Green Element Resale

I was very impressed with GER. I spent one day going all over the Northside comparing different prices, quality, and availability. this place beat every other place by a mile. there was an older gentleman who was exceptionally helpful. quite a few young guys helped me move furniture to see it better. I went in looking to buy a kitchen table and walked out with a table, four chairs, and a buffet. I was under budget for

I have been driving past this little gem and had no idea that it was there, shame on me! I dragged my father in with me and we had a hoot in the store! I work rescue and found a very large crate in mint condition for $ 25. yeah! more dogs to save!
I can’t wait to donate goods to the store. I take issue with the salvation army so this will be a nice replacement for me.
I did find a great dresser, but the price was a bit out there for me. Other than that, its a fantastic little treasure for the neighborhood. I hope to continue shopping and finding more fun items for my home!

Went by Green Element yesterday looking for rugs, and found one I liked pretty well that the owner priced at $ 45. Came back today so that my girlfriend could take a look, and the owner raised the price to $ 125. Seems dishonest to me to nearly triple the price.

This place is heaven for me. I turn to green element for gifts, tableware and mugs, candles, art and picture frames, pillows, antique pictures, and even clothes. this place has it all! my only complaint is that the furniture can be overpriced — sometimes you get lucky though!
if you are spending less than 10 dollars, you need to pay in cash — keep that in mind!

Very cool thrift store/​junk shop! Just the right kind of musty dusty cheap second hand treasure chest. So much stuff! GREAT for practical stuff: housewares, fabrics, books galore, board games, bric a brac… Clothing selection was not very good, tho. I saw one or two interesting things but wasn’t able to really dig deep in the few yet packed racks. They have a LOT of furniture, some is very nice and a steal! Prices are reasonable, but you have to ask, and the man with the glasses behind the counter was very friendly! Go when you’ve got time. Expect to rummage and dig. You’ll find awesome stuff among the junk and miscellaneous. I’ll be back!

This review is about Green Element’s pickup service. They were very thorough to make sure the furniture was in great condition. Arranged everything via text, and then picked up 3 very large pieces IN THE RAIN. I can’t thank you enough!

The store was recommended to me by a friend of a friend, so i decided to pay them a visit. The thing that stuck out the most to me was that about 80% of the items don’t have a price on them. At 1 end of the store, I found a base of a table, with no price. I then carried it with me and went to the other side of the store and found a glass top, which was stacked on top of about 3 or 4 other glass tops, and obviously to heavy and oversized for the base. At that time an older gentleman employee was in the area and I asked the price of the glass top, he told me $ 25. I then asked about the price of the base, and he told me he couldn’t sell the base alone because it was part of a set, with a glass top, and he looked at the glass top I had in my hand, and said he believed that was it. He only said that because I took the top and placed it on the base, which is when I realized it was too heavy, and obviously did no go with the base. I then told him how I found the base on the other side of the store, and that I was only interested in IT, which he said he couldn’t sell separately. He was not rude, he was actually very nice, but the owner should start pricing the items. They should also think about making it a point to keep items that are in a supposed set together, so it doesn’t seem suspicious, like in this situation. I was interested in more things I came across, but after that encounter, and the fact that nothing was priced, it turned me off.

Great, real, thrift shop. They have something for everyone, every room and interest. Clothing, furniture, furnishings, sporting goods, books, tools, audio/​video, seasonal, and oddities. The stock is continually refreshed so I rarely see the same thing twice.
I think the prices are perfect — like I’m getting a really good deal but not egregious. The staff are really friendly and go out of their way to be helpful.

This review is about their pick up service, which was great! They were recommended by Brown Elephant, as people who might take a media cabinet. (Most thrift stores are not taking them anymore, or the big fat TVs that went in them.) I sent Brian the photos of the cabinet, and told him it had to go down three flights of stairs! The next day, the guys came and got it.
They also moved a piece of my furniture in its place, as a favor to me! Don’t forget to tip them.
Someone will get a nice cabinet, suitable for storage, and I saved money on movers.

I was here looking for some furniture on a whim a couple nights ago, and I thought it was great! I got a toaster oven for $ 5 (WHAT A DEAL), and we also picked up a mahogany dresser for $ 40 (WHAT A DEAL).
There’s some really excellent furniture here — they had a four-​piece dresser set that looked brand new and so beautiful — and there’s also some excellent deals, as I’ve proven.
I’m going to come back and paw through the mirrors at some point — they have a huge selection of really large mirrors in all shapes and frames in the back, and I can’t wait to get my hands on one of them!

