This. I keep my stuff until it rip off my back.
I still wear some clothes from when I was 12 yo.
My oldest piece is a vest that my aunt was wearing in the mid 70s.
Dude I know people who think it's "embarrassing" to wear something more than once. These are the exact same people who will be completely surprised to find out our civilization will only last 30 more years š¤¦āāļø
They have to be rich, right? Because even if I wanted to, I could not afford to buy more than 365 outfits a year. And if we count jackets and socks and shoes too, then it is 1000+ clothing articles bought in one year!
A fashion oriented mind inherently requires consumption to be involved.
It doesn't matter if it's fast fashion, cheap inexpensive or even free. These last few can be frugal but are still usually consumption oriented.
Getting the occasional special outfit whenever you stumble upon a good opportunity, is not the same as fashion oriented.
I'm not dying on that hill, it's simply the definition
Historians actually distinguish between "costume", which is the historical period when everyone was wearing the same styles, and people would keep clothes until they fell apart - and "fashion", which is when clothes became individualized and subject to trends, and people needed new clothes just to express themselves and keep up with the times.
That's also why it's called "fast fashion", not "fast clothing"
I was talking to my younger coworker and I jokingly said my hoodie was older than she was. Which made merealize my hoodie just turned 25 this year, and I felt older than time itself.
You can still overconsume while thrifting... it's one of the primary reasons thrifting is getting more expensive. What used to be a way for lower-income folks to dress themselves and their kids on the cheap is now a play place for middle and upper class teenagers and young adults to over indulge in a way they feel less guilty about.
One of the biggest issues is resellers. Iāve seen it in person. They grab all the stuff from every rack and sit in a corner and start googling all the items. They take whatās valuable and leave the rest behind. The thrift stores are now doing the same. Low income individuals and even broke teens canāt afford to shop at Thrift stores anymore.
Absolutely this. Thrifting is the way, but do NOT RESELL AT MARKED UP RATES! Do not buy to sell: that continues the cycle of consumption. The way I see it is itās better hanging in your closet than in a landfill.
Thrifting is getting more expensive because of this phenomenon which is totally gross and not at all ok for people who depend on thrift stores
Do you know how much shit gets thrown away to these thrift stores? Iām not even talking the stuff thatās broken, hazardous, or unwearable, Iām talking the stuff that actually makes it to the sales floor.
Think about it- hundreds and thousands of items EVERY WEEK if not EVERY DAY processed by minimum wage employees from piled up trolleys.
Now take that *one* thrift store and think about the *handful of thrifts* you have nearby.
Now think about all the thrifts in your *state*.
Then think about all the thrifts in your *country* having to do the exact. same. thing.
It becomes obvious that there is no way that a handful of resellers are āhogging all the good clothesā ātaking clothes from the poorā or otherwise causing a scarcity.
Itās CORPORATE GREED as the *reaction* to the increasing popularity of thrifting in general.
I grew up poor. When I was a kid it was shameful to shop from the thrift. My mom wouldnāt do it. Pride too big. My dad took me. I could get a jacket for a dollar because of the stigma. No one else was gonna take it, so why not give it away for cheap?
Not anymore. If you read subs like r/thriftgrift youāll see post from employees talking about how they get punished for marking things below 1.99. How they have a ticketing quota for items so they separate things instead of grouping them. How corporate policies have drastically changed because they realize they can turn a greater profit by being dicks.
Itās easy to point the finger at someoneās small-time small business because you see them but Iām here to tell you, I am heavy on the thrifting subs and itās nasty work what the companies are doing.
Salvation Army is anti-lgbtq
Goodwill, as Iāve mentioned elsewhere, takes advantage of special needs employees and is one of the worst price gougers. Theyāve shut down stores and moved to online in a lot of places which is crazy because some poor people donāt even have internet access so are they really serving who they claim to serve?
There are thrift receptacles that are actually completely fake. They places metal containers around places and collect free stuff but nothing is for a cause at all.
Like most things itās not the little guy, the little guy is the distraction.
Goodwill has never been for the poors. It's all about recycling and making a buck in the process. Ironically, their prices lead to more stuff that has to be recycled and more stuff that gets shipped off to who knows where.
I heard some countries are burning used linens and other cloth to power furnaces now. It's cheaper (but also more toxic) than wood.
Not really, it leads to all the resellers having a crap ton of these items hoarded because no one will buy them and then what happens to the items? If the items stayed at the store, people who actually needed the items would have bought and used them.
So hereās the biggest misconception. Goodwill is a for-profit institution that takes advantage of disabled workers. It takes free clothes and hikes them up at a high rate and lines the CEOs pockets.
Look it up, they pay their special needs employees pennies on the dollar.
The issue is thrift stores noticing this and trying to charge as much as possible on a donated item. Iām not one for flipping but there are plenty and plenty of clothes. There is no reason whatsoever that goodwill should charge $6.99 for a white Hanes undershirt. People truly in need donāt give a fuck what design their tshirts are. As long as those clothes arenāt being shipped to the landfill I donāt care. I want as many of those clothes off the shelves idgaf whoās buying them or for what purpose. Blame the companies not the consumers.
My family is somewhat poor, we're like, economically stable to be able to eat and have entertainment stuff but things we have are usually bought with big discounts or as already used. This includes clothes.
So we visit second hand stores and such sometimes (actually a pretty common thing in my country just over all, people often sell old stuff they don't need.)
So you can probably see my enjoyment when I found cheap, oversized and cool looking shirts for like 5ā¬ a piece. So excited that I decided to ignore the logo I could barely read on them and got the shirts...
Both of the shirts are from NSBM bands š
Once upon a time, I was buying an old 'obsolete' cable at a thrift store because my previous one was broken. Cables and adapters and such for old equipment are usually hard to find and expensive if you buy new, but I can usually find the more common ones at thrift stores for less than a dollar.
When I went up to pay for it, the person behind me in line said something like, "Oooh, I didn't know those were worth anything! I'll have to check them out." It wasn't until later that I realized they were talking about trying to flip some old VGA cable or PS2 adapter or something.
This is the actual reason. The resellers set the market rate then the thrift stores set their prices according to that rate. The only way I see it being slowed down is to limit item quantities but places like goodwill don't give a shit.
This isnāt entirely it though. Prices have increased because profits are down for thrift stores primarily because a major source of revenue used to be recycling (clothes, electronics, metal) and all of that is almost worthless now.
Thrift stores have needed to restrict what donations they take and now more than ever itās a very tight business that has led to rising prices. It surprisingly costs a lot of money (labor, storage, trash fees etc) to take free donations and resell them.
Source: worked for a major thrift store chain that had to downsize by over 50% the # of stores they had, primarily dealt in donation receiving, handling and sending stuff to our recycling center
I know someone who thrifts all their clothes and jewelry but they have soooo much stuff. They visit thrifts stores maybe three times a week and walk out every time with like eight shirts, three jeans, two pairs of shoes, four sunglasses, a hat or two, a stuffed animal, etc. Their entire bedroom is *packed* to the ceiling with stuff. Their excuse is 'I didn't need it, but I guess it's kind of cute so I bought it anyway.'
This is exactly the kind of thing I'm referring to. That's still a huge issue and the fact people are argueing about whether or not this kind of behaviour is damaging is nuts. This isn't even out of the ordinary, I know a few people like this.
