5222 Burnet Road
Austin, TX 78756
(512) 323-0707
Store Hours
Mon - Sat: 9 - 9
Sun: 10 - 6
I drove past Savers on Burnet probably 200 times before it occurred to me to wonder what it was. When I looked it up and found out it was the same thing as what we from the Pacific Northwest call Value Village, I was stoked, as VV was one of my favorite thrift spots in Portland.
Trips to the store have dampened this excitement. Either I've changed, or Savers is no Value Village.
Savers is a good thrift store for people who don't actually like thrift stores. It's clean and ostensibly very organized (although the last time I was in, it wasn't actually very organized at all). They try, to the extent possible, to seem like a department store. Things are organized by size, then by color. They tend towards newer clothes when possible. You aren't going to find much vintage or funky here--mostly just whatever you could have gotten last year at Old Navy, worn by someone else a few times, and quite a lot cheaper.
And if that's what you are going for, this store is probably fine. It's a little more spendy than less "department store" thrift stores, but not that much. Items are priced individually, so there are no hard and fast rules, but generally shirts run in the $2-$5 range, pants and skirts in the $5-$7 range, and dresses in the $7-$9 range.
Plus-sized offerings are separated out here, as everything is by size, and there seem to be more of them than there are at many other local stores. As Savers buys their stock from other thrift stores, this is probably intentional. Still, I didn't find anything must-have in my size on a recent trip.
It should be noted that this is primarily a clothing store. There is a furniture section, a house wares section, and a book section, but all of them are pretty piddly and I wasn't at all impressed with any of their contents.
This isn't a store I visit often, but it might be somewhere I would add to the list were I to introduce someone new to thrifting. The search is easier, due to the organization, and most of what is on the racks is recognizable in terms of brands and styles, which is probably comforting to a new thrift shopper.
One final note--the dressing rooms are TINY closets, and they have a ridiculous three-item limit in them. Disregarding this limit will earn you the venom of a not particularly pleasant staff. So be forewarned.