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Your A-List: Best Place to Buy Jeans
Why spend on new when you can buy used? That is likely the logic behind voters who made Buffalo Exchange the winner of this week’s Your A-List poll for Best Place to Buy Jeans.
The resale store located on the drag, which received 27 percent of the vote, has become a landmark in Austin, offering discount prices on used jeans (and a few pairs of new), along with a wide range of apparel for men and women, but the store actually originated in Arizona. Austin is one of four Texas locations for the chain, which now boasts more than two dozen storefronts.
And, during tough economic times, who doesn’t like saving money. In fact, Buffalo Exchange has become so well known that they recently received mentions from Forbes.com and CNN as being a good place to get designer goods on the (somewhat) cheap.
What follows is a brief history of Buffalo Exchange taken from their site.
The first Buffalo Exchange opened in 1974 in Tucson, Arizona by Kerstin and Spencer Block. To our knowledge, this was the very first store that bought, sold, traded, and took clothing items and accessories on consignment. Kerstin, being Swedish, thought the word “Buffalo” was very American. And since the store was going to be an “Exchange,” the store’s name was born. The store was in a 450 square foot space that had been an old union office on a side street near the University of Arizona. Kerstin’s love of fashion and thrill in finding a bargain combined to create the company that now has 34 stores and 2 franchises in 13 states, with $55.8 million a year in sales (as of Oct 2008). The Blocks still own and run Buffalo Exchange out of Tucson, along with their daughter Rebecca.
Others receiving votes
- Hem, 22 percent
- Lucky, 11 percent
- Urban Outfitters, 9 percent
- Luxe Apothetique, 8 percent
- Diesel, 6 percent
- By George, 5 percent
- Cowboy Cool, 4 percent
- Blue Elephant, 3 percent
- Physical Fit, 2 percent
- Service Menswear, 2 percent
- Therapy, < 1 percent
Write-ins: Goodwill, Thriftland, Sam’s Club, Shepler’s
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