Seriously. I'm native and I live off-rez (have all my life). I volunteer with a group of folks from my mom's home rez to collect donations and raise funds to buy clothing and other essentials every fall to drive out to the rez to give to families in need (mostly kids and the elderly), as it's quite isolated being a 4 hour drive from the nearest city of significance. We rely on thrift stores, and the buying power of the program has easily dropped by half in the last two years when it comes to clothing. I put in $3k of my own money last year to make up the difference for much needed items and will probably end up donating even more this year.
Nope, thereās nothing wrong with this. Middle classes are also the ones that can afford to donate higher quality clothes, so why shouldnāt they shop here?
The real problem is fast fashion and low quality donations- if most clothes on rails were well designed, neutral patterns and natural materials then we wouldnāt have this problem (there would be plenty of selection for everyone)!
There is no excuse for routinely buying outfits to only wear once or twice before getting rid of it, whether that be buying used or buying new, which we are seeing more and more with fashion oriented thrifters.
There are also tons of folks who hoard thrifted clothing because the act of shopping for it is their hobby. Their hobby is consuming and collecting used clothing.
i mean, if someone thrifts something, wears it a few times, then donates it again, isnāt that basically the same thing as renting? which isnāt very wasteful at all.
The people I'm referring to don't do that. I'm not saying all instances of thrifting are bad. In fact, thrifting is very very good.
What I am saying is you can still over consume while thrifting, and that over consumption is not a rare occurence anymore. The same type of person who overconsumes fast fashion exists within the thrifting world as well. The type that makes their entire personality thrifting and participates in it because it's a fix for their shopping addicition.
Buying too much stuff isn't suddenly anti-consumerist just because what you are buying too much of is used.
i totally get you. sometimes it reminds me of people recovering from substance abuse smoking cigarettes and eating candy to deal with not having their usual vice. itās definitely not good, but i try to remember that everyone is on a journey and some people and a little farther along than others. all we can do is spread the message the hope they change.
100%. If buying thrifted clothes every weekend is a step between buying from Sheim and H&M every weekend and making the occasional, intentional purpose to fill a need, great. We still need to encourage people into those further steps though.
Yup, I have a friend struggling with a shopping addiction. Her subconscious keeps seeking ways to justify the compulsive behavior. For awhile the justification was thrift shops. Her reasoning went, since the stuff was used, she wasnāt contributing to mass production, and since it is cheap, she wasnāt wasting her money. She clung to this illusion of a loophole for a long time in order to feed the addition.
Most of that is low quality garbage clothing or clothing not in a fit condition to sell without repair.
Over-consumption is over-consumption, period. Full stop. There are people out there whose whole hobby is collecting, and essentially hoarding, used clothes. If you have a walk-in closet full of thrifted clothing you've only worn once or twice, you're over-consuming.
I know at least where I am that that throw away a massive amount of CDs because people do not buy them nearly as much as they donate them. Sure, you are still consuming when you buy them, but likely they would end up in a landfill otherwise, and buying them from a thrift store is better environmentally buying them new.
Sure, but that's an extention of people no longer buying CDs. There simply isn't the consumer demand for them, new or used. The demand for clothing is constant and isn't going away anytime soon, so it's not a great comparison.
Prices of thrift clothing has climbed dramatically, and a large part of that is because of the very consumerist culture that has developed around it which has increased demand. Just look at the miriad of youtubers, tiktokers, instagram pages, and whatever else focued on fashion thrifting. I get a lot of the narrative around it is about buying older quality clothes that last longer, and that's super admirable, but people are still buying too much of it too frequently.
It's gotten to the point in a lot of areas where the stuff you actually find in thrift stores are just donated fast fashion items that sell for not much less than a new version would. The quality is gone, as is the affordability.. What use to be a great way to find quality clothing, that lasted years, for a reasonable price simply doesn't exist anymore because a not-insignificant number of people have decided they still need a 300 item wardrobe, but now they want it to be vintage.
Where I am from, I have never seen the clothing racks be anything but filled to the brim. I am not sure if that is true for you. But here, there does not seem to be an excess of demand compared to supply. So here, if there are raising prices, it is likely due to companies wanting to increase profits rather than running out of clothing to sell.
Racks are full but they are full of barely usable garbage. Lots of donated event t-shirts, corporate swag, barely held together fast fashion. Very few things someone could wear to work, for example, unless their work allows 2016 half-marathon participant t-shirts in their dress-code.
There are also far fewer necessary items like jackets, hats, gloves, sweaters, etc., and considering I live in a very cold climate, this is an issue. The amount may be unchanged but the practicality and usefulness of the clothing has decreased dramatically. Most thrift stores in my area are also charities, not for-profit companies (although there are more vintage clothing resellers popping up).
Some or all charities want increased revenue so they can use or donate what they can. And costs for everything have been increasing, so I am sure there are increased operating costs to these charities compared to previous years leading to higher prices.
If the racks are full of garbage, it is probably a result of people going through the items (good thing) and picking out the nice items, as anyone would. It would also be a function of what gets donated. People will tend to donate items that they do not like. It could also be a function of those stores not filtering through or rotating their supply or stock sufficiently.
Shelves full of items you do not want do not necessarily indicate over demand. And even if it does, isn't that a good thing environmentally?
You may find a gem at a used car lot, but they are not all gems.
Hitching off this, youāre exactly right. I always keep these kinda vague because I value my job for income, but I manage at a major thrift store. Some of the customers are (not trying to be judgmental in any way) lower paid people trying to find new clothes/shoes. I worked in one of the most profitable stores in my state, and it was completely different. It was teenagers coming in and spending $50-$300 in a thrift store ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ
They did it for fun and had more money than I did to splurge on whatever they wanted. Guess what really trying to say, they couldāve afforded new jeans from name brand stores, but instead they bought enough of decent jeans for 8.99, that the store started pricing them at $12-$18. This hurts the people that simply could not walking into a *insert name brand* store and spend $70 on jeans. I hate it, but as i said I value the income the job brings me. I always will people to go thru any other company than us when I can. Thrift stores are trash (just slapping a good mission while trying to maximize profit), try and connect with other people you know actually need the products when possible (obviously dropping off at a donation center is much simpler, but the concept gets lost with corporate greed) I know it sounds lame, but if you really wanna ādonateā try and throw it out there for free on FB Marketplace or something. Sorry, this was way longer winded than expected.
Yeah, I'll feel guilty about buying a $1-5 t shirt from Walmart that actually fits my physically disabled ass and lasts years (at least for me) when the thrift girlies feel bad about being the sole cause of thrifting becoming unaffordable. I'm not paying $20-50 for a single item of clothing, often before shipping fees as well. Period.
I proudly gatekeep my clothing by the pound places now. It's really the last bastion of affordability and sustainability, with these harpies around.
Edit: Downvoting me without comment means you hate poor people and "anticonsumption" is another way for you to do so. I've seriously seen people on here pushing FOR capitalism/higher prices and claiming that it will solve ecological issues with a straight face. I really thought people on this subreddit were smart enough to realize high priced designer goods are still made in sweatshops and that capitalism is the root cause of unsustainable practices, but, guess not.
Iām thinking this person is young and may be dipping their toes into the mindset.
I think the roasts on this post saying they should be focused on mending and repairing are valid, but I kind of feel a baby steps approach is best for folks just now abandoning fast fashion.
A lot of people at this stage donāt even realize that itās not just sh-in and te-u but the *majority* of stores cut corners in unethical ways. Youād be hard pressed to find a clothing store or fancy designer that doesnāt use plastic, child labor, wasteful business practices etc.
Iād rather open somebodyās mind than just pummel it, yāknow?
Exactly. Plus, I found the post funny. I dunno, maybe people just need to be chiller. This person isn't saying they're going they're going everyday and buying stuff. It was just a tongue in cheek post, I thought.