I am very disappointed with my experience here earlier today. After doing some much needed grocery shopping, my boyfriend and I decided to stop in here to see if there was anything we liked. We had been in a few times before and had always had good experiences. We had wandered around the store for over 15 minutes with our big bags of groceries, and we had even seen two employees there who acknowledged us. When I walked over to the shoe aisle, I left my BLACK boyfriend waiting for me in the main aisle. As he walked over to talk to me an employee came by and nervously asked him if he was shopping??? Why else would we be in there? When he replied yes, the employee asked him to check his bag. Overhearing all of this, and carrying a bag of my own, we both walked over to the front desk to follow the store policy and check our bags. When we walked up we placed our bags on the counter, the employee looked confused and said to me, oh you don’t need to check your bag, its just a purse. Mind you my bag was very obviously a cloth shopping bag full of the same groceries my boyfriend had in his bag AND I had an actual purse slung visually over my shoulder. Sensing there was some prejudice here I responded that this is my purse and this is my bag full of groceries, and since the policy is to check your bags I was bringing mine to be checked with my boyfriends, he still seemed confused, and I realized he didn’t even think my boyfriend and I were together, so I told him so, and then I asked him to check our bags together. At the time I was holding an adorable little sailor lamp that I wanted to use in our apartment for my redecoration, I am building an entire room to commemorate my BLACK boyfriends 8 YEARS IN THE NAVY, and his numerous medals and achievements. It would have been perfect. He then asked if we wanted to get the lamp, we said yes but that we were still shopping. What? do you not remember asking us to come up to check our bags? Or were you just so ready for us to check out and get our biracial asses out the store? I said I wanted to buy it later and he said ok you can leave it here. He seemed nervous and awkward. The whole experience had thrown me off and felt slightly prejudice, why would my boyfriends bag of groceries not be ok, but my bag of groceries is ok? Why? Because I look white? I tried to let it go, my boyfriend wanted me to let it go, so we walked back towards the rear to the look at the furniture. Upon passing NUMEROUS people with empty bags I became infuriated. There was an old white woman with a grey bob haircut and an EMPTY yellow shopping bag wandering around that no one had said anything to. Then there was ANOTHER WOMAN with an empty brown bag wandering around. Why had these people not been asked to check their bags? I wanted to leave, I went back up to the counter and I wanted my bags back. I explained that there seemed to be some prejudice since there was a white woman wandering with her bags unchecked. The man responded that he couldn’t check everyone. Well sir, if you can come find my BLACK boyfriend to tell him to check his bag full of groceries, and you DONT want to be perceived as racist, MAYBE you should take the time to go look around at the entire store, you know, just so you don’t make anyone feel singled out. Then he told me to go get the white woman! NO, YOU GO GET HER. You had enough time to find my boyfriend and get him, now you don’t have enough time to tell the white woman to check her bag? Are you insinuating that Im lying??? I don’t fucking work here, Im not the one policing the bags, or is it just the black men you police? And when I told him it felt like he had singled my boyfriend out, his response was that they were the least prejudiced people around, still not getting my bag for me. I told him it didn’t seem that way. I continued to ask for my bag and he continued to ramble off stuttering excuses and reasons why he was not prejudiced, all while not getting the bag I asked for. I ignored him and continued to ask for my bag. As we went to leave he said «whatever,» to our backs. Yes, a real professional way to handle a disgruntled customer. My advice is this, if you don’t want someone to feel singled out, then take the time to make sure they don’t, I don’t know, maybe by asking EVERY SINGLE PERSON to leave their bags at the front. Your not Saks, if you have a store policy you want upheld, then have someone always at the front to make sure it is being upheld, because the two other employees we walked by with our big bags of groceries said NOTHING to us. I am all for following rules, my father is a sergeant and my boyfriend is a veteran, but I am not about to let someone be subconsciously racist and not get called out on it. My boyfriend deserves an apology. We don’t need to steal, we followed your rules, you singled us out, we voiced our feelings and you took an extremely unprofessional way out. GOOD DAY.

I LOVE GREEN ELEMENT. I can’t say it enough times. I mostly shop here for their amazing books and furniture/​area rug deals. They have great vintage clothing if that’s what you’re after, but their vintage furniture rivals the Broadway Antique Mart sometimes! They offer delivery and if something isn’t marked, they let you make an offer. I got a high-​pile thick like-​new area rug that was originally at least $ 100 at Target for $ 15. Plus their sidewalk deals! If it’s on the sidewalk they want it gone, so you can get some great furniture for cheap! Seriously, go here.

