Teenage girls in Potomac often find themselves stuck in a repetitive cycle: they sift through clothes at Forever 21, BP, American Apparel and H&M, only to arrive at school wearing the same outfit as three other girls. Although these stores have wonderful selections, shoppers have a hard time finding unique clothes. Luckily, a solution has just arrived on Rockville Pike.

Uptown Cheapskate, a resale fashion boutique for teenagers and young adults, opened at the Edmonston Crossing Shopping Center this month.  Its specialty: recycled fashions that are trendy but different from the latest mainstream styles.

“Uptown Cheapskate is a resale fashion boutique that purchases gently worn current clothing, shoes and accessories that appeal to teens and young adults,” manager Emily Schramm said. “We resell the items at a fraction of the original retail price, allowing our customers to be trendy, chic and downright cheap.”

The store’s most popular items tend to be from well-known brands like American Eagle, Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, Michael Kors, Free People, Nike and Citizens of Humanity.

Uptown Cheapskate is different than the average consignment shop in two ways. For one, it pays customers on the spot for their clothes instead of paying the customer after the item has sold. It also maintains a high standard of quality with attention to style, condition of the garment and potential appeal to young people.

“We only buy items that are current styles that appeal to our core demographic and are in great condition and freshly laundered,” Schramm said. “We have a computer database that helps us to individually price each item, and we’re able to pay our vendors 25-35 percent of what we’ll price the item at.”

Uptown Cheapskate was founded by Scott and Chelsea Sloan, the children of the owners of the Kid to Kid franchise, another chain of consignment stores specifically for children.

“What we’ve learned is that our locations need to be visible from a highly traveled road and offer parking that is extremely convenient for a customers, since most of them are bringing us items to sell,” Schramm said. “Edmonston Crossing is a great center that offers both things.”

CHS senior Bridget Dubin, a frequent thrift store customer, loves the idea of Uptown Cheapskate.

“I would definitely sell my clothes there because I have a lot of old clothes I no longer use,” Dubin said. “I donate a lot of them, but it would also be nice to sell them for a profit so I could buy new clothes.”

Senior Eliana Kosova thinks the store will attract many CHS students as customers.

“Whenever I’ve gone to consignment stores, I’ve found that a lot of the stuff looks too old for high school students,” Kosova said. “It’d be nice to go to a place where all of the brands are familiar and all the stuff is for younger people.”

Uptown Cheapskate’s self-proclaimed “fun, fresh and inviting” atmosphere may just be the answer to the monotony of shopping in Potomac. It is worth checking out.