Second-hand no longer a second choice

By Alyssa Leonard.

Resale. Consignment. Vintage. Thrift.

Second-hand shops have many names and over the years what was once viewed as a last resort has become a popular shopping alternative for people of all income levels.

Some people search for discounted name brands, some for the thrill of finding unique items not found in local stores. For others it is the affordability, as second-hand products are often sold at half the price of their original value.

One of the most well known second-hand shops is Goodwill. Goodwill’s mission is to offer job training and placement programs for people who would otherwise have trouble finding work.

Morgan Gretzky, a former Goodwill employee, answered one of the most popular questions about second-hand clothes — are they washed before they are put on the floor? No; at least, not at Goodwill. In fact, Gretzky strongly recommended customers wash their clothes before wearing them as Goodwill often receives donations in “gross” conditions.

“It’s like [people] thought donation bin and dumpster bin were synonymous,” said Gretzky. “And it wasn’t just the clothing…the furniture or the electronics would get dropped off in obviously unuseable conditions.”

Gretzky said anything deemed unusable or hazardous was immediately thrown out. Another popular myth answered — do employees have first dibs on incoming product?

“That is explicitly forbidden,” said Gretzky. “In fact, they have a rule. It has to be out on the floor for 24 hours before you are allowed to [purchase] it.”

There’s actually some ethical debate about shopping at thrift stores; some people believe only those in need should be allowed to shop there. But as one anonymous Reddit user put in a Change My View thread, “the charity aspect of Goodwill and [the] Salvation Army isn’t that they offer cheap clothes to poor people; they operate used clothing stores in order to fund their actual charitable ventures.”

“When you shop there, you’re monetarily supporting those causes. Those stores don’t exist so poor people can buy their clothes there, they’re so the organizations can use the proceeds to provide things like clothes and shelter and food and job training to the poor for free.”

Last year alone The Salvation Army Thrift Store’s 2017 Send a Kid to Camp campaign raised  $170,862 and were able to send 776 low-income kids to summer camp.

According to Google maps, Windsor has around two dozen second-hand shops, but not all are the same. A consignment store sells people’s items, paying them a percentage of the selling price. A resale store buys a person’s item upfront and pays in either cash or store credit. A vintage store typically sells clothing at least one decade old. Lastly, a thrift store is a “not for profit” store. It sells donated items and is usually associated with a church or charity.

Gretzky said she likes to mix up her shopping with both new and second-hand purchases.

“I enjoy thrifting because you get more bang for your buck and you can find those kind of unique pieces,” said Gretzky. “But there is definitely a thrill in buying the clothes new sometimes, too. I do definitely enjoy that aspect of it. It’s a nice balance.”

Many second-hand shops have taken to selling their products online, from Ebay to Amazon and now to Facebook.

Lisa Berbynuk is the owner of Closet Cravings, a ladies’ upscale consignment boutique located near the border of Tecumseh and Windsor. It first opened in July 2016. Berbynuk said she finds Facebook to be an “excellent tool” for second-hand selling and posts images of different outfits received to show what Closet Cravings has. Sometimes people come in and want the whole outfit or just a piece of it.

“I don’t even know how people did it before &#; Follow us because we post on it every day,” said Berbynuk. “We always like to say it’s like Christmas morning in here because we never know what we’re getting. We’re always surprised by all the new items coming in from the different consigners so we like to showcase that to all of our followers.”

Berbynuk said by buying second-hand, people are also doing their part to keep these otherwise perfectly good items out of landfills. According to Value Village’s website, 26 billion pounds of clothing are sent to landfills each year.

To avoid excess amounts of garbage, people are encouraged to donate their clothing. This adds variety and affordable options for thrift shoppers and makes for a cleaner environment. In the words of Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA, “there is no such thing as ‘away.’ When we throw anything away it must go somewhere.”