means to drive sustainability performance and true impact through business operations.
