Vintage shopping is a favourite Toronto pastime, but it’s not always cheap. A new three-day-only pop-up market coming to Queen West is about to be the most affordable way to shop second-hand, thanks to its unique selling model. Vintage Mrkt is back with a $5/pound event from Friday to Sunday this weekend, where you can scoop up as much clothing as you want and pay for it by weight!
Of course, the key to a by-the-pound event is that you need to be ready to hunt: past iterations of the market have included massive bins of clothing that you’ll have to dig through. Of course, it’s all worth it if you set aside enough time to find the gems buried in these piles.
The market is taking over a storefront at 1086 1/2 Queen St. W., and apparently new items will be added hourly, so don’t worry if you can’t show up on the first day — there’s so much clothing to dig through that the selection certainly won’t be picked over by the time the final hour chimes on Sunday.
But if you do want to be first to the bins, you can show up as early as 2 p.m. on Friday. The market runs until 8 p.m. every day, beginning at 11 a.m. on Saturday and 12 p.m. on Sunday.
There will be vintage clothing and accessories in all sizes and from all eras, and hauls from the previous (and inaugural) by the pound Vintage Mrkt show plenty of 2000s-era slips, vintage jerseys, cosy ’90s sweaters and even brands like DKNY.
If you can’t make this weekend’s market, there are more places to shop by the pound in Toronto. On Orfus Road (an underrated second-hand shopping district in the city), there’s Market by the Pound, where you can thrift clothes and accessories for $4.99 per pound.