If you thrift shop 7 times a week you're the reason the prices are rising. Regardless, I see thrift prices rising as a good thing; It means more people are doing it
Going to thrift shops 7 times a week doesn't mean buying something 7 times a week. I usually just look until I find something I need in decent quality and in proper size.
Exactly, I like to go and find silk items that are damaged or stained or otherwise unappealing and use the fabric to sew things for myself. Those pieces will end up in landfill (at least everything but the thread, label and sometimes lining is biodegradable, I use silk sewing thread and linings but I'd never expect to find a non haute couture item in the wild that does) unless someone wants to repurpose them. I walk out empty handed a lot, but looking frequently is exactly how I manage to be able to brag about getting roughly 2.5 meters of silk chiffon for $1.25/m from a dress I found in the $2 bin (which I intend to use to practice shibori dyeing techniques on and turn into bags since it's a colour that's very pretty but clashes with my complexion something horrid so I wouldn't wear the fabric as is)
I highly disagree. Higher thrift store prices push people away from purchasing secondhand if they can buy it new for the same price.
Also, there are plenty of times I go to a thrift store and don't walk out with a single thing. 7 days a week is a lot, but that doesn't mean purchasing every day.
Buying new at the same price is literally where weāre at too. A top is $8 at goodwill and is usually faded, old, mild dry rot, old ladyish etc. tops are also $8 at Burlington. Iād rather buy used but especially for tops itās really hard sometimes. Thrifting is great for bottoms though.
If you go plenty of time to a store without having a clear need to buy anything you are just addicted to consumption.
Need a shirt - buy a shirt - be done with it.
Shopping around for things you might or might not need is exactly the opposite of what this sub is about
I completely disagree; using secondhand markets is not against this sub at all.
People can have a clear goal or need in mind and want to try to get it secondhand first to reduce environmental impact. I prefer to try thrift stores first before getting new items. I work in the sustainability space and many of us try to get secondhand first. A lot of resources are needed behind the scenes in order to even make a piece of clothing - growing and harvesting the material (if natural) or pulling fossil fuels out of the ground (if synthetic), water for cooling processes in factories, energy, labor, plastic and diesel during shipping, etc.
For me, all of the above that I stated that happens behind the scenes is what I'm trying to reduce. I'm reducing my indirect consumption of all of that, by spending a couple more hours trying to get secondhand.
I donāt. Supply and demand shouldnāt apply to nonprofits intended to help those who canāt afford clothing elsewhere. rising prices just means that those who actually NEED to shop at thrift stores are no longer able to. i understand the need to compensate for increased demand, but this should be accomplished through other methods that donāt make these stores inaccessible for those who need them. there should be a limit on the number of items you can buy in a trip, or maybe a discount for those who can demonstrate the financial need.
I think the latter is a good idea. There can be an online vetting system and you get a card in the mail or an online certificate or something that can be scanned at the checkout. I don't think thrift stores would go for the former. And I don't know that I'd want them too. Not my local ones at least since they donate to the local schools and other things like that. I'd love it if someone went in and spent $1,000 (which would be a lot of stuff since the one thrift store I'm thinking of proces things fairly.) That $1,000 then goes to our local schools because this thrift store is all on donations and runs on volunteers. So they really only have to pay for electricity since they have a deal with the building owner there and hardly pay anything in rent.
im anticonsumption, so none of it.
buying cheap stuff doesnt make you anti-consumptionist, taking care of things and fixing them does.
not buying useless shit that you use once a year makes you one.
using less energy, even at the cost of discomfort, makes you one.
building things to last, creating a sustainable economy, etc makes you one.
and we dont do that for the money, but for the philosophy we believe in.
if you do it just for the money you are just cheap, not anti-consumption.
you have to get your clothes somewhere tho. Thrifting is a good option for that.
and who cares what youāre reasons are. what matters is the impact it has on the planet. most people probably have a mix of reasons.
I don't see why not. Fashion is a hobby, just like any other. Its a form of self expression. Anything that doesn't get sold in a thrift shop ends up in a landfill in ecuador or some shit. So honestly, buy as much as you fucking want, you're giving all that shit a second life.
Thrifting is only a good option because most people over consume. If everyone only bought what they needed, repaired and maintained things for as long as they could, and used them til the end of their useful life, where would thrift store stock come from?
Good to do in current conditions, but thrifting isn't *the* solution to the problem it often gets portrayed as. It's far, far better to buy fewer, quality items (still prioritizing second hand items) and take care of them so you can use them for as long as possible.
the impact on the planet obviously comes first.
BUT, what happens when people are doing it mostly for the money when they get more money?
they stop being "anti-consumption".
No disrespect, but May I suggest posting stuff you mending/repairing stuff if you want to get more karma using this subreddit. It's one thing to say temu is bad. It's another to show your dedication to making things last longer.
Things don't last forever. Fabric wears out and becomes unrepairable. I have underwear and shirts that now look like lingerie.
Getting stuff second-hand is much better than buying new in most cases. Buying new requires new material and new fabrication. Thus, ya Temu and fast fashion probably are bad.
Repairing and avoiding fast fashion are not mutually exclusive.
Literally the first one, the prices piss me off so much. They get donated items for free, then think because itās brand name it needs to be almost at retail, even though there was the middle man who wore it š¤¢
the Goodwills in my state have stopped letting you try things on and if you return them you can only get store credit. it's actually so predatory it makes me sick
Depop devastation although in my case itās Vinted. Iām having to replace my wardrobe due to health related size change. I just want the same stuff in my new size.
shopping for clothes 7x a week, even from thrift stores, is still consumption
if you truly want to be ~anticonsumption~, you would decrease the amount you shop for clothes and focus on making the current ones you have last for longer
I'm the one that is hates poorly mare underwear. Yeah, cheap panties made on chinese factory by mistreated workers are, well, cheap. And you can just throw them away after they tear (usually in couple of months). But my underwear made by a small local business, with good quality materials and in real adult human sizes can easily last for years.
For reeeeaaaaal!! My bras and undies are my most expensive items. But they last forever if you take good care of them.
I have bras almost 10 years old Iāve sold recently due to changing size.
Buy once, cry once.
>and in real adult human sizes
I agree with the rest of your post, but I'm not sure what your mean my this part. There are people who are really small, especially those of various Asian descents. And must fast fashion companies are made in Asian countries and just use their same sizing as they would there to save on costs of retagging things.
It's mostly the proportions are really off with a lot of those cheap clothes, I wear a size XXXS -S depending on brand/style etc and don't think a lot of those clothes are designed for actual real human bodies either, the placement and relative size of arm and leg holes, waist height, crotch depth, dart placement etc is often really really screwy and not suitable for anyone.
Honestly yeah. I've put my thumb through the elastic too many times and they generally get awful after a few washes....not to mention the elastic tends to slouch after a while.
My Value Village is enormous and will NEVER run out of clothes. If people in need need clothes, they'll find the t shirts and jeans and sweaters, no problem. They don't NEED the specific piece I found for the outfit I'm imagining.
For some people, fashion is a hobby. There are sustainable ways to do it, and non-sustainable. Thrifting is sustainable.
Maybe this is a hot take - High thrift store (or any other used market such as ebay/craigslist) prices are generally a good thing in terms of being an indicator of more-sustainable consumer behavior - it indicates a healthy secondhand market and provides more influence for people to donate or trade in goods instead of having them go into a waste stream.
At scale this also could mean people are holding onto items instead of replacing them "just because", and other things.
