Housing Works Thrift Shops - Columbus & 74th St in
New York (NY)

The critical reviews say the same thing. The staff members in this particular location are disgusting, rude and verbally abusive. They raise their voice, point their finger in people’s faces & spend all day working a shift with a sour grumpy face. I will not give this location my donations or my money anymore, I hope to see it shut down.

My favorite thrift store in town. You can find plenty of valuable items whether it’s art, furniture, clothing etc. They’re always changing the inventory and keeping it fresh.

It’s a nice shop and all, but I prefer to come here on week days. It’s like a zoo here on weekends. They have clothing, furniture, jewelry, dining ware, and arts. You never know what you might find here.

One of my favorite stores to stop in at throughout the week as the inventory is constantly changing daily. There's always little gems to discover and they tend to try to price items at around half the retail price for used goods. It's a thrift shop but with nicer items so it's not super cheap but it has good quality items

The idea behind the shop is great. But customer service is not welcoming. 50% of the time I experience from a cassier a feeling of arrogance. Like I own them something. They are not friendly, you can see how they make efforts to respond. If they dont like their job let them go and find another job. 50% of the time when I leave the shop i feel humiliated. It’s not fun to shop there. No it’s not. I’d recommend some of the salesmen to go and do some internship in the family stores/business in the area. They would teach them how to be a pro. Last time I asked to speak to a manager. She apologized for a rude behavior of her salesman, but he didn’t apologize for his bad service and “not friendly” behavier. He will stay there and will speak to others in the same arrogant manner. I just read some reviews. The main negative complain is a rudeness. Guys it means you have a huge problem in a store.

The person on the phone 5:03 using my usual normal voice, "Do you have cooking trays?" He said, "Can you lower your voice?" I repeated as quiet as a mouse, "Do you have any cooking trays?" He said, "We do have some cooking materials, come check out yourself." Never specified so I don't waste my time, he was rude, prejudice and unprofessional when I was simply asking a question. Demanded me to lower my voice when I was speaking normally. He needs to get disciplined by the manager.

Store clerks were extremely nice and even asked us for Student ID for student discount. Selection wise was a little less than exciting. The mens section had a small variety with decent pricing. The women’s section was a similar story.

I used to volunteer here in 2017-2019 and they had very good clothing donations that were all sent to auctions or best of season events. What you’re left with every day is $15 USED h&m t-shirts that cost $9.99 new, random trinkets that if you buy, you get rid of after a year, and stupid overpriced designer items. So today I walked by the store and saw that they were doing the best of fall. There was a line but im disabled and I showed them proof and asked if there was anywhere I could sit while I waited and they said just ask the person at the end of the line if you can join them when they’re at front. I said ok and waited 50 minutes. The person I talked to left and I asked them what I could do. They said they I could just stand at the end of the line, disregarding my disability. The third person I asked said she could give me a folding chair and wait at the end of the 100 person line. I waited for like 5 minutes and realized I had to pick up a prescription sooo. Bye chair lol.

I saw a suitcase that just came in yesterday. I asked for the price as I was interested. The lady told me that it was not priced yet. I browsed around while she was emptying it and apparently appraising it. When I came back to the counter to ask for an update, she told me that this item will be kept by the store for an event in September. I asked about details as I wanted to attend this event to buy the suitcase. She couldn’t tell me what was this event about. No information. The whole situation seemed odd to me. I would love to understand what was this all about…

Really nice thrift store! Pretty busy and I think things get purchased pretty fast which is good! They also have a great decoration/house ware collection.

I love ALL the Housing Works thrift stores. They all carry amazing high quality foods and sometimes even super luxury items. The folks who work there are generally friendly and helpful & it goes towards a great cause.

Well kept thrift store! Very enjoyable place to shop but clothing prices seemed high. Vinyl was a great deal at $2 each.

I've been going to Housing Works for at least 30 years. I always drop off my used clothes, shoes, bags, boots, books etc. So I know they're going to a good cause! Also, I found my favorite boots ever at that store. Dark green lizards boots with just the right cowboy heal. I LOVED ! THEM. I had to give them back to Housing Works this year, 2023, because my tiny feet (size 5 1/2) got too large for them: -( REALLY GREAT STUFF*** IF YOU LOOK!

