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SHOPPING
Secondhand Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv is a dynamic mix of old and
new. One of the places this is most evident is in its many secondhand
shops, where the young and trendy search for treasures from the past.
by Maya Roman Photography: Tagist Ron
The tradition
developed in high school. Every couple of months, my friends and I would
skip school and spend a day in Tel Aviv devoted to the pleasures of
midweek browsing. We explored music shops, offbeat clothing boutiques,
tiny stores with all types of trinkets and beads, bookshops, little
out-of-the-way eateries – Tel Aviv at its best.
In the meantime, the
class of 2005 has graduated from high school and is on its way to the
army. Some already have started their service, others will be drafted in
the coming months. But we still want to hang on to whatever we had
before these grown-up days of army responsibility. So last week, when a
group of us happened to be on leave, we decided to call another Tel Aviv
day. Due to our mature status, we decided to give it a theme, a special
twist. The day would be devoted to secondhand shops.
For some reason,
many of Tel Aviv’s secondhand shops are located along King George Street
and the streets leading off from it. So we set off to scout the
territory and, after a full day of secondhand shopping, can report that
if you look for it you can find it all and much more in the little
streets off King George Street.
Aderet has an eclectic
stock of clothing for men and women.
Clothes of Many Colors
Aderet, 53 Bograshov Street
Aderet is the
Hebrew word for mantle – like the aderet with which the prophet
Elijah parted the waters of the River Jordan before ascending to heaven
in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:8-14). It also is the name of a small
but spacious shop with only three racks, each packed with men’s and
women’s clothes and accessories.
On one rack, there
are all sorts of confusing pieces of clothing: long jackets that are
like shirts with floral designs; something in brown and purple that you
would never wear; a mishmash of trousers of all sizes and shapes; and
plaid shirts like those that cowboys (and geeks) wear in colors ranging
from cool to geeky. The middle rack also boasts a collection of hats –
the strangest hats you can find, from berets to fedoras. Rack number
three features handbags and sneakers along with more clothes.
A collection of toy
robots adds to the store’s atmosphere and matches the
space-capsule-style dressing rooms, but the robots are for decoration
only and not for sale, the salesperson said.
The shop is a
typical secondhand store where you can find something to wear and swap
clothes you are tired of for something “new.” The salespeople are
friendly and helpful.
Musical Melange
Off the Record, 90 Dizengoff Street
Right on Dizengoff
Street, not far from Dizengoff Center, is a shop that you will walk
right by without even noticing, but shouldn’t. The dusty display windows
facing the street are barely noticeable, not revealing the treasure
trove of secondhand records and CDs you will find if you walk down the
steps and into this tiny, crowded store.
In the true
tradition of secondhand record shops, the owner appears to be an elitist
nonspeaking monk, who stands to the side and passes judgment on you
according to the records that you look at. Even if you try your hardest
to look only at really serious and sophisticated advanced rock, he still
sees right through you, recognizing you immediately for the
unsophisticated music novice that you are.
Still, this is a fun
shop worth browsing in since it has hundreds of records, CDs, videos,
and DVDs in its bins. There aren’t any cassette tapes, though – there
isn’t any demand for them, the owner said. You can find rock classics,
like records by the Beatles and Rolling Stones, ’70s music, jazz, and
much more. Plus the prices are reasonable and you can sell and trade
your old CDs here.
Udi Hurvitz sells and
repairs gramophones in his shop on King George Street.
Gramophones
Star Radio, 91-93 King George Street
The record shop
whetted my appetite for a good record player. These aren’t the easiest
things to find in the CD age, but amazingly, only a few minutes’ walk
from the record shop, we found one of the only stores in Israel that
sells and repairs new and secondhand record players.
A tiny, crowded
cubicle, it has been here since 1946 and is full of ancient electronic
equipment. Prices range from NIS 400 to the sky. The shop has every kind
of record player that you can imagine, as well as the parts, including
difficult-to-find needles, to repair most record players. Just tell the
owner, Udi Hurvitz, what you want and he will find it among the TVs,
speakers, amplifiers, radios, and random parts of unidentifiable
appliances. Besides being very helpful, he was nice and knew how to
explain to the “record-player-challenged” how to make them work. He did
not look down on us for being too young to have ever used a record
player before.
Friendly and
talkative, Hurvitz told us that his father opened the shop originally as
a repair shop for television sets, radios, and other electronic
equipment. The strange-looking gadgets on the wall behind him represent
some of the tools that his father used back then. His father, now 86,
still comes in occasionally to help out, he adds proudly. Hurvitz isn’t
stuck in the old days, though: he repairs DVD players, too, and also
maintains a Hebrew-language website (www.phono.co.il) with tons of
information about record players and music.
Hitting the Books
The Little Prince, 20 King George Street
This cute shop has a
deceptive entrance – a quick glance would make you think the whole store
is simply a short corridor full of Hebrew mystery books. If you approach
the sales counter, however, you will discover that there is a doorway to
the left of it leading to additional rooms with shelf after shelf of
books and comfy chairs where you can sit and read. A true paradise for
book lovers, you are welcome to camp out here among the dusty but
well-organized shelves and read as long as you want. Along with Hebrew
and Russian books, the Little Prince has a good selection of fiction and
non-fiction books in English.
The books are cheap
– a book in good condition costs NIS 15-30. The salesperson was really
nice. When he rings up your bill, he might even give you an extra
discount if he sees that you are a book lover.
Used Duds
Hamachteret, 8 Almonit Alley
Welcome to the
largest and most famous secondhand shop in Tel Aviv. Contrary to the
reputation of secondhand stores, it is spacious, organized, and
carefully designed. Actually, this was true in most of the secondhand
stores we visited. The salespeople here are really fun and want to help.
The clothes are of
the funky kind that artistic types favor. Hamachteret carries strange
jackets, skirts with obscure designs, dresses with frills, and unusual
hats, which seem to be a recurring motif in secondhand stores. Even if
you don’t find something to your taste here, it is a great place to
visit and there are lots of chairs to lounge on while you wait for your
friends to try on clothes. If you find something you like but it is not
your size, which is what usually happens, there is a tailor who will
alter the clothes for you on the spot.
Hamachteret also
sells new clothing that is designed and made on the premises, and an
eclectic collection of other items, such as comic books, gloves, and
purses. |