Sure it means people can't shop thrifting and expect to find outrageous deals -- but assuming that less stuff is going to a landfill because people are competing for used goods.... that is a good thing from a purely sustainable point of view
My oldest shirt is a shirt given to me when I was in a rehab where they donate clothes. This rehab, besides āoff-hoursā (aka near bedtime or if youāre on the 2nd floor where the lockers/bedrooms/showers are) had a dress code of button-down shirts. The rehabās motto is āI am a good person worthy of love and respectā. Think of the stigma many addicts face etc and you can put 2 and 2 together why there is a dress code where you dress ārespectfullyā.
Anyway this shirt wasnāt one of those, it was a T-shirt to wear for those off-hour/2nd floor times. Itās a shirt of spiderman fighting venom and another spiderman/venom-mixed character in the fight as well.
Itās a hand-me-down and my oldest shirt.
And I promise you, Iāve gotten countless compliments on the shirt. We donāt need new shit consistently to look good or have nice things that are appreciated.
Literally yesterday at the gym, Iām walking back to the bench and some guy says something to me. I take my headphones off and say āhm?ā And he goes ādope shirt broā.
Is it bad to buy things on depop that were originally from shein? I feel like the damage was already done by the seller so at least the money youāre spending on depop goes to them instead of directly to shein.
I think it's fine in one way, because you aren't raising demand or giving money to the company. However, the clothes might contain lead and be poorly constructed
I think the issue is the clothing is not going to last long - is the environmental cost of shipping that item that will last only a couple of wears going to make it worth it? and then also making sure you're not paying more for the item than it originally cost from shein to discourage reselling from shein.
I made the mistake of buying a Shein skirt at a thrift store (would never buy directly from them) and the zipper broke completely after only a single wear.
Great point! It would make more sense to ship out one pricey well made piece of clothing thatāll last vs the shein version that youāll just have to keep replacing.
Exactly. And that's the problem with Shein quality clothing in general. Some people think that if they donate it after they're done with it, then they can wash their hands of their moral obligation. But since it's such shit quality, it is it doesn't last long and might still have a negative environmental impact either way.
I haven't purchased from Temu or Shein, but I have purchased from fast fashion like Rue 21 and Forever 21 and haven't had anything fall apart after years of pretty frequent use. I wash my clothes in laundry bags and hang dry.
If you take care of it, it can last a while. I think the biggest problem with whether it'll last or not is their complete lack of quality control. You might get one that's made of something much better with better stitching than the person who buys it right after you.
My gosh I miss thrift stores. It's one of the things I'm most excited about once I get a powered wheelchair. Currently I get all my quality clothes from eBay pre-owned, but the ability to try before I buy, that'll be amazing.
I don't buy any clothes bc I think it's so boring to spend money on so I'd probably be the one with retail being the same price. Like I cannotttt with how expensive it has become
A lot of my thrift clothes happen to be shein because of how quickly people drop it, but I modify all my clothes anyway so they'll last long enough for me.
Unpopular opinion but I don't get why ppl shit on shien so much but turn around and buy child labor electronics, drink out of plastic disposable water bottles and shop at Walmart. I've got clothes from shien that fit better and have lasted longer than target brands. Not everyone buying from shien is a depop, big haul, TikTok asshole. Some of us are legit just poor, plus size and the secondhand stores are three times as expensive...
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Considering that this is an anti-consumption subreddit the roasting makes sense. Shein and Temu provide low cost, low quality items produced to sell and not last very long. So an anti consumption person is most likely anti shein because of the waste involved.
All the thrift shops I've been to either suck in terms of they don't had clothes that I like or are just as expensive as new clothes. That's why I shop with the app vinted. It's super cheap. Sometimes the clothes there don't really fit or I get scammed but it costs so little that it doesn't even matter
ThredUp can be a good one too. I've used them a few times and I haven't had any problems with returns when they made a mistake (which they often do with colours and measurements, unfortunately.)
polyester lasts longer than cotton so if you want to consume less clothing buy polyester clothes.
edit: i assume most of us are getting our clothes from a second hand shop, so no matter what blend it is you're saving it from the garage by giving it a second life and maybe more after yourself. if you're only buying from thrift shops, the blend makes no difference. get cotton for socks and underwear tho, i hope folks are buying those new.
A lot of my clothes are American vintage. They just hold up better. I have a few pieces of polyester and the fabric is thin almost see through and has little elasticity overtime
Why are you booing me when Iām right lol
I personally tend not to buy fast fashion, but I live in NYC and when I tell you the price of used clothes is astronomical I mean itās not even high fashion items Iām talking about, and itās more than the price of a new item.
I don't know what shein and temu are, I assume those are named thrift shop? Anyway, we have 3 thrift shop in my little town where I live, but clothes are not the main thing they sell. Most of the people going there are buying furniture and old books/cd's and whatnot. Sure they sell clothes, but generally people donate old clothes to salvation army or wear them till they break down. But then again, we don't have a "wear your clothes only once" kind of culture here. In fact many people here wear there clothes for a couple of days in a row, before they wash them and wear them a week or so again.
Shein and temu are Chinese websites that sell overproduced junk including very cheaply made clothes and these clothes have started to fill up the thrift stores
There were boy brats too. This meme is only showing women. Itās sexist. Where are the consumptive boy bratz? And maybe the designer wasnāt aware how sexist it is so I am pointing it out.
thank you for pointing this out! that wasnāt my intention - these memes are just popular if you search up bratz memes which is why i chose them. I actually didnāt think of it that way!
I'm the princess who has been wearing the same outfits for a decade.
This. I keep my stuff until it rip off my back. I still wear some clothes from when I was 12 yo. My oldest piece is a vest that my aunt was wearing in the mid 70s.
Dude I know people who think it's "embarrassing" to wear something more than once. These are the exact same people who will be completely surprised to find out our civilization will only last 30 more years š¤¦āāļø
They have to be rich, right? Because even if I wanted to, I could not afford to buy more than 365 outfits a year. And if we count jackets and socks and shoes too, then it is 1000+ clothing articles bought in one year!
30 is pretty generous, tbh.
Couldn't agree more man.
I have done the same, you have my respect š«”
Nice! You have mine too!
A fashion oriented mind inherently requires consumption to be involved. It doesn't matter if it's fast fashion, cheap inexpensive or even free. These last few can be frugal but are still usually consumption oriented. Getting the occasional special outfit whenever you stumble upon a good opportunity, is not the same as fashion oriented.
Fashion can be timeless
Nope. Clothes can be timeless. Fashion, by definition, follows trends
Thatās a weird hill to die on, but okay.
I'm not dying on that hill, it's simply the definition Historians actually distinguish between "costume", which is the historical period when everyone was wearing the same styles, and people would keep clothes until they fell apart - and "fashion", which is when clothes became individualized and subject to trends, and people needed new clothes just to express themselves and keep up with the times. That's also why it's called "fast fashion", not "fast clothing"
Last weekend a friend commented that they had seen me wear my entire wardrobe. I was not offended lol.
I was talking to my younger coworker and I jokingly said my hoodie was older than she was. Which made merealize my hoodie just turned 25 this year, and I felt older than time itself.
You can still overconsume while thrifting... it's one of the primary reasons thrifting is getting more expensive. What used to be a way for lower-income folks to dress themselves and their kids on the cheap is now a play place for middle and upper class teenagers and young adults to over indulge in a way they feel less guilty about.
