Illustration of a thrift store window in Nanaimo

Thrift stores in Nanaimo

  • 7 shops
  • 1 thrift
  • 6 used books & secondhand
  • within 6 km of downtown

Nanaimo has 7 thrift stores within 6 km of downtown, including 3 used bookstores, 3 secondhand shops, and 1 charity shop. Vancouver is 61 km away, Surrey 79, and Victoria 92.

Showing 7 shops

  1. Commercial Street · V9R 5G3

    Mon–Sat 10:00–17:00, Sun 12:00–17:00

    0.3 km
  2. Nicol Street

    Mon–Sat 13:00–16:00

    0.8 km
  3. Value Village Secondhand store

    Nanaimo

    Sun–Wed 09:00–21:00

    1.3 km
  4. The Nostalgia Nook Secondhand store

    Seventh Street

    Tue–Sat 10:00–18:00

    2.2 km
  5. 2.6 km
  6. Take Spines with you

    Heading out in Nanaimo? Read every shelf in one photo.

    Point your phone at a shelf. Spines names every book on it, pulls the ratings, and flags the ones worth grabbing for your taste. Free to try, with 3 scans a month on us.

  7. 2.6 km
  8. The Salvation Army Thrift store
    2.9 km

Book hunting in Nanaimo

Nearest-first is a decent route plan on its own: cluster your visits, start with the shops closest to each other, and save the outliers for days you're passing anyway. Thrift stores re-shelve constantly, most put new donations out every day or two, so a shop that was quiet on Saturday can be a different shop by Wednesday. Weekday mornings beat weekend afternoons, and it's always worth asking staff when the book cart comes out.

4 of the shops here have their opening hours on record, and 1 of those open on Sundays. Where no hours are listed, nobody has recorded them yet. 3 of the 7 are general second-hand shops.

If you want the odds on your side, read our guides to finding good books in thrift and charity shops and spotting the books worth grabbing before you set out.

Donating books in Nanaimo

1 of the shops here are charity-run and take book donations during opening hours. Ask at the counter for a receipt if you want to claim the donation against tax. Shops pay to dispose of what they cannot sell, so a bad donation costs the charity money. The test before you pack a bag: would someone buy this today? Recent fiction, classics, cookery and children's books move. Old textbooks, out-of-date travel guides and anything damp or mouldy do not.

Our guide to where to donate books covers which shops suit which books, and what to do with a whole house clear-out.

Scanning shelves in Nanaimo?

Spines reads a whole shelf from one photo and shows you which books are worth grabbing, tailored to your taste. Free to try.

Nearby: Thrift stores in Vancouver· Thrift stores in Surrey· Thrift stores in Victoria· Thrift stores in Courtenay· Thrift stores in Abbotsford· Thrift stores in Calgary

Shop data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License. Shop details can drift out of date: check opening hours before travelling.

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