Private Equity Killed My Thrift Store

Georgia Avenue Thrift Store Center. Photo courtesy: Sara Anderson.

Gol dang it. On top of everything else going on in the world, they had to go and close my thrift store?!

The Georgia Avenue Thrift in Washington, D.C.’s Brightwood neighborhood was one of my happy places for more than 20 years. Nothing gave me a reality-escaping retail rush like the killer deals I scored in that store. And for many of us bargain hunters, the Georgia Thrift was also a community space.

On one visit in January 2009...