Jenice Armstrong: Extreme shopping

"I SEE SOMETHING," Sheila Fortson-Williams said, reaching onto a rack and picking up a Chanel-inspired white quilted purse with a chain-link strap.

The tiny handbag she'd spotted looked practically new. Fortson-Williams put it over her shoulder and posed with it a bit before tossing it into her shopping cart. Because it was Wednesday when all but the newest merchandise is half off, the price was only $2. You can't beat a deal like that, so I reached over and grabbed what looked like a designer bag.

"That's Prada! Is that really Prada?" Fortson-Williams moved in for a closer inspection that revealed shoddy workmanship. Definitely not Prada. Back onto the shelf it went.

We were at the Salvation Army Family Thift Store on Bethlehem Pike in Montgomeryville and Fortson-Williams, a/k/a the Glam Thrifter, was in hunt mode picking through piles of used merchandise for both herself and perhaps her just-opened store, Hidden Glam Clothing Boutique in Ambler, which sells new clothes but also some previously-owned treasures.

"You cannot beat the stuff that you find when you're in here," Fortson-Williams said as we cruised the aisles of the Salvation Army thrift shop.

"I got this from here. This was only 99 cents," she said, gesturing to the shiny, silver-sequined top that revealed her left shoulder "Flashdance"-style. "I come to this particular thrift store Wednesdays. I try to get here at 9 in the morning . . . The parking lot gets packed. It's crazy. I will sit in the parking lot and wait for them to open the doors.

"It's a way for me to maximize and not go broke. I started this when I was a poor college student with no money," added Fortson-Williams, 28,  a senior reporter for TV2 News/Valley View. "They expect you to look good every day even if you don't have the money to."

At this point, we were in front of a rack of mostly nondescript, previously-owned dresses that Forston-Williams was rummaging through as if she was searching for the Holy Grail.

"Ooh," she said, pulling a purple, strapless, capri-length jumpsuit from out of nowhere. "It's not half off, but for $6, I can do that. Hello!"

She tossed it into her rapidly-filling shopping cart. Fortson-Williams, who blogs about her thrift shop forays at http://www.glamorousthrifting.blogspot.com/, was on a roll, not just shopping but talking nonstop about her passion of shopping secondhand stores. Many of the outfits she wears on air as a features correspondent, she gets from thrift stores. She's a proud thrift-a-holic, even if she sometimes gets the stink-eye for it when she tells people.

"I've heard people say, 'I'm not going to the thrift store. I'm not wearing something that somebody else wore.' I say, 'OK, more for me.'

"I'm telling you, when they hear the word thrift store, there's this idea that it's funky or crusty. You just have to have a little patience and you'll find some really good stuff . . . look at that!"

She'd noticed a bright blue Danny & Nicole short-sleeved mini dress in a blue flower print.

"It's going to be $3.50," Fortson-Williams said, tossing it into her cart.

"I like this," she said, holding up a brightly colored summer dress with a Marshalls tag on it. "It's $5.99. It still has the tags on it. I'm taking that . . . I go for patterns, or if it's colored or embellished.

"The thing for me is getting something that's different."

Which is why she's eyeing a black velvet jacket with wide white lapels embellished with beads. That could come in handy come holiday season, I tell her.

"I'm going to like wearing this jacket with skinny jeans and heels."

Besides her television show, the Temple University graduate also co-hosts "The Ladies Room with Sheila and Shay" on Tuesday nights, 10 p.m. at wifiam1460.com.

But that's not a job you have to dress up for. What does she do with so many clothes? She must be swimming in them, I thought before posing the question to her. It turns out that she's converted the entire third floor of her home into a giant closet for her thrift-store finds.

I watched as Fortson-Williams peered closely at a white dress before reaching into her purse for a wet wipe that she used to try to remove a stain.

"Yeah, that's going to come out. It might need a little soap, but I'll try it," she said, before tossing the cocktail dress into the cart. "Everything I pick up is just so cute today."

We were circling back around, retracing our steps. One thing you can say about the Glam Thrifter is she's thorough, careful not to leave a bargain behind.

"Some of this stuff has been here for a while," she told me under her breath.

The competition - other savvy shoppers - was hovering. One woman with long hair extensions had snagged an enviable find, a vintage black coat with a real mink collar and cuffs for just $15. Fortson-Williams nodded to another expert shopper, a middle-aged woman to the rear of the store who was watching Forston-Williams the way Fortson-Williams was watching her.

"I saw them when they pulled into the parking lot and I thought to myself, 'damm it.' "

Luckily, this shopper didn't stray into the merchandise we were perusing. We were free to search. And although I hadn't expected to find anything to buy, I found a burgundy Banana Republic dress for $6.99 and a black pin-striped sheath with white piping for just $3.

"I love, love, love what I do," Fortson-Williams said, finally satisfied that she'd completely picked over the store.

Her tally for the outing: 34 items for less than $72. I hadn't done too badly, either. What's not to love about that?