3500 North Roxboro Street, Durham
(919) 220-6119
There are plenty of pretty-good-to-excellent thrift stores in the Triangle. But for its size alone, one stands apart from the rest: Durham’s gargantuan TROSA, which more resembles an expansive, endlessly sprawling Walmartactually, it used to be a Walmartthan your traditional thrift operation. The cavernous space is packed with dated televisions, old records, tons of books, all manner of clothes and furniture, out-of-tune pianos, and just about anything else your heart desires. (We once found a replacement power cord for our percolator.) And if your heart desires an array of eighties-style brown church pews, well, you might want to check in every so often. A few months ago, TROSA had a good dozen for sale, just $80 a pop. Alas, they were snagged before we could get our hands on them.