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Thrifting expert Carmen Corsi offers holiday shopping tips

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

If you're having a hard time finding presents that are one-of-a-kind in this season, here's an idea.

CARMEN CORSI: Buy your whole Christmas tree at the thrift store.

INSKEEP: Carmen Corsi is a thrifting expert. There are thrifting experts in this world. She's based in Loudoun County, Virginia, and runs the Instagram page Loudoun Thrift. She says over the holidays, shopping in thrift stores and consignment shops for decorations and gifts is smart.

CORSI: It's easy to get bombarded, you know, with Black Friday or different forms of online shopping, Cyber Monday, et cetera. And we can forget that there are so many things in the thrift stores - from books or, you know, accessories, scarves, jewelry.

INSKEEP: So many options. Corsi says the key is to stay flexible.

CORSI: You know, when you go into a thrift store, you don't know what you're going to get. You know, it's good to have a list and it's good to have something in mind, but you're not sure what you're going to find.

INSKEEP: (Singing) It's beginning to look a lot like thriftmas (ph). I'll show myself out.

(SOUNDBITE OF MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS SONG, "THRIFT SHOP") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Steve Inskeep is a host of NPR's Morning Edition, as well as NPR's morning news podcast Up First.