Parents Walk Out Of These 7 Sprawling Tennessee Thrift Stores With Two Full Bags For $25

A rainy Saturday, a restless kid outgrowing every pair of jeans in the house, and twenty-five dollars in the console cup holder. That combination has sent plenty of Tennessee families through the doors of enormous secondhand stores where the racks run wall to wall and the price tags rarely climb past a few dollars.

Some of these places run bag sales, some sort clothing by color-coded tag, and all of them stretch a small budget further than any mall trip could. Here are seven sprawling Tennessee thrift stores where two full bags for $25 is an ordinary afternoon, not a lucky fluke.

1. ThriftSmart Tusculum Store and Donation Center, Nashville, TN

South Nashville shoppers tend to build their whole errand loop around 4890 Nolensville Pike, and the reason is scale. ThriftSmart’s Tusculum location is a genuinely large thrift store, with used clothing, furniture, housewares and books spread across a floor plan that rewards a slow lap.

Prices here sit in moderate territory, which matters when the goal is volume rather than one showpiece find. Two bags of kids’ shirts, a stack of paperbacks and a few kitchen pieces can land comfortably inside a $25 budget if you skip the furniture aisle.

Parking is free, both in the lot and on the street nearby, so there is no hidden cost tacked onto the trip. Staff are known for pointing shoppers toward the right section instead of leaving them to wander.

Hours run Monday through Saturday from 9 AM to 8 PM, with Sunday shortened to noon until 6 PM. Inventory shifts constantly at a donation center this busy, so what fills the racks on a Tuesday may be gone by the weekend.

Call ahead at 615-833-8200 if you are driving in from outside Davidson County.

2. America’s Thrift Stores & Donation Center, Knoxville, TN

Walk into the Executive Park Drive location and the first surprise is how little it resembles a typical secondhand shop. Departments are laid out with the logic of a small department store: secondhand clothing on one side, housewares and furniture along the back, toys within easy reach of shorter shoppers.

Kitchen items commonly land in the $4 to $6 range and clothing runs roughly $6 to $15, though the racks hold plenty below that. Home decor can climb past $20, so a $25 two-bag haul here means loading up on apparel and kitchen goods and admiring the big-ticket pieces from a distance.

Fitting rooms and clean restrooms make this an easier stop with children than most thrift runs allow. There is also a 30-day return window for store credit, which is rare in the secondhand world.

Doors open at 8 AM Monday through Saturday, closing at 9 PM early in the week and 10 PM on Friday and Saturday. Sunday runs 10 AM to 8 PM.

Saturday mornings and afternoons draw the heaviest crowds; Monday evenings stay noticeably calmer. Parking is free on site.

3. Ladies Of Charity Thrift Store, Chattanooga, TN

Bag sales are the headline at this Rossville Boulevard shop, and they are not a marketing gimmick. Clearance events here have run at a full bag for $5, which means a $25 budget stops being about two bags and starts being about how many you can carry to the car.

Volunteers keep the operation running, and the stock leans practical: warm clothing, sports gear, household goods and the kind of everyday items families actually burn through. Inventory turns over daily, so the store you visit in the morning is rarely the store that existed a week earlier.

Free wi-fi is available, a small courtesy that helps if you are price-checking a brand while standing in the aisle.

Hours are tighter than the big chains, so plan around them. Monday and Tuesday run 10 AM to 4 PM, Wednesday closes early at 2 PM, Thursday and Friday return to 4 PM, and Saturday wraps at 2 PM.

Sunday is closed entirely. Sale schedules shift, so a quick call to 423-624-3222 before the drive is smart.

4. City Thrift, Memphis, TN

Fifty percent off signs go up regularly on Summer Avenue, and that single detail explains why City Thrift keeps showing up on Memphis budget lists. Discount days can effectively double what $25 buys, turning a modest cart into two overflowing bags.

The store stocks secondhand clothing as its backbone, joined by toys, small appliances and household items filling the surrounding aisles. Scrubs, work clothes and school-year basics tend to be the practical wins here, though prices are individually set and the occasional tag runs higher than expected, so it pays to glance before you commit.

Opening hours are unusually generous for a thrift store. Monday starts at 7 AM and runs to 9 PM, Tuesday through Saturday runs 9 AM to 9 PM, and Sunday shortens to 10 AM until 7 PM.

Early Monday is the quiet hour for anyone who prefers uncrowded racks.

Parking includes a free lot, with paid parking also nearby depending on where you land. Sale schedules change, so check with the store at 901-684-6175 before building an afternoon around a specific markdown.

5. AMVETS Thrift Store, Memphis, TN

Elvis Presley Boulevard is not where most people expect to find a tidy, well-sorted secondhand warehouse, yet that is exactly what sits at 2526. The selection runs huge across clothing and household merchandise, and everything is arranged neatly enough that browsing does not turn into digging.

Vintage pieces show up regularly among the racks, which gives this stop a different flavor from the strictly practical thrift runs. Leaving empty-handed takes real effort.

A detail parents appreciate: there is a small snack area with vending machines, tables and chairs, so a kid who has hit their limit can sit down while the rest of the family finishes a lap. Free wi-fi covers the store too.

Proceeds support veterans through the store’s parent organization, which adds a little weight to a $25 spending spree. Hours run Monday through Saturday from 10 AM to 8 PM and Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM, making evening visits realistic after work or school.

Merchandise rotates constantly at a store this size, so two trips in the same month rarely look alike. Phone ahead at 901-775-5010 for current details.

6. Outreach Thrift Store, Murfreesboro, TN

Clothing is the specialty here, and Murfreesboro shoppers say the pricing reflects genuine thrift math rather than resale ambition. The SE Broad Street shop stocks apparel for adults and kids in real volume, plus toys and books for the younger crowd.

Organization is the quiet advantage. Items are individually priced and sorted carefully, and the store stays clean enough that the musty smell people brace for simply is not part of the experience.

Natural-fiber hunters do well among the racks, and new stock arrives steadily, which keeps repeat visits from feeling like reruns. For a family working a $25 ceiling, this is the kind of place where two bags of school clothes is a routine outcome rather than a triumph.

Doors open Monday through Saturday from 9 AM to 7 PM, with a short Sunday window of 1 PM to 5 PM. Shopping is in-store only, so there is no delivery or online ordering to fall back on.

Rutherford County families can slot this into a weekday errand run easily, and Nashville shoppers are roughly forty minutes down I-24. Call 615-849-8278 to confirm hours before driving.

7. Good Sam Thrift Store, Johnson City, TN

Northeast Tennessee gets its bag-sale entry on East King Street, where kids’ clothing deals occasionally appear right up front by the register at a fill-a-bag price of $5. Jackets and everyday layers turn up in those bins in solid condition, which is exactly what a growing-kid budget needs in October.

Beyond the bargain corner, Good Sam runs as a well-organized community thrift store with racks of apparel and shelves of housewares. Some pieces are set aside and priced higher, particularly antiques and specialty finds, so the smart play is knowing which section you came for.

The store buys used goods as well as accepting donations, and all proceeds go toward combating poverty in the local community. That makes a $25 haul do double duty.

Hours are Monday through Friday from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM and Saturday from 9 AM to 5 PM, with Sunday closed. Free on-site parking makes the downtown Johnson City location easy to reach from Kingsport or Bristol in well under half an hour.

Bag-sale timing varies, so call 423-928-1116 first.