American Thrift Store: A Photo Essay

Aaron Gilbreath
10 min readJan 6, 2020

The places that sell old stuff can be as beautiful as the stuff they sell.

Glendale, Arizona thirft store. Photo by author

Here in the US, it’s often said that the best way to experience the so-called “real” America is to visit small towns. Right along Main Street, sipping low-grade Arabica bean coffee at the counter of a mom and pop café, the essential national character will rise, like the scent of cooking bacon, up through the manner and…

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Aaron Gilbreath

Essayist, Journalist, Burritoist. Longreads Editor. Writing: Harper’s, NYT, Slate, Paris Review, VQR, Oxford American, Kenyon Review. 3 nonfiction books.