Little Village Thrift Store ` The Xavierite
Old cameras, your favorite clothing brands, rare sneakers, and collectibles of all sorts. What do these things all have in common? You’re able to find them through resellers online or in stores.
Sometimes you’re not able to just walk into a department store and find exactly what you’re looking for. Stores often have limited options and high prices. But fear not, for you still have the option of thrifting.
However, resellers these days are making it difficult for people to shop second hand by listing their items unreasonably high.
Thrifting has been around since the early 19th century, as a way of recycling clothes or exchanging goods. There has always been a stigma surrounding thrifting, as it was seen as unsanitary and a sign of poverty. It has become more popularized within Gen Z over the past couple years, through apps like TikTok and Instagram.
People have even made thrifting a side hustle by buying rare clothing items and reselling them to people online. Thrifting is also used to get rid of items that people have deemed as useless. In the late 90’s, Ebay came around, giving people a platform to sell worldwide.
The platform Depop was started around 2011, and grew in popularity, becoming the most popular selling platform. So the idea of second hand shopping has been translated online and expanded business for people.
And clothes aren’t the only thing being resold. People are listing items ranging from concert tickets all the way to dinner wear.
This solves the problem of overflowing landfills and gives objects opportunities for a second use.
One man’s garbage can be another man’s treasure. This idea is awesome in theory, but in practice, problems arise.
Resellers are taking advantage of consumers and the demand for rare items. They know that the seller may not find it elsewhere, so they use that as a way to raise the price, and end up making good money.
In a free market, the idea of low supply paired with high demand is likely to lead to price increase. In department stores this would make sense, as the items are being sold brand new. It’s also understandable for someone to sell a vintage item for a higher price.
It starts to get tricky when sellers overprice items for much more than they’re worth. This includes people buying affordable items in thrift stores and marking up the price online. This business practice takes away access to affordable clothes for those who need it.
Exploiting the practice of thrifting is selfish and cruel towards those with a financial need. Second-hand shopping should be a resource for those that are trying to budget and unable to buy new name brand clothes
Second-hand shopping becomes useless once the prices start to resemble those of retail stores. Say for example someone is unable to find a certain brand of jeans in their size. They go online and find exactly whey they are looking for, but it’s being resold for twice the price of the original.
They can’t control the circumstances they’ve come across, and now their wallet will have to suffer the consequences, all because someone wanted to make a quick buck.
It might look good for them at the moment, but if second hand prices continue to inflate, people will no longer engage with thrifting outlets. Thrifting would end up losing its sparkle of great finds with cheap prices.
People will not come back to buy again, when they can buy the item in store for much cheaper. In the end, they will end up competing with retail stores.
Resellers should sell with the intention of helping their consumers, if they want to keep this culture alive. They have to learn how to balance pricing items with their value while drawing a line between fair and unreasonable.