Great venue - make the donations process super easy. Offer a tax rebate form at time of donation, if needed. Great flow of customers so I expect they do a lot of business. Value having somewhere that is committed to supporting others and is easy to work with.

Rude staff (as noted in other recent poor reviews, there is a rogue, young, female sales assistant)!!! We just moved to the UWS and a friend told us about Housing Works - we love the concept of them selling pre-loved, donated goods to raise money for those living with HIV, so went to check it out. Things seemed surprisingly expensive for donated goods, but heh, this is the UWS! I found three small objects for our new apartment near the payment counter and stood to pay - “these are not for sale”, snapped the young woman assistant. “Oh, but they have price tags on”, I responded politely, only to have her snap back loudly “ didn’t you hear me? I said these. are. not. for. sale”. No explanation. No “oh, I’m so sorry. We realized they were marked incorrectly, so are about to reprice them.” Nothing. Just rudeness. My husband and I left the store immediately and vowed never to donate there and never to attempt to purchase anything from there again. And a lesson for the manager: TRAIN YOUR STAFF IN BASIC CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

I feel that this place is very hit or miss. Everything is rather overpriced, I can’t recommend as a vintage or thrift store because they charging so much for things that are donated. I know their cause, however it’s a bit ridiculous to charge so much. You can sometimes find a gem that’s fairly priced, but their best of season events are just ploys to hold inventory and mark everything up.

Been to many Thrifts all over the Country. The Housing Works team is in a class all by themselves always helpful and always greets members with a smile. If I remember her name correctly there is a employee named Shana that is extremely helpful and knowledgeable. She would make a great Manager some day keep her in mind

Today was my first time visiting Housing Works Thrift and I had a bad experience with an employee who was unnecessarily rude. This is how it went down: I perused around the shop for about 20 minutes before I was done checking everything out. My husband was going to buy a book and was still looking. I saw a couple sitting on a nearby couch that seemed like it was set up for people to rest while they waited for their companions to finish shopping. There was no sign to indicate that one was not allowed to sit. I sat down on the couch just as the couple before me got up to leave. After a few minutes, I heard a snide voice say "How would you like to not sit there," in an extremely rude tone. I looked up to see an employee peering down at me with a mean smirk on her face. The way she went about this was unnecessarily nasty. It would have been fine if she had merely said "Excuse me, we are asking customers please not to sit on the couch" in a courteous tone. But instead, this employee chose to be rude for no reason. Despite her mean demeanor, I immediately stood up. I explained that because there was no sign that indicated people couldn't sit and since I had seen others sitting, it was not clear that sitting on the couch was "against the rules." She responded that sitting wasn't against the rules -- people are allowed to sit on the couch -- but that they were trying to sell the couch, and that they wanted people to be standing up looking around and spending money. There are a few things that struck me about her response. For one, you now have an employee (or perhaps owner, who knows) being rude to a potential customer not for breaking a clearly articulated rule, but rather, for doing something that was completely within the realm of established acceptable behavior. She approached me as if I was doing something blatantly "wrong" when in fact I wasn't even breaking any rule. Another baffling consideration: since sitting is not "against the rules," does this mean that the employee arbitrarily gets to decide who is "allowed" to sit on the couch and who isn't? Seems a bit shady. Finally, the employee explained her behavior in part by saying that she wanted to encourage people to spend money in the store. In case any management is reading this, I would like to note that, in fact, her approach had the opposite effect. After this encounter, I immediately went and found my husband to tell him we should leave. He was going to purchase a book but I explained to him that I did not want to spend any money in the store after an employee had been unnecessarily rude to me so he put the book back. I live in the area and buy most of my house and clothing items from thrift stores. Were it not for this negative experience, I likely would have been a regular customer but now I will not return the Columbus location of Housing Works Thrift. If Housing Works Thrift wants to encourage visitors to spend money in their store, I suggest they adjust their strategy by ensuring that employees are kind to potential patrons.

super cool finds!! they had these old music boxes at one of the tables for sale for 20$ each and they all were still working! great books selection at the front but the clothes weren’t interesting in my opinion. amazing shop though!

