The 10 Best Bargain Places in Youngstown, Ohio
2. St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store-The main downtown location was recently cleaned up and renovated after a fire closed it down for several months. (And the renovation was sorely needed: even before the fire, the store had a dark, dingy interior and filthy floors. If you dropped something, forget it!)
3. Napoli Pizza-It’s not as cheap as Jay’s, but still very reasonable. Serves a variety of pizzas, soups, sandwiches, salads, and soft drinks. Everything’s homemade here, and it’s delicious. And you get nice portions!
4. E.M. Memorial Foundation Outreach Center Thrift Store-This is my favorite, so far, of the area’s abundant thrift stores. The staff’s always very nice, and sometimes you can dicker with them over a price to get it lowered! There are weekend specials, “special color” days (when items carrying certain colors are half-price or greatly reduced), and sometimes a two-for-one sale. I can casually go through a rack of clothes and automatically know if I can wear an item without having to “test wear” it first. Everything’s clearly marked not by number, but by the magic words of: “large”, “extra large”, “medium”, “small or petite”, etc. It makes clothes-hunting so much easier. It’s also fun to browse among the household goods and products; there are many vintage items.
5. Big Lots is a local area tradition. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone here that doesn’t like it. “Lots” is a retail chain that’s set up like a regular department store, but much cheaper. There are bargains galore and dollar specials (it’s not a dollar store, though). Not only will you find name brands here, but you’ll also discover brands you never heard of that work beautifully!
6. Dollar General, Family Dollar, $1 Or Less, etc-Numerous dollar stores abound throughout the area. Any one I would highly recommend, but $1 Or Less does have the best collection of bath and beauty products, though; there are literally aisles and aisles of these. Take a few dollars to these places and stock up.
7. There’s also The Italian Baking Company, which offers a ton of baked treats, ranging from cakes, cookies, rolls, pies, tarts and assorted other goodies, to breads, pastries, and a lot of Italian specialties. Practically everything’s made fresh every day. YUM YUM!
8. Village Discount Outlet-This is one of the best and possibly the biggest in the area, it’s very easy to get to, offers a HUGE selection, is very popular, has special price days, and a clean environment. But I only recommend this with caution. Why? Because it’s always extremely crowded! This factor may not bother you, but also bear in mind that this place has narrow aisles. You’ll be constantly jostled, ducking and dodging, jabbed on, and bumped into. It totally takes away from my enjoyment of the shopping experience. (I don’t think it’s any better on weekdays.)
9. Mill Creek Park-Now there’s no charge to use this, except perhaps for special events. What makes this wonderful is just for getting away and relaxing. This isn’t a mere your-average-city-extends-for-four-blocks-only park. You can literally get lost in Mill Creek, it’s that big. There’s tons of park activities, flourishing wildlife, and abundant waterfalls. It’s one of the great things about the area.
10. Youngstown State University (YSU)Maag Library and Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, Main Branch-For free Internet access, or in other words, computers (two hours minimum at Warren! You can usually stay on them longer, if it’s not crowded.), books, great research facilities, free newspapers and magazines….you get the picture.
