Illustration of a thrift store window in San Francisco

Thrift stores in San Francisco

  • 15 shops
  • 5 thrift
  • 10 used books & secondhand
  • within 5 mi of downtown

San Francisco's 15 stores split evenly into five used bookstores, five charity run stores and five others. Valencia Street has three of them and Haight Street two, the only grouping in the city. Goodwill has four branches and Salvation Army two. Nothing on the list sits close enough to link into a walk.

Showing 15 shops

  1. Friends Bookstore Used bookstore
    0.3 mi
  2. Community Thrift Store Secondhand store

    Valencia Street

    Mon–Sun 10:00–19:00

    0.8 mi
  3. Goodwill Thrift store

    Fillmore Street

    09:00–21:00

    1.0 mi
  4. Polk Street · 94109

    Mon–Sat 10:00–19:00

    1.1 mi
  5. Dog Eared Books Used bookstore

    Valencia Street · 94110

    10:00–22:00

    1.1 mi
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  7. Goodwill Secondhand store

    Haight Street

    09:00–21:00

    1.7 mi
  8. Borderlands Books Used bookstore

    Haight Street · 94117

    11:00–18:00

    1.8 mi
  9. Loved Again Secondhand store

    24th Street · 94114

    Mon–Sun 11:30–18:00

    1.8 mi
  10. Valencia Street

    Mon–Sat 09:00–19:00

    1.8 mi
  11. 9th Avenue · 94122

    Mon–Sun 10:00–21:00

    2.7 mi
  12. Goodwill Thrift store
    2.9 mi
  13. The Salvation Army Thrift store
    3.1 mi
  14. Goodwill Thrift store

    Mon–Sun 10:00–18:00

    3.6 mi
  15. The EcoCloset Secondhand store

    Mission Street · 94112

    4.8 mi
  16. Used Book & Media Store Used bookstore

    Mon–Thu 11:00–17:00

    4.9 mi

Book hunting in San Francisco

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.

11 of the shops here have their opening hours on record, and 10 of those open on Sundays. Where no hours are listed, nobody has recorded them yet. 5 of the 15 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 San Francisco

5 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 San Francisco?

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 Oakland· Thrift stores in Los Angeles· Thrift stores in Eugene· Thrift stores in Portland· Thrift stores in Salt Lake City· Thrift stores in Seattle

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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