Love the concept of this store. They make the donations process very easy/convenient…. As far as items available, it’s obviously a hit or miss… secret is probably to go often.

We had an unfortunate experience there today. We came eager to donate our goods but housing Works said that they could only take two boxes. This, without any warning. No mention of it on its voicemail, which we checked before packing up boxes and driving there. My husband and I were both there, so I suggested that housing works take two from each of us (all we had was four boxes in total) It is not an insignificant effort to drive our donations to housing works. The manager, Samantha, came out and refused the simple courtesy of letting us drop off an extra two boxes, stating that this was posted on the website. Nope it was not. No actually it wasn’t -not on their voice. This is not the way to run a charitable group. You don’t extinguish peoples charitable inclinations with an odd kind of superiority. You just do the right thing. Housing Works did not.

Its a great place to browse and hunt. I was surprised to see how quickly merchandise turns over here. Plus it's got a great mission of helping people with HIV and AIDS. Go puzzle the staff by rounding out your purchases to the nearest $5 for the cause.

How can you rate a thrift shop with any sense of consistency in regards to their wares? I'll tell you how, thrift shops are products of their neighborhoods, most of their wares come from locals, and this Housing works, with its location in the upper west side tends to have great art books, and housewares. You'll find a mix of antiques, and modern pieces reflecting the diverse nature of its surrounding community. If you want antiques, stick to the upper East side housing works, if you want fashionable pieces go to the hells kitchen location, each one has it's own sort of feel and range. The beauty of the upper west side location, vs say those in three flat iron district, is there are few thrift ships around ensuring that locals drop things off here. It's a bit hit or miss, but when it hits, it's pretty great.

Disappointing experience, particularly due to an employee named Christina and the older gentleman who seemed to be the manager of this Housing Works location. Over the weekend I found an item, a large item on the high end of pricing in the store, marked “auction,” and asked the very friendly weekend staff about the sale. I was kindly informed that the item (as well as the the item’s price) would be available Monday morning and that I should arrive early if I didn’t want to miss it. Well, my 14 year old niece was in town on Monday, so I brought her along with me. We arrived Monday morning 30 minutes before they opened. It was snowing pretty heavily. At 10 till, an older gentleman angrily pushed passed us and knocked on the glass door, and Christina came and opened it for him. “Hello,” I said very genuinely, “are you able to release pricing information?” Christina, flustered, harshly closed the door all but a crack and asked which item I was interested in. I told her and she responded with a scoff, “oh, that’s not even for sale.” She slammed the door, locked the locks and walked away before I could respond. We waited, and minutes later she returned to the double door entrance way, only to remain on the other side and shout a price. “What??” I responded. She simply shook her head while walking away. Finally 10:05 and they allow us in from the cold, only to be offered more scoffs, more rudeness, and avoided eye contact. Fortunately I was able to purchase the amazing item for an amazing price. Housing Works is a great company with a great cause and really fantastic finds. But this location clearly needs a new weekday opening staff.

This is my favorite thrift shop. I always stop by and find something beautiful and interesting. You have to go early for the best finds. Scarves, costume jewelry and decorative home goods are my usuals, but they often have amazing furniture. Staff always friendly.

This place is just such a good find! They had so many coats, name brand stuff! For really really inexpensive it made me scratch my head, and on top of that solid vintage furniture that makes me wish I had more square footage in my place. Also the ladies shoe collection is pretty on point (pardon the pun) and the service was great, the staff was really nice and helpful and attentive, you can tell they care about their clients and the energy in the space reflects that :) I will be back for sure!

We bought a beautiful Tiffany-style reproduction lamp here that was in perfect shape. Dogs are welcome in the store and this is our dog's favorite shop outside of American Apparel. They concentrate more on apparel than some of the similar shops in the area like Good Olde Things.