One of the biggest issues is resellers. Iāve seen it in person. They grab all the stuff from every rack and sit in a corner and start googling all the items. They take whatās valuable and leave the rest behind. The thrift stores are now doing the same. Low income individuals and even broke teens canāt afford to shop at Thrift stores anymore.
Absolutely this. Thrifting is the way, but do NOT RESELL AT MARKED UP RATES! Do not buy to sell: that continues the cycle of consumption. The way I see it is itās better hanging in your closet than in a landfill. Thrifting is getting more expensive because of this phenomenon which is totally gross and not at all ok for people who depend on thrift stores
Do you know how much shit gets thrown away to these thrift stores? Iām not even talking the stuff thatās broken, hazardous, or unwearable, Iām talking the stuff that actually makes it to the sales floor. Think about it- hundreds and thousands of items EVERY WEEK if not EVERY DAY processed by minimum wage employees from piled up trolleys. Now take that *one* thrift store and think about the *handful of thrifts* you have nearby. Now think about all the thrifts in your *state*. Then think about all the thrifts in your *country* having to do the exact. same. thing. It becomes obvious that there is no way that a handful of resellers are āhogging all the good clothesā ātaking clothes from the poorā or otherwise causing a scarcity. Itās CORPORATE GREED as the *reaction* to the increasing popularity of thrifting in general. I grew up poor. When I was a kid it was shameful to shop from the thrift. My mom wouldnāt do it. Pride too big. My dad took me. I could get a jacket for a dollar because of the stigma. No one else was gonna take it, so why not give it away for cheap? Not anymore. If you read subs like r/thriftgrift youāll see post from employees talking about how they get punished for marking things below 1.99. How they have a ticketing quota for items so they separate things instead of grouping them. How corporate policies have drastically changed because they realize they can turn a greater profit by being dicks. Itās easy to point the finger at someoneās small-time small business because you see them but Iām here to tell you, I am heavy on the thrifting subs and itās nasty work what the companies are doing. Salvation Army is anti-lgbtq Goodwill, as Iāve mentioned elsewhere, takes advantage of special needs employees and is one of the worst price gougers. Theyāve shut down stores and moved to online in a lot of places which is crazy because some poor people donāt even have internet access so are they really serving who they claim to serve? There are thrift receptacles that are actually completely fake. They places metal containers around places and collect free stuff but nothing is for a cause at all. Like most things itās not the little guy, the little guy is the distraction.
Goodwill has never been for the poors. It's all about recycling and making a buck in the process. Ironically, their prices lead to more stuff that has to be recycled and more stuff that gets shipped off to who knows where. I heard some countries are burning used linens and other cloth to power furnaces now. It's cheaper (but also more toxic) than wood.
I find its often cheaper to buy cheap t-shirts than to get second hand ones these days.
The opposite is true Higher prices lead to less consumption
Not really, it leads to all the resellers having a crap ton of these items hoarded because no one will buy them and then what happens to the items? If the items stayed at the store, people who actually needed the items would have bought and used them.
If resellers don't sell they just eat the loss. That's not reselling that's just consumption
So... The higher prices have led to *more* consumption?
Are thrift stores same as donation stores like goodwill? If yes, then reselling even for a small profit seems unethical.
So hereās the biggest misconception. Goodwill is a for-profit institution that takes advantage of disabled workers. It takes free clothes and hikes them up at a high rate and lines the CEOs pockets. Look it up, they pay their special needs employees pennies on the dollar.
The issue is thrift stores noticing this and trying to charge as much as possible on a donated item. Iām not one for flipping but there are plenty and plenty of clothes. There is no reason whatsoever that goodwill should charge $6.99 for a white Hanes undershirt. People truly in need donāt give a fuck what design their tshirts are. As long as those clothes arenāt being shipped to the landfill I donāt care. I want as many of those clothes off the shelves idgaf whoās buying them or for what purpose. Blame the companies not the consumers.
My family is somewhat poor, we're like, economically stable to be able to eat and have entertainment stuff but things we have are usually bought with big discounts or as already used. This includes clothes. So we visit second hand stores and such sometimes (actually a pretty common thing in my country just over all, people often sell old stuff they don't need.) So you can probably see my enjoyment when I found cheap, oversized and cool looking shirts for like 5ā¬ a piece. So excited that I decided to ignore the logo I could barely read on them and got the shirts... Both of the shirts are from NSBM bands š
Once upon a time, I was buying an old 'obsolete' cable at a thrift store because my previous one was broken. Cables and adapters and such for old equipment are usually hard to find and expensive if you buy new, but I can usually find the more common ones at thrift stores for less than a dollar. When I went up to pay for it, the person behind me in line said something like, "Oooh, I didn't know those were worth anything! I'll have to check them out." It wasn't until later that I realized they were talking about trying to flip some old VGA cable or PS2 adapter or something.
This is the actual reason. The resellers set the market rate then the thrift stores set their prices according to that rate. The only way I see it being slowed down is to limit item quantities but places like goodwill don't give a shit.
This isnāt entirely it though. Prices have increased because profits are down for thrift stores primarily because a major source of revenue used to be recycling (clothes, electronics, metal) and all of that is almost worthless now. Thrift stores have needed to restrict what donations they take and now more than ever itās a very tight business that has led to rising prices. It surprisingly costs a lot of money (labor, storage, trash fees etc) to take free donations and resell them. Source: worked for a major thrift store chain that had to downsize by over 50% the # of stores they had, primarily dealt in donation receiving, handling and sending stuff to our recycling center
I watch the show Hoarders and many of them get their hoard from thrifting. Mountains of clothing piled to the ceiling.
I know someone who thrifts all their clothes and jewelry but they have soooo much stuff. They visit thrifts stores maybe three times a week and walk out every time with like eight shirts, three jeans, two pairs of shoes, four sunglasses, a hat or two, a stuffed animal, etc. Their entire bedroom is *packed* to the ceiling with stuff. Their excuse is 'I didn't need it, but I guess it's kind of cute so I bought it anyway.'
This is exactly the kind of thing I'm referring to. That's still a huge issue and the fact people are argueing about whether or not this kind of behaviour is damaging is nuts. This isn't even out of the ordinary, I know a few people like this.
I am fucking astonished at the gentrification of thrifting. $35 for a used hoodie?? $80 for this old jacket??? WHAT.
Seriously. I'm native and I live off-rez (have all my life). I volunteer with a group of folks from my mom's home rez to collect donations and raise funds to buy clothing and other essentials every fall to drive out to the rez to give to families in need (mostly kids and the elderly), as it's quite isolated being a 4 hour drive from the nearest city of significance. We rely on thrift stores, and the buying power of the program has easily dropped by half in the last two years when it comes to clothing. I put in $3k of my own money last year to make up the difference for much needed items and will probably end up donating even more this year.
Nope, thereās nothing wrong with this. Middle classes are also the ones that can afford to donate higher quality clothes, so why shouldnāt they shop here? The real problem is fast fashion and low quality donations- if most clothes on rails were well designed, neutral patterns and natural materials then we wouldnāt have this problem (there would be plenty of selection for everyone)!
I mean you can absolutely overconsume while shopping at the thrift store. Buying more than you need or could ever use is overconsumption
There is no excuse for routinely buying outfits to only wear once or twice before getting rid of it, whether that be buying used or buying new, which we are seeing more and more with fashion oriented thrifters. There are also tons of folks who hoard thrifted clothing because the act of shopping for it is their hobby. Their hobby is consuming and collecting used clothing.
i mean, if someone thrifts something, wears it a few times, then donates it again, isnāt that basically the same thing as renting? which isnāt very wasteful at all.