Here is the most important thing I learned when I started visiting Green Element: they get new stuff in every day they are open.
Fortunately it’s only a few blocks from my place (and just steps off the Granville Red LIne CTA stop) so I drop by now and then to see what kinds of things I can find. I’ve pretty much outfitted my place with stuff from here. Today I purchased a large rectangular vase with colored pebbles which — between the vase and the pebbles — would easily have cost me more than $ 50-​$ 60 at Bed, Bath and Beyond. $ 15.
The place is huge and packed with stuff, but if you are into exploring you’ll be walking around and suddenly see this one thing that would be great in your place, whether it be furniture (from a few dollars for a lamp to estate furniture pieces) knick-​knacks or framed pics you can’t believe someone threw away.
I also got some end-​of-​summer name brand polo shirts in my size for a buck each.
And it’s all for charity, which is a plus.
Rummaging through thrift stores is favorite pastime of mine, and this THE place in Edgewater to do so.

After passing by this store for months, I decided to stop in. I found a book I was looking for. However, when I got up to the counter and produced my card, I was told I had to spend at least ten dollars in order for them to accept it. I saw no sign anywhere stating that rule. Despite the fact that I did find some more good items to purchase, I ended up spending more that I originally intended to spend. Most items in the store don’t have the price on them, which is off-​putting, especially to those us on on a budget. The guys behind the counter seemed to just make up prices on the spot. It’s too bad.. . I probably just going to keep passing by the store from now on.

This is an amazing place to shop, friendly staff, very affordable stuff, they only take in good quality items and resell them at a better price. They have always worked with me if I thought the price was a little higher than should be and have always walked out the door with the item I wanted. I would recommend this place to anyone who like a great deal. Take your time coming here as they have ALOT of stuff to look thru. I always find myself walking down the isles a couple of times taking it all in. i will def be back for more.

I stumbled across the cutest Lorde & Taylor wool coat here! Whenever I’m out this way I stop by and find something nice to give me my consignment shopping fix. Great store!

It is very easy to get lost in here; there are so many things to look at. I love coming here, when I want to clear my head or buy little things that i need. Green Element has a good number of books, clothing, furniture, vintage things, etc. You would be amazed, but you can also find post cards! Great local thrift store, for us that live in Edgewater neighborhood.

Everything is so musky and great. The owner was a lil crazy loud on the phone with a bad customer. I’m picking up some books for the train and postcards for my collection:) huge inventory of furniture in the back. A little strange that you have to ask for most prices.

I’m writing a review on the furniture pick up service. Words cannot adequately describe how thankful I am this service is available. I was able to have same day furniture pick up, that’s incredible living in the 60 607. I called other places but they couldn’t accommodate a same day, only 2 days to 2 weeks out and I was flying out in 2 days exactly. So after calling around & being duped by Craigslist con artists pretending to want to purchase my items; I found Green Elements. I called, was given the info for furniture pick up. I texted Brian my info and pics of my furniture. He came within the hour!!! He moved everything in LESS THAN AN HOUR and I had a fair amount of items and a limited time to reserve the building’s freight elevator. He’s super friendly, strong, personable, and his partner was cool too. I’m so happy that my items will go to good use. Brian also gave me a tax letter as well.
I can now have a stress free move & look forward to spending time with my friends and family before I leave Chicago. Brian and Green Elements are F’ing AMAZING!!! Thank you thank you thank you!

Looking for a disorganized junk store with surly, unhelpful staff and questionable business practices? Then look no further; this is your place!
I stumbled upon the store a few months back and got some shorts for the summer. It was an okay experience, although I found the staff rather unfriendly. A few weeks later I saw a mirror in the front window I liked, and I stopped in to check the price. Much to my surprise, there was no price on it, nor on any mirror in the store. The staff person who helped me seemed to make up prices as I looked at different mirrors through out the store, all of them incredibly high.
Then a few weeks ago I stopped in just to browse and found a replacement bowl for my ice cream maker. It was on a shelf by itself with a lid on it. No price again. As I didn’t have any cash on me, i left it. I went back today to see if it was still there. It was, so I brought it to the front to buy. The guy at the front desk (I believe the owner) literally ripped the bowl out of my hand and said he couldn’t sell it to me. He said it had gotten separated from the unit that’s supposed to house it and he couldn’t sell it like this. It didn’t matter that it had been sitting on its own for several weeks. And he made no attempt to see if I’d like to buy the entire unit. He just said he wouldn’t sell it to me.
And now he’ll never have to worry about selling me anything again.