Valley Thrift Town, the Sacramento secondhand store forever tied to Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated film “Lady Bird,” will close its doors at the end of August after being sold to new owners who have not been publicly identified. The store, located at 410 El Camino Avenue, has been a fixture of the city’s retail landscape and pop-culture map for years, but its run is now coming to an end.
According to The Sacramento Bee, the store was sold in July 2026, per store operator Neeko Lalkakos, though Lalkakos declined to identify the buyer or provide a reason for the sale. Lalkakos and his family, along with a group of employees, had purchased the business from original operator Norquist Salvage in 2021 and rebranded it as Valley Thrift Town after it had operated for decades simply as Thrift Town.
The store’s connection to “Lady Bird” is central to its local fame. Gerwig’s 2017 film, which starred Saoirse Ronan and was primarily filmed in Sacramento, included the thrift shop in key scenes where Ronan’s character and her onscreen mother shop for a Thanksgiving outfit and a prom dress. The film’s success turned the store into something of a pilgrimage site, with fans making self-guided stops there alongside other Sacramento film locations like the McKinley Park Rose Garden and Tower Theatre, according to Visit California.
A Store That Already Survived One Near-Death
This is not the first time the location has faced closure. The Bee’s report notes that Thrift Town faced a sudden shutdown after a drop in business during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the chain also closed locations in El Sobrante, Carmichael and South Sacramento. The El Camino Avenue store went dark before Lalkakos and his group of employees bought it and reopened it in 2021 as Valley Thrift Town…