One of the first local businesses I visited when I moved to NE Capitol Hill was Mike's Thrift Store on the 1400 block of H Street NE. A few weeks ago, it was a dumpy, hard to enter grandpa's garage/neighbor's storage shed type of adventure. Everything was a dollar. A pair of shoes? Two dollars. There were home videos, piles of clothes. A nice man named Mike wearing a heavy winter coat in the cold small room.
I found a few VHS tapes, some missing the box. Spied some pretty good lamps and figured that if I took the time to dig under the piles of old clothes I could find some real gems. But then again, I'd have to dig through those piles of old clothes. It was pretty gross, but I could tell there were some finds to be found.
It made me sad, because H Street is in the process of developing and in a few years, a store like Mike's might be a faint memory. This is the kind of place where vintage stores could really take off.
So, I walk into Mike's today. I hadn't been in several weeks. First of all, the Bible on tape was still playing out of the old cassette player. Secondly, the door was open, letting in fresh air. I could see the floor and I could walk to the back wall. Mike told me he hadn't felt like cleaning. It is a brand new place now. I found some real gems, without having to dig through the trash.
But with change comes Mike's best move yet. Everything is not a dollar anymore. He gave me a free VHS copy of Moulin Rouge when I expressed my disappointment. Also a good move. I'm happy to be a customer who will always remember what Mike's used to be like. Sad that the lamps I spied the first day are now $25. But mostly psyched because I know now that Mike's has a chance at survival as H Street develops.