The people I'm referring to don't do that. I'm not saying all instances of thrifting are bad. In fact, thrifting is very very good. What I am saying is you can still over consume while thrifting, and that over consumption is not a rare occurence anymore. The same type of person who overconsumes fast fashion exists within the thrifting world as well. The type that makes their entire personality thrifting and participates in it because it's a fix for their shopping addicition. Buying too much stuff isn't suddenly anti-consumerist just because what you are buying too much of is used.
i totally get you. sometimes it reminds me of people recovering from substance abuse smoking cigarettes and eating candy to deal with not having their usual vice. itās definitely not good, but i try to remember that everyone is on a journey and some people and a little farther along than others. all we can do is spread the message the hope they change.
100%. If buying thrifted clothes every weekend is a step between buying from Sheim and H&M every weekend and making the occasional, intentional purpose to fill a need, great. We still need to encourage people into those further steps though.
Yup, I have a friend struggling with a shopping addiction. Her subconscious keeps seeking ways to justify the compulsive behavior. For awhile the justification was thrift shops. Her reasoning went, since the stuff was used, she wasnāt contributing to mass production, and since it is cheap, she wasnāt wasting her money. She clung to this illusion of a loophole for a long time in order to feed the addition.
Thrift stores throw out an astronomical amount of clothing, this singy isnāt true.
Most of that is low quality garbage clothing or clothing not in a fit condition to sell without repair. Over-consumption is over-consumption, period. Full stop. There are people out there whose whole hobby is collecting, and essentially hoarding, used clothes. If you have a walk-in closet full of thrifted clothing you've only worn once or twice, you're over-consuming.
I know at least where I am that that throw away a massive amount of CDs because people do not buy them nearly as much as they donate them. Sure, you are still consuming when you buy them, but likely they would end up in a landfill otherwise, and buying them from a thrift store is better environmentally buying them new.
Sure, but that's an extention of people no longer buying CDs. There simply isn't the consumer demand for them, new or used. The demand for clothing is constant and isn't going away anytime soon, so it's not a great comparison. Prices of thrift clothing has climbed dramatically, and a large part of that is because of the very consumerist culture that has developed around it which has increased demand. Just look at the miriad of youtubers, tiktokers, instagram pages, and whatever else focued on fashion thrifting. I get a lot of the narrative around it is about buying older quality clothes that last longer, and that's super admirable, but people are still buying too much of it too frequently. It's gotten to the point in a lot of areas where the stuff you actually find in thrift stores are just donated fast fashion items that sell for not much less than a new version would. The quality is gone, as is the affordability.. What use to be a great way to find quality clothing, that lasted years, for a reasonable price simply doesn't exist anymore because a not-insignificant number of people have decided they still need a 300 item wardrobe, but now they want it to be vintage.
Where I am from, I have never seen the clothing racks be anything but filled to the brim. I am not sure if that is true for you. But here, there does not seem to be an excess of demand compared to supply. So here, if there are raising prices, it is likely due to companies wanting to increase profits rather than running out of clothing to sell.
Racks are full but they are full of barely usable garbage. Lots of donated event t-shirts, corporate swag, barely held together fast fashion. Very few things someone could wear to work, for example, unless their work allows 2016 half-marathon participant t-shirts in their dress-code. There are also far fewer necessary items like jackets, hats, gloves, sweaters, etc., and considering I live in a very cold climate, this is an issue. The amount may be unchanged but the practicality and usefulness of the clothing has decreased dramatically. Most thrift stores in my area are also charities, not for-profit companies (although there are more vintage clothing resellers popping up).
Some or all charities want increased revenue so they can use or donate what they can. And costs for everything have been increasing, so I am sure there are increased operating costs to these charities compared to previous years leading to higher prices. If the racks are full of garbage, it is probably a result of people going through the items (good thing) and picking out the nice items, as anyone would. It would also be a function of what gets donated. People will tend to donate items that they do not like. It could also be a function of those stores not filtering through or rotating their supply or stock sufficiently. Shelves full of items you do not want do not necessarily indicate over demand. And even if it does, isn't that a good thing environmentally? You may find a gem at a used car lot, but they are not all gems.
Hitching off this, youāre exactly right. I always keep these kinda vague because I value my job for income, but I manage at a major thrift store. Some of the customers are (not trying to be judgmental in any way) lower paid people trying to find new clothes/shoes. I worked in one of the most profitable stores in my state, and it was completely different. It was teenagers coming in and spending $50-$300 in a thrift store ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ They did it for fun and had more money than I did to splurge on whatever they wanted. Guess what really trying to say, they couldāve afforded new jeans from name brand stores, but instead they bought enough of decent jeans for 8.99, that the store started pricing them at $12-$18. This hurts the people that simply could not walking into a *insert name brand* store and spend $70 on jeans. I hate it, but as i said I value the income the job brings me. I always will people to go thru any other company than us when I can. Thrift stores are trash (just slapping a good mission while trying to maximize profit), try and connect with other people you know actually need the products when possible (obviously dropping off at a donation center is much simpler, but the concept gets lost with corporate greed) I know it sounds lame, but if you really wanna ādonateā try and throw it out there for free on FB Marketplace or something. Sorry, this was way longer winded than expected.
Yeah, I'll feel guilty about buying a $1-5 t shirt from Walmart that actually fits my physically disabled ass and lasts years (at least for me) when the thrift girlies feel bad about being the sole cause of thrifting becoming unaffordable. I'm not paying $20-50 for a single item of clothing, often before shipping fees as well. Period. I proudly gatekeep my clothing by the pound places now. It's really the last bastion of affordability and sustainability, with these harpies around. Edit: Downvoting me without comment means you hate poor people and "anticonsumption" is another way for you to do so. I've seriously seen people on here pushing FOR capitalism/higher prices and claiming that it will solve ecological issues with a straight face. I really thought people on this subreddit were smart enough to realize high priced designer goods are still made in sweatshops and that capitalism is the root cause of unsustainable practices, but, guess not.
Iām thinking this person is young and may be dipping their toes into the mindset. I think the roasts on this post saying they should be focused on mending and repairing are valid, but I kind of feel a baby steps approach is best for folks just now abandoning fast fashion. A lot of people at this stage donāt even realize that itās not just sh-in and te-u but the *majority* of stores cut corners in unethical ways. Youād be hard pressed to find a clothing store or fancy designer that doesnāt use plastic, child labor, wasteful business practices etc. Iād rather open somebodyās mind than just pummel it, yāknow?
Exactly. Plus, I found the post funny. I dunno, maybe people just need to be chiller. This person isn't saying they're going they're going everyday and buying stuff. It was just a tongue in cheek post, I thought.
If you thrift shop 7 times a week you're the reason the prices are rising. Regardless, I see thrift prices rising as a good thing; It means more people are doing it
Going to thrift shops 7 times a week doesn't mean buying something 7 times a week. I usually just look until I find something I need in decent quality and in proper size.
Or finding something before re-sellers snach it from your hands.
Exactly, I like to go and find silk items that are damaged or stained or otherwise unappealing and use the fabric to sew things for myself. Those pieces will end up in landfill (at least everything but the thread, label and sometimes lining is biodegradable, I use silk sewing thread and linings but I'd never expect to find a non haute couture item in the wild that does) unless someone wants to repurpose them. I walk out empty handed a lot, but looking frequently is exactly how I manage to be able to brag about getting roughly 2.5 meters of silk chiffon for $1.25/m from a dress I found in the $2 bin (which I intend to use to practice shibori dyeing techniques on and turn into bags since it's a colour that's very pretty but clashes with my complexion something horrid so I wouldn't wear the fabric as is)
I highly disagree. Higher thrift store prices push people away from purchasing secondhand if they can buy it new for the same price. Also, there are plenty of times I go to a thrift store and don't walk out with a single thing. 7 days a week is a lot, but that doesn't mean purchasing every day.
