In an effort to create personalized styles, it has also become a trendy thing to go thrift shopping. Thrift stores resell a wide variety of second-hand items which makes the items cheaper, and unique since they are not being manufactured in huge factories. Stores like these become appealing to teenagers who have low sources of personal income and want to build their own image with vintage and unique pieces. It takes awhile to sift through the racks and racks of clothing but thrifting is very beneficial for the environment, and supports the economy.
Thrifting allows for those in lower-economic statuses to have access to clothes within reasonable prices. This helps the economy because instead of saving their money by not buying any clothes, they stimulate the economy by buying less expensive, second-hand clothes. Also, thrifting saves the environment greatly. Reusing material reduces the average American’s carbon footprint and makes a global impact. Donated clothes make their ways around the world to overseas places such as Africa. This promotes social business and economic business as it proves 17,000 jobs in the United States and 100,000 jobs in Africa.
The next time you feel like updating your wardrobe, feel good about visiting a thrift store for fun finds and fulfilling benefits.
Like you have mentioned, a lot of people buy go "cool-hunting" and buy from brands that are trendy or in-style as determined by the majority and I believe that some brands battle this demand decrease by selling certain items or designs in a limited time frame to prevent supplies from increasing. One brand that pops into my mind is the hype beast brand called: Supreme. I guess it is safe to conclude that our community(from what I see of Bay Area) collectively finds the hype beast style to be trendy or "cool people wear" with the amount of people there are willing to spend a couple of hundreds of dollars on a T-shirt they can get for $20 at most at Wal-Mart. I bring the brand up for this one interaction with an avid buyer of Supreme never seems to leave my mind. When I asked, "Why do a lot of people like Supreme so much?" the person replied curtly with, "because it is cool." I prompted them to go further and explain what made the brand so special and later learned that in addition to its limited quantity of goods, the brands original intent was to reach the skateboarding community which explains its wide spread in communities dominated by teens and the image of the brand associated with the "cool" or "rebel" kind of vibe. As a uniform free school, people support the idea of how we dress freely expresses who we are as a person and what we like, I find that people go after these brands with mind boggling prices to either fit in and get whisked away by the currents of the trends or to feel special about how rare of a catch their attire is. Even though certain brands would do an exclusive collab. with other popular brands from time to time to renew their contents or keep reeling people in to have their brand stay relevant; nothing really beats the imagination and the creativity of a human mind. In other words, I do believe that thrift shopping has a lot of positive affects than people realize or know and should be more appreciated rather than ridiculed as how it often ends up being.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered about the relation of economics with thrifting. I love thrifting because the benefits to the environment and the possibility of finding new "treasures." Thrifting seems to be the best option for teens who are wanting to be "trendy" since there are constantly new finds that can be styled in different ways, and there is a constant demand. Unlike trendy fashions where their demands decrease as supply increases, thrifting steadily maintains a strong demand sense it offers new products with little expense. When I first ask my friends to come thrifting with me, I get comments about it being "dirty" or "messy." However, the reward often outweighs the cost, with thrifting's constant update in style, its sustainability for the environment, and its lack of support for fast fashion brands.
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting is that large companies probably know about thrift-store style shopping, and attempt to market products to appeal to that idea, whether or not they really are selling items for cheaper. One potential example of this is ripped jeans. They are very frequently sold in stores with the knees already ripped out. From a solely business perspective, this makes absolutely no sense, since there is no practical use for the rips in jeans. However, I would hazard a guess and say that ripped jeans became popular as a result of something similar to thrifting, in that an item of clothing that was particularly cheap became a fashion statement, making more companies try to sell it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how the thrifting business has changed in the last 5 or so years. As you point out, it's now a "trendy" activity. Not even a decade ago, stores like Goodwill were often looked down on by wealthy and even middle class people, and buying second hand clothes was thought of as something for those who couldn't afford any better. I think thrifting being a "trend" is a great thing for the reasons you mention, especially because it encourages reusing and upcycling, and may deter some consumers from supporting environmentally ignorant and unethical fast-fashion brands. It's also interesting to consider the Internet's role in this, as I think the thrifting trend was definitely encouraged online.
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