on the topic of thrift stores

3DG 12/19/2021 10:35 pm 607

i feel like a lot of people nowadays are discouraging others from buying from thrift stores and it really bugs me deeply. i have found that a lot of people make assumptions about what people can/cant afford and make even more about why they are shopping in secondhand stores in the first place. fast fashion is never good, period, so i really dont understand why so many people are encouraged to shop fast fashion just because they can "afford it". theres a big difference in people buying clothes secondhand, then reselling them on places like depop vs people who just realized that thrift stores arent only for the very very poor and have since been frequenting them for new clothing. why are people discouraging others from shopping at thrift stores instead of encouraging them to DONATE clothes more often, or upcycling clothes that they no longer wear instead of selling them online? why are people encouraged to buy from depop sellers instead of buying directly from thrift, when these clothes so often come from thrift stores anyway? what makes someone "able to afford" new clothes from fast fashion sellers anyway? if i can afford to buy half of my clothes from, lets say, hot topic, am i then "allowed" to buy the other half from thrift stores? a lot of people often also disregard the idea that a lot of people arent in control of what stores they are allowed to buy from, anyway. i grew up EXCLUSIVELY only allowed to buy clothes from thrift stores, and i hated myself for it at the time. the recent uptick of business at thrift stores makes me feel, in a way, empowered, and vindicated about the amount of bullying that i faced from being forced to shop there. telling people that they need to be "poor enough"to shop at thrift stores pushes forward the stigma that these stores are exclusively for the impoverished and reclaims the idea that people like me, when i was young, are ostracized. start donating clothes. start upcycling your old clothes. make people who NEED to shop at thrift stores feel not alone and cared about instead of punishing people who dont NEED to who choose to anyway.

tldr: stop telling people to stop shopping secondhand unless you are certain theyre doing it out of malice. donate to your local thrift store and minimize clothing waste. donate things that are fashionable and nice to wear. its okay to make a CHOICE to shop secondhand

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Phosfate
Member

Jun 18, 2023 12:06 pm

My only gatekeepy thing about thrift store clothing is that if you don't need large sizes, don't buy them to "cut down and remake into something super cuuuuute" like certain YouTube kids do. Big folks have an awful time finding clothes at any price, and thinning the pool is really thoughtless.

Otherwise, thrift clothing is often high quality and its second life will serve you very well. Be careful of pants because they tend to take the previous owner's shape more than skirts. Plush should be quarantined in a plastic bag because it can bring tiny hitchhikers to the rest of your collection. Donate when you can, and if you sew learn to make unusable clothing into other things.

Also whoever started the vogue for organizing thrift shop clothing by color rather than size should have a drink thrown in their face.

Byte_Kandi
Member

Jun 18, 2023 10:42 am

The deals are so worth it, that stealing isn't! One time at a thrift store, I found a CRT screen tv that was literally $5!

WormOffTheString
Guest

Dec 20, 2021 8:42 am

@V4MP1RE_GUTZZ: same i have having lots of clothes

vampirefir
l33t

Dec 20, 2021 8:26 am

yeah I feel a lot of us grew up needing to only buy from secondhand stores (based on the comments) and the stigma is ridiculous. Let people shop where they will, but also be informed on the cost of fast fashion.

get_crunkkk
Member

Dec 20, 2021 8:09 am

i feel most ppl are talking abt ppl that buy cartfulls of shit from thrift stores just to resell them for 3x the price? buying from a thrift store is fine if you are planning to wear/use/etc it, but buying half the store just to make them more expensive is a dick move

V4MP1RE_GUTZZ
Member

Dec 20, 2021 6:00 am

@WormOffTheString: yeah i donate a shit ton of my old clothing n books to thrift stores n most of the time just straight up shelters, i have a couple bags of clothing saved that i gotta donate sometime this week

WormOffTheString
Guest

Dec 20, 2021 5:55 am

@V4MP1RE_GUTZZ: i feel like you should donate what u dont like to buy more

V4MP1RE_GUTZZ
Member

Dec 20, 2021 4:44 am

the fact that u mentioned buying from fvckin hot topic just irks me but that's not the said topic here

im not somebody to discourage, idk why but i always feel like ppl r referring to me when they make whole ass threads so sry if i sound a certain way

i only tell ppl to not shop at thrift stores IF they can afford to buy new clothing because theres only so much to go around to the ppl in need, those vloggers who fvckin b like "thrift haul <333" but then two days later will b like "$300 shein haul <3333" (yes there was a creator w those exact two titles" THATS WHATS FRUSTRATING

3DG
Member

Dec 20, 2021 12:03 am

@tranquil_totoro: i understand how you feel. i grew up the exact same way. it was embarrassing and othering. i think the difference now is simply a different way of thinking that a lot of people have adopted. as much as i resent the way i was treated for being forced to buy from thrift stores, i cant help but feel relieved for kids nowadays who are in the same position that i once was but simply dont need to worry about the aspect of being ashamed of where they shop. growing up the way that we did (and a lot of other poor people did) was miserable. im just glad that that stigma is fading away for future generations

Stevie_Burton
Member

Dec 19, 2021 11:33 pm

as someone who grew up poor to the point that we had to get most if not all of our clothing from thrift stores, it truly infuriates me how i got bullied so much for wearing hand-me-downs and for getting clothes from thrift stores, and that now it's considered trendy. do you know how fvcking much i hated getting clothes from the thrift store as a kid? i genuinely hated wearing them and i was literally so fvcking embarassed to wear them, let alone my hand-me-downs, even though i had no choice. it just infuriates me.

now, it's trendy to buy clothing from thrift stores. where's the fucking logic in that?

on the topic of thrift stores

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