Comments on: Should Only Poor People Shop at Thrift Stores?

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 19:45:20 +0000

Hahaha thanks Gillian! I agree that I want more people to donate to Goodwill (in hopes that I can get cool stuff at a fraction of the price!). I’m also a big Garage Sale and Estate Sale shopper. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, that’s for sure!
Thanks for sharing your ups and downs. Glad to hear you ultimately like the thrift stores!

By: Gillian Brown

Gillian Brown — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 18:28:56 +0000

I have always been a thrift store shopper, myself. I come from a comfortable middle class family, but I have dealt with an anxiety disorder that kindof held my own progress back, and am basically lower middle class (poorish, but above the poverty level).
That said, if I am working full time, I can usually afford to buy new, and sometimes that is just more convenient than thrift store shopping.
We found out we live near a goodwill outlet, which is by the pound and way cheaper than the regular Goodwill stores (and btw, Goodwill actually does spend the most % of money on their philanthropy, and Salvation Army seems to cost more than the Goodwill does, but whatever. to each his own) so we shop there first as a rule, because we are both very frugal by nature.
I will say this:
When I had a lot of money from an inheritance, I donated almost everything I was getting rid of, and didnt even ask for a tax break. I also did a lot more retail shopping than thrift, just because I could.
Really, I couldnt. A fool and his gold are quicky parted. Lol
I think 98% of people who experience a windfall end up bankrupt or in higher debt, and I was no exception.
Besides, theift store shopping is very sustainable. Personally, it wouldnt be possible to shop secondhand stores without the retailers and original manufacturers. In order to find anything used, it has to begin as new, at some point.
I just encourage people who shop new a lot, to donate their old stuff to Goodwill, in hopes that it will end up in a rummage bin at the outlet, so I can pay 1% of the original price and still wear a brand new dress that my overindulgent friends spent way too much on and never even wore. Muwahahahahaha :taps fingers together:
Live and let live.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 13:59:48 +0000

In reply to Shay. Dang, sounds like you've had a rough life at times :( I'm sorry about your husband! Really enjoyed your insight here though!

By: Shay

Shay — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 12:56:58 +0000

I started shopping at thrift stores even before I had my daughter as our income was very limited. After I became a single mother with a 12 month old, I had no choice but to shop at yard sales and thrift stores to cloth my child and myself. I was alos able to provide her with nice toys. I remarried when my daughter was 8 and we had a lot of catching up to do in regards to savings, funding retirement etc and I kept on with my thrift stores and yard sales bargain hunting. I mentally turned it into a fun treasure hunt, but it was an important way to save money and still wear appropriate clothing. My husband actually started to dress more nicely after I brought home designer shirts for him. Now that I am unexpectedly widowed I continue with my treasure-hunting mentality. My favorite local thrift store is a ministry that supports local people with food, medical services and help with utilities. I donate to them all the time also. I feel its a great way to support people in my area who are needy and it helps me too. I get to dress in nicer clothes than I would be able to afford normally and I also buy some items that I upcycle as I sew and can remake some things (many people don’t have this skill). I will never, ever be embarrassed or ashamed for my thrift store shopping. I help others and myself. I have to be careful not to buy back something I have donated.

By: Christa

Christa — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 07:46:19 +0000

There is so much bourgeois bullshit in this comment thread. Tell yourselves whatever you want. the number of comment that assert that “poor people wouldn’t buy the things I’m buying” or “they buy practical things” is maddening. middle-class and the rich love to comment on and police what they think poor people buy or act like. it’s the number one reason we have started policing how people use their food stamps. if you made a comment like that, your classism is showing. guess what? poor people are human beings too, which means they are diverse and don’t all act the same. it’s a free country, you can shop wherever you want, but the discussion of this is so telling.

By: Latetotheparty

Latetotheparty — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 10:53:07 +0000

Late to the party, but here goes.

I read with great interest the comments from those who agree that non-poor people who shop at thrift stores are taking bargains away from poor people. Those comments got a lot of my attention because they came from the people I wanted to hear from: people who were poor enough not to have any other shopping choices. Homeless, broke, looking for the one item you can afford that might just maybe help you finally get a job, and said item is not there because some heartless plutocrat snapped it up…. maddening.

But I have to point out that, tragic as that situation is, it happens at Macy’s too. And Target. And Nordstrom. And even (so I hear) at Nieman Marcus. Picture it: There’s that one great fitted shirt with the epaulets in your favorite shade of deep claret, exactly what you need for tomorrow’s interview, and goddammit some selfish snootbag has already grabbed the last one in your size. The only one left on the rack is three sizes too small, and nothing else in the store even comes close to working. Nor does anything in any of the other stores you can get to in the limited time you have, you’ve got other things to do and you can’t run all over the tri-state area shirt-shopping because you have a job and a life and a kid, unlike aforementioned selfish snootbag who probably has a rich husband and gobs of money and nothing to do but get mani-pedis and munch bonbons (whatever those are) and selfishly buy up all the good clothes before hardworking folks like you can get to them, and she sucks and you hate her….

So, it happens, is my general point. It happens because sometimes shopping is like that, no matter where you do it. And I noticed that the anecdotes in those comments I read with such interest tended to be very similar to the scenario above. Now, I do sympathize, but I have to point out that this is not a rich-people-at-thrift-stores problem, this is a nature-of-shopping problem. You kind of can’t get away from it.

However, here’s something you can’t do at Macy’s: since the right sort of thrift stores are there specifically to raise money to help poor people get what they need, you can approach the staff and explain your problem! There’s a very, very good chance that they have items specifically earmarked to be donated to people just like you who are in your exact position! You’ll probably need to answer some questions and/or fill out some paperwork to prove that you are not a snootbag, but the odds are good indeed that you will get what you need.

Boom! Try THAT at Nordstrom!

By: Notpettynomore

Notpettynomore — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 17:30:29 +0000

Okay so i honestly am not broke and i grew up rich but fortunately i was sent back to america for private reasons and living here has changed my life i do not get whatever i want anymore and stuff ehh irrelevant so my family makes good money but sometimes we go to thrift stored and donate and while were at it we might buy stuff i don’t see anything wrong with buying from there cause if it was for the unfortunate they would tell us

By: Muna

Muna — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 14:36:51 +0000

1. Your friend sucks.

2. I make a 6 figure salary (single with no kids) and I buy my clothes at thrift stores.
Simply put, it’s your money and you can shop wherever you want. Whether you want to buy a $10k purse or a $10 purse. It’s your money to spend how you see fit.

3. There are poor people that live beyond their means and buy things on credit that they can’t afford, so that “you are taking it away from the poor” logic is irrelevant me.

By: Clint

Clint — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 15:15:22 +0000

In reply to Damsel.

Yeah, social programs suck and capitalism works!

That’s why in America, with the decline in unionization and funding for social program’s, poverty has increased, and more than 40% of the American workforce now makes less than $15 an hour. All the while, the top 2% have managed ti hoard more than the lower 98%.

Yeah, capitalism works great!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 11:28:35 +0000

In reply to Jonathan. Amen!!