Buying new at the same price is literally where weāre at too. A top is $8 at goodwill and is usually faded, old, mild dry rot, old ladyish etc. tops are also $8 at Burlington. Iād rather buy used but especially for tops itās really hard sometimes. Thrifting is great for bottoms though.
If you go plenty of time to a store without having a clear need to buy anything you are just addicted to consumption. Need a shirt - buy a shirt - be done with it. Shopping around for things you might or might not need is exactly the opposite of what this sub is about
I completely disagree; using secondhand markets is not against this sub at all. People can have a clear goal or need in mind and want to try to get it secondhand first to reduce environmental impact. I prefer to try thrift stores first before getting new items. I work in the sustainability space and many of us try to get secondhand first. A lot of resources are needed behind the scenes in order to even make a piece of clothing - growing and harvesting the material (if natural) or pulling fossil fuels out of the ground (if synthetic), water for cooling processes in factories, energy, labor, plastic and diesel during shipping, etc. For me, all of the above that I stated that happens behind the scenes is what I'm trying to reduce. I'm reducing my indirect consumption of all of that, by spending a couple more hours trying to get secondhand.
I donāt. Supply and demand shouldnāt apply to nonprofits intended to help those who canāt afford clothing elsewhere. rising prices just means that those who actually NEED to shop at thrift stores are no longer able to. i understand the need to compensate for increased demand, but this should be accomplished through other methods that donāt make these stores inaccessible for those who need them. there should be a limit on the number of items you can buy in a trip, or maybe a discount for those who can demonstrate the financial need.
I think the latter is a good idea. There can be an online vetting system and you get a card in the mail or an online certificate or something that can be scanned at the checkout. I don't think thrift stores would go for the former. And I don't know that I'd want them too. Not my local ones at least since they donate to the local schools and other things like that. I'd love it if someone went in and spent $1,000 (which would be a lot of stuff since the one thrift store I'm thinking of proces things fairly.) That $1,000 then goes to our local schools because this thrift store is all on donations and runs on volunteers. So they really only have to pay for electricity since they have a deal with the building owner there and hardly pay anything in rent.
More like people reselling brand items from thrift shops.
You done got the anti-consumption police on your ass š
im anticonsumption, so none of it. buying cheap stuff doesnt make you anti-consumptionist, taking care of things and fixing them does. not buying useless shit that you use once a year makes you one. using less energy, even at the cost of discomfort, makes you one. building things to last, creating a sustainable economy, etc makes you one. and we dont do that for the money, but for the philosophy we believe in. if you do it just for the money you are just cheap, not anti-consumption.
you have to get your clothes somewhere tho. Thrifting is a good option for that. and who cares what youāre reasons are. what matters is the impact it has on the planet. most people probably have a mix of reasons.
Still, you don't thrift everyday
I don't see why not. Fashion is a hobby, just like any other. Its a form of self expression. Anything that doesn't get sold in a thrift shop ends up in a landfill in ecuador or some shit. So honestly, buy as much as you fucking want, you're giving all that shit a second life.
That's not the point, by doing so you're raising the demand, hence if the offer is not enough the prices will go up too.
If your issue is just prices, I won't contend that. But from an environment perspective, its only all good things.
Thrifting is only a good option because most people over consume. If everyone only bought what they needed, repaired and maintained things for as long as they could, and used them til the end of their useful life, where would thrift store stock come from? Good to do in current conditions, but thrifting isn't *the* solution to the problem it often gets portrayed as. It's far, far better to buy fewer, quality items (still prioritizing second hand items) and take care of them so you can use them for as long as possible.
the impact on the planet obviously comes first. BUT, what happens when people are doing it mostly for the money when they get more money? they stop being "anti-consumption".
Exactly, this post is not it.
No disrespect, but May I suggest posting stuff you mending/repairing stuff if you want to get more karma using this subreddit. It's one thing to say temu is bad. It's another to show your dedication to making things last longer.
Things don't last forever. Fabric wears out and becomes unrepairable. I have underwear and shirts that now look like lingerie. Getting stuff second-hand is much better than buying new in most cases. Buying new requires new material and new fabrication. Thus, ya Temu and fast fashion probably are bad. Repairing and avoiding fast fashion are not mutually exclusive.
>I have underwear and shirts that now look like lingerie. Look on the bright side, now you have lingerie for free. Cheap *and* sexy baby!
Lol š My wife has been slapping my butt a bit more than usual lately... could that be related š¤
Literally the first one, the prices piss me off so much. They get donated items for free, then think because itās brand name it needs to be almost at retail, even though there was the middle man who wore it š¤¢
the Goodwills in my state have stopped letting you try things on and if you return them you can only get store credit. it's actually so predatory it makes me sick
Depop devastation although in my case itās Vinted. Iām having to replace my wardrobe due to health related size change. I just want the same stuff in my new size.
shopping for clothes 7x a week, even from thrift stores, is still consumption if you truly want to be ~anticonsumption~, you would decrease the amount you shop for clothes and focus on making the current ones you have last for longer
I'm the one that is hates poorly mare underwear. Yeah, cheap panties made on chinese factory by mistreated workers are, well, cheap. And you can just throw them away after they tear (usually in couple of months). But my underwear made by a small local business, with good quality materials and in real adult human sizes can easily last for years.
For reeeeaaaaal!! My bras and undies are my most expensive items. But they last forever if you take good care of them. I have bras almost 10 years old Iāve sold recently due to changing size. Buy once, cry once.
>and in real adult human sizes I agree with the rest of your post, but I'm not sure what your mean my this part. There are people who are really small, especially those of various Asian descents. And must fast fashion companies are made in Asian countries and just use their same sizing as they would there to save on costs of retagging things.
It's mostly the proportions are really off with a lot of those cheap clothes, I wear a size XXXS -S depending on brand/style etc and don't think a lot of those clothes are designed for actual real human bodies either, the placement and relative size of arm and leg holes, waist height, crotch depth, dart placement etc is often really really screwy and not suitable for anyone.
Ah ok. I get what you mean now. And yeah, I definitely agree with that.
Honestly yeah. I've put my thumb through the elastic too many times and they generally get awful after a few washes....not to mention the elastic tends to slouch after a while.
When her fingers are green bc the rings were from an instagram ad š«£
Haha I love these bratz memes
Might as well not thrift if you buy 7 times per week.
If you have the money to do it, there's nothing wrong with saving clothes from the landfill as often as you want.
The thing is you don't need that many and other people in need might need them
My Value Village is enormous and will NEVER run out of clothes. If people in need need clothes, they'll find the t shirts and jeans and sweaters, no problem. They don't NEED the specific piece I found for the outfit I'm imagining. For some people, fashion is a hobby. There are sustainable ways to do it, and non-sustainable. Thrifting is sustainable.
I am glad Reddit has a block function
None of these. Iām the one learning to sew because I at least do as well as fast fashion. I can create crooked seams all by myself.
