Plato's Closet San Mateo - San Mateo, California

Hannah B.

Great location, right near the San Mateo Public Library, and great selection. It feels like an awesome treasure hunt every time! I found two awesome outfits on my last trip out in April (pictured), including a cashmere tank from St. John... Score! I feel like a lot of low reviews for this Plato's Closet come from folks who do not have realistic expectations about second-hand clothing retail in general. I always read the website to see what clothes they need the most at the moment, and I almost always sell a couple of items, which gets me some credit in trade, plus a discount on my purchase. We need more retail like this in San Mateo!

Wei-Ai T.

Thrifty store in downtown San Mateo, part of a retail chain with other locations in the Bay Area. They buy and sell second-hand clothes, mostly targeting teens and young adults. Prices are reasonable, and a good place to find semi-trendy clothes that your kids won’t wear for more than one season. Parking can be hard to find on the busy Third Avenue.

Brooke A.

I was impressed by Plato's Closet San Mateo's exceptional variety of secondhand clothes, which offered a unique blend of stylish and affordable options that perfectly captured the essence of a resale boutique. Even more, the cozy store atmosphere and eclectic mix of retro clothes and high-end thrift store finds made it feel like a treasure trove of affordable clothing, exceeded only by the generous prices offered at this buy used clothes haven.

Natalie Y.

I generally enjoy shopping here and have had good experiences as a buyer. The associates are usually friendly and helpful and the clothing selection is decent.

As a seller, however.. The first time went great. Today was my second time selling, and I while I was waiting I decided to pick out a few items to buy to use up some store credit. Unfortunately, as I was checking out, I was not told a total for the items I was buying, and they were not clear that they would be deducting the buying total from the selling total. The associate (young woman with long blonde hair and an attitude) not only refused to undo the transaction, but didn't seem apologetic or sympathetic at all and acted like I should have known how it worked.

I never would have expected to have this kind of problem here, but now I'm left with a bunch of unused store credit, less cash than I expected, and a sour experience. I should have read more reviews before selling here, because I would rather donate my clothes than deal with someone like that again.

Racquel E.

Good selection and really reasonable prices. One star off because the store could have been a little more organized. Overall it’s a great thrift shop and would definitely go back.

Zenna K.

Absolutely gem! The clothes here are very reasonably priced from $9-$25 usually and carefully curated, there's a very nice selection of crops, dresses, jeans, etc. I almost got this vest below and it was only $10.

Adrienne W.

This place is so understaffed. There’s currently only 1 person working here and she’s running the checkout counter while also having to go through bags and bags of drop offs. The wait time is ridiculous. Only come here when you have all the time in the world to wait. I don’t.

Gargi

This is regarding selling clothes at this location. When I went to pick up my items at this location, they said they ended up not buying any because they didn't think the style would sell there. This is ok, except for some of the items I was selling were bought from that location in the first place! Ironic. Furthermore, I suspect the real reason is that they did not have time to go through all the clothes; it was a very busy Saturday, and the clothes in the bags I gave them didn't look like anyone had looked at more than the first 2 or 3 items.