When I visit a foreign country I always make sure I go to a junkyard (preferably a self service one) and buy something. You tend to have very "authentic" interactions with the locals in that kind of setting. It makes for great stories that simultaneously allow you to brag to your coworkers about how "authentic" (or whatever) your tourism experience was while also making them uncomfortable. 10/10, highly recommend.
I wandered around a thrift store in Bern once and found some weird secondhand stuff -- mannequins apparently for sale, fur stoles, mattresses, chandeliers, clocks galore, oil paintings, dress shoes, model trains, china, flasks, buttons, yarn -- all piled high, priced about 50% of what you might pay in a retail store (which is still very expensive), and sold in what looked like a very large single-family house in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood that had been somehow emptied out and turned into three rambling stories of loosely scattered miscellany.
Reviewing the map now, apparently just down the street at 24 Pappelweg there was an even bigger, more commercialized thrift-store operation, a Barner Brocki Plus, which might have had what I was actually looking for (a men's coat). Oops.
At least I got to read the local news and find out that, yes, their version of the American thrift store is a bit different and a bit pricier (e.g. https://www.derbund.ch/bern/stadt/brockenhaeuser-sind-zwar-s... ), which was an interesting way to learn a new culture.
