The Change on the Thrift Culture

For the longest time people would use thrift shops to find high quality clothing and items for an inexpensive price, but with the rise of the culture of treasure hunting and the poor clothing quality of fast fashion brands has changed the culture. This has made the price for many goods within thrift shops to increase. 

Many of the new shoppers who come to the thrift shop community are people who are looking to lower their carbon footprint and to optician a good deal. This is also heightened by people being constantly disappointed with the quality of different fast fashion brands. 

Many of these brands, like Shein, sell their product at low cost to the consumer with a low quality fabrication. The increase of clothing manufacture and selling has made a large ecological disaster. About 85% of the textiles that are made every year go to the landfills according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. 

This has made many shoppers within Gen Z to start looking for greener and cheaper alternatives from fast fashion but this has had the effect of the rise of prices from film cameras, vinyl records and clothing.

According to ThredUp, an online reseller of clothing, study states that the U.S. secondhand market could reach $70 billion by 2027. The study also showed that 83% of Gen Z would be comfortable buying second hand. 

For Hayden Hill, an avid thrift shopper, it's worth the search to find those cool finds in different shops but has started to feel that search has become harder.  

“Of course there's good quality clothing everywhere but, I am now starting to see Shein clothing or Shein like clothing brands that are being sold for pretty much the same price,” said Hill. “I am also seeing expensive brands of shoes or clothes that look pretty beat up being sold for so much.

Hill has started to see themselves being priced out on some shops like Buffalo Echanges, a large reseller and buyer of used items in the US with a store in the Haight.

“I do feel priced out when I go to buffalo exchanges,” said Hill. “They sell it for the same

original price which is ridiculous.”

The Haight has been known for its collections of different vintage, spasticity and thrift shops. This can be seen at the Borderland Book store, Indigo Vintage Co-op and Amoeba Music but for many have been priced out. 

Goodwill is one of the major thrift shops within the Haight but for many who have visited the store have seen a large increase in prices. 

Some of the Yelp reviews stating the same sentiment of prices being the same or higher than retail shops such as Ross.

It has also started to sell more items on their websets, ShopGoodWill.com and GoodWillFinds.com. With both websites increasing the price to retail price of the items and not having any type of guarantee. 

Within ShopGoodWill.com, GoodWill created a look alike eBay website where every item is in an auction, increasing the price to or higher than the retail price. This makes a lot of the finds from before only available on their website and not their brick and mortar stores. 

Sarah Williams, SFSU student, just got into thrifting and has been looking for those deals that people always talk about but have some different experiences.

“Retail Stores have more stuff but pricey,” said Williams. “Thrift shops are a hit or miss on clothes but can be cheaper.” 

For Williams, Height street is an incredible place for cool finds but always an expensive option.