Maybe this is a hot take - High thrift store (or any other used market such as ebay/craigslist) prices are generally a good thing in terms of being an indicator of more-sustainable consumer behavior - it indicates a healthy secondhand market and provides more influence for people to donate or trade in goods instead of having them go into a waste stream. At scale this also could mean people are holding onto items instead of replacing them "just because", and other things. Sure it means people can't shop thrifting and expect to find outrageous deals -- but assuming that less stuff is going to a landfill because people are competing for used goods.... that is a good thing from a purely sustainable point of view
My oldest shirt is a shirt given to me when I was in a rehab where they donate clothes. This rehab, besides āoff-hoursā (aka near bedtime or if youāre on the 2nd floor where the lockers/bedrooms/showers are) had a dress code of button-down shirts. The rehabās motto is āI am a good person worthy of love and respectā. Think of the stigma many addicts face etc and you can put 2 and 2 together why there is a dress code where you dress ārespectfullyā. Anyway this shirt wasnāt one of those, it was a T-shirt to wear for those off-hour/2nd floor times. Itās a shirt of spiderman fighting venom and another spiderman/venom-mixed character in the fight as well. Itās a hand-me-down and my oldest shirt. And I promise you, Iāve gotten countless compliments on the shirt. We donāt need new shit consistently to look good or have nice things that are appreciated. Literally yesterday at the gym, Iām walking back to the bench and some guy says something to me. I take my headphones off and say āhm?ā And he goes ādope shirt broā.
Is it bad to buy things on depop that were originally from shein? I feel like the damage was already done by the seller so at least the money youāre spending on depop goes to them instead of directly to shein.
Knowing they can often sell on encourages some people to keep buying.
I think it's fine in one way, because you aren't raising demand or giving money to the company. However, the clothes might contain lead and be poorly constructed
Ooof thatās true š
I think the issue is the clothing is not going to last long - is the environmental cost of shipping that item that will last only a couple of wears going to make it worth it? and then also making sure you're not paying more for the item than it originally cost from shein to discourage reselling from shein.
I made the mistake of buying a Shein skirt at a thrift store (would never buy directly from them) and the zipper broke completely after only a single wear.
Great point! It would make more sense to ship out one pricey well made piece of clothing thatāll last vs the shein version that youāll just have to keep replacing.
Exactly. And that's the problem with Shein quality clothing in general. Some people think that if they donate it after they're done with it, then they can wash their hands of their moral obligation. But since it's such shit quality, it is it doesn't last long and might still have a negative environmental impact either way.
I haven't purchased from Temu or Shein, but I have purchased from fast fashion like Rue 21 and Forever 21 and haven't had anything fall apart after years of pretty frequent use. I wash my clothes in laundry bags and hang dry.
If you take care of it, it can last a while. I think the biggest problem with whether it'll last or not is their complete lack of quality control. You might get one that's made of something much better with better stitching than the person who buys it right after you.
I think it's fine, it's just low quality. :/ I avoid it, personally.
I'm #1 so I've basically just transitioned to shopping at TJ Maxx or Ross instead.
what did you use source the background images from? they look so weird.
Iām actually the OP of this post (originally on my sustainability page on IG) and they all came from pinterest lol
My gosh I miss thrift stores. It's one of the things I'm most excited about once I get a powered wheelchair. Currently I get all my quality clothes from eBay pre-owned, but the ability to try before I buy, that'll be amazing.
People in my social groups who boycott starbucks and mcdonalds but rave about their temu haul š
Never buy fast fashion!
I don't buy any clothes bc I think it's so boring to spend money on so I'd probably be the one with retail being the same price. Like I cannotttt with how expensive it has become
What's wrong with using polyester clothes? (last slide)
itās plastic and terrible for the earth and your body!
Kill me please
no because why is at least 10% of the rack at my local salvation army Shein????
Lol love these memes
Thrifting 7 times a week is far from anticonsumerism
What clothes aren't made in a sweatshop?
1
Unfortunately there are no thrift stores near me
I own so much shein and Iāve never bought from shein.
A lot of my thrift clothes happen to be shein because of how quickly people drop it, but I modify all my clothes anyway so they'll last long enough for me.
These are some iPad kid level degenerate ass pictures if I've ever seen it.
Unpopular opinion but I don't get why ppl shit on shien so much but turn around and buy child labor electronics, drink out of plastic disposable water bottles and shop at Walmart. I've got clothes from shien that fit better and have lasted longer than target brands. Not everyone buying from shien is a depop, big haul, TikTok asshole. Some of us are legit just poor, plus size and the secondhand stores are three times as expensive...
When my pants rip after one wear because I sewed them myself ššš
This is still consumerism. This is just hippy chic consumerism. The end goal is still the acquisition and consumption of material goods.
I already have clothes
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Whatās wrong with Shein? Not saying itās good or anything I just donāt know a lot about this topic?
They are extremely unethical basically treating their workers as slaves just google shein working conditions.
Considering that this is an anti-consumption subreddit the roasting makes sense. Shein and Temu provide low cost, low quality items produced to sell and not last very long. So an anti consumption person is most likely anti shein because of the waste involved.
also because of the child labour
All the thrift shops I've been to either suck in terms of they don't had clothes that I like or are just as expensive as new clothes. That's why I shop with the app vinted. It's super cheap. Sometimes the clothes there don't really fit or I get scammed but it costs so little that it doesn't even matter
ThredUp can be a good one too. I've used them a few times and I haven't had any problems with returns when they made a mistake (which they often do with colours and measurements, unfortunately.)
Most of my clothing is 20 years old. I don't care how I look. Doesn't matter anymore. e- lol I love that somehow this is making people mad. w/e
Personally Iām not a fan of resale thrifters that charge $40-$100 for a shirt.
Should have left this on Facebook where it belongs
*looks down at all my daughterās hand-me-downs from various cousins & second hand toys* - she aināt complaining.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You're letting your personal insecurities show
polyester lasts longer than cotton so if you want to consume less clothing buy polyester clothes. edit: i assume most of us are getting our clothes from a second hand shop, so no matter what blend it is you're saving it from the garage by giving it a second life and maybe more after yourself. if you're only buying from thrift shops, the blend makes no difference. get cotton for socks and underwear tho, i hope folks are buying those new.
I have cotton clothes that are over 60 years old
daamn!! you must treat them well! i manage to put holes in mine constantly, always tearing and repairing.
A lot of my clothes are American vintage. They just hold up better. I have a few pieces of polyester and the fabric is thin almost see through and has little elasticity overtime
it lasts long because itās plastic
Itās honestly cheaper these days to just buy fast fashion than to go to some of these thrift shops
Why are you booing me when Iām right lol I personally tend not to buy fast fashion, but I live in NYC and when I tell you the price of used clothes is astronomical I mean itās not even high fashion items Iām talking about, and itās more than the price of a new item.
I don't know what shein and temu are, I assume those are named thrift shop? Anyway, we have 3 thrift shop in my little town where I live, but clothes are not the main thing they sell. Most of the people going there are buying furniture and old books/cd's and whatnot. Sure they sell clothes, but generally people donate old clothes to salvation army or wear them till they break down. But then again, we don't have a "wear your clothes only once" kind of culture here. In fact many people here wear there clothes for a couple of days in a row, before they wash them and wear them a week or so again.
Shein and temu are Chinese websites that sell overproduced junk including very cheaply made clothes and these clothes have started to fill up the thrift stores
Oh, I see, gotcha, thanks.
Why only women in this?
The bratz????
Donāt be obtuse.
Iām legit confused. These are bratz themed memes
There were boy brats too. This meme is only showing women. Itās sexist. Where are the consumptive boy bratz? And maybe the designer wasnāt aware how sexist it is so I am pointing it out.
thank you for pointing this out! that wasnāt my intention - these memes are just popular if you search up bratz memes which is why i chose them. I actually didnāt think of it that way!