I Love Arthur Daley’s Clearance House

Big Brother doesn’t like the spruiking coming from this store but I don’t mind it one bit. My iPod blocks all the noise out. I discovered this store way back in 1998. It is located in the basement between KFC and Subway on Swanston Street. This is the block between Flinders and Little Flinders Streets. There is also another temporary store on Swanston Street, located just opposite the city square. The temporary store is in the building that used to be the Melbourne Sports Depot store.

I am not related to the owners of this discount variety store. I am blogging about them because I have come to love this store more and more overtime. I love their books ‘department’. I recently bought a set of books by DK on animals for just $25. Had I chosen to buy this from somewhere like Borders, I would have had to pay more than $70. I also bought ‘Commando for Action and Adventure – The Best 12 ANZAC War Stories Ever’ for a male friend for just $10. Apparently, this book is about $25 at other book stores. I must have saved heaps from the books I have bought from this shop over the years.

The Arts and Craft ‘department’ is another area that I like. I noticed that this area is expanding with the introduction of more things that I had not seen when I was there last time. There is also the Stationery ‘department’ and the Household ‘department’. To me not everything I have in my life has to be branded. For instance, I am happy to buy a simple white stoneware salt shaker from this store than to have to pay much more to get a similar one from MYER. As long as something like this works, I don’t care if it is a top brand or not.

Not everything on sale in this store is my cup of tea. Yes, even a thrifty nanny like me can be fussy, but I don’t think there are any stores that satisfy me 100%. If I have to rate this store out of 10, I would give it a score of 8.5. So, if you read this and happen to shop in the city, try this store and you might find something interesting too.

NOTE: The owner of this store is not Arthur Daley. That turns out to be the name of a very dodgy character from the old British TV show ‘Minder’ who was always trying to sell something at a bargain price. LOL.