The South is plagued with car dealerships, tattoo parlors, strip malls and pawn shops. Growing up in New England I was not accustomed to this concept of second hand items. My sisters and I were familiar with hand me downs, including toys,  but not a store where you can purchase such things. But since moving down to VA and now residing in NC, I see these stores are a dime a dozen.

One has to get over the notion that recycling is bad, that we are too good for such items and we would never be seen or caught in such a joint. That was me before moved down, key word was. I have embraced this wonderful source of merchandise. Just because it is second hand does not make it useless. Something we can aspire to keep in mind not just for pawn shops but in our our day lives. How many times have we turned something down based solely on the fact we felt it was not good enough for us? Why, because it is not brand sparking new? This could branch out not just to materialistic items but to our relationships. Yeah it is nice to get new things, I am guilty of that. But when I can buy something that is in great shape at a price I can actually afford and wont break me, why not? I remember way back when I went home to Maine and had received compliments on a shirt. I proudly announced it had only cost me $1.75 at the pawn shop. The look on my family’s faces was priceless, for that was not something you did. The other day I purchased a 500 GB hard drive and 2-8gb thumb drives for a combination value of $65.00! Here is another revelation, most of the pawn shops in my area have freaken layaway. I mean come on people it does not get much better then that, especially in this economy. The sad side of pawn shop is the times people have to hock their personal items to bring some money in and we know they rarely get a decent value back. It’s what makes this concept go around. I am beyond that now, the price is right, the items are decent and you can return it if it does not work. With the way the dollar is going, you just can’t beat this way of shopping