Picture this, it’s Feb. 14, Valentines day, 2013. You, your husband, and a couple of friends decide to purchase a building. You guys all work on it together, getting everything set up and ready to go. You finally open for business on July 21, 2013. In just a few years time you now run a Poshmark, Ebay, and Marketplace to go with your beautiful non-profit thrift store that funds Christian missionaries. Now get this, this is Cynthia L. Besselman’s reality. Besselman runs a lovely thrift store named Renewed Treasures. She welcomes everyone with open arms and her thrift store is helping make the world a better place.
“It’s gonna sound kind of hokey, but it’s just the way I roll is doing God’s will,” Besselman said. “He will present me with obstacles that are opportunities to overcome, whether it’s a uniquely personalized customer that I’m not used to being around that person and will give me an opportunity to to lean in and listen to whatever their needs might be.”
Thrifting comes with many awesome benefits and is enjoyable for most while doing so. By going to local thrift stores over retail stores or even online shopping it’s helping the earth. Shopping second-hand helps reduce waste which plays a big part in reducing pollution to our ecosystems. Purchasing second hand clothing minimizes the need of production for new clothes. The making of clothing uses huge amounts of water, energy and raw materials, so when there’s less production of them, people don’t use as much.
“Basically the freaking butterfly theory,” Jules De Los Reyes said. “Say if we thrift instead of buying online, we don’t have to make cardboard, or plastic, or kill animals for leather, or shave them for wool, then we save more animals. Then if we have more animals our ecosystem is better in the world, but if we buy online we increase CO2 and it’s killing the world…so yeah, small changes like that can really help.”
Thrifting also benefits in helping find someone’s own personal style. When thrifting, people can really come across anything. When it comes to retail stores basically everything nowadays is the same. Maybe someone will find it in a different color or size, but that’s just about it. There’s no personality or whimsy, but when thrifting there are so many opportunities to stumble upon something unique. Thrifters get to look through things that have come from so many different backstories. They get to look back on fashion before everything was taken over by trends and name brands. There’s clothes from every era all at affordable prices as well. Meaning someone can express themselves without feeling like they have to go all in and spend everything just to try something new. It really just gives them a chance to really look at and think about what they really like, not just the mass majority. They also get to feel the pleasure of knowing they’re giving something used a whole new chance, in other words, a second go at life.
“I mean like I would say absolutely thrifting is probably like one of the best ways to express your personal style,” Isaac Hart said. “Thrift stores aren’t limited to what’s in style or mass produced. It makes people trust their taste and not just look at what’s new at stores or social media and again you could find vintage and timeless things you know it’s just in general thrift fashion is more individual and creative.”
Thrifting can also just benefit people’s mental health. Exploring new things, being out in new communities, and finding things they enjoy. Anyone can go alone or with friends, and either way it’s an all around fun thing to try and experience. Items can be collected from thrifts as well, it’s not all just clothing. Trinkets are a big part of thrifting. Cool collectables, charms, toys, CD’s, who knows, a thrifter might even get something that ends up meaning a lot to them.
“Actually a couple,” De Los Reyes said. “Ok it’s gonna be really odd but I have a collection of dolls and they mean a lot to me because I feel like kids nowadays don’t play with porcelain dolls anymore. They’re more of like an old people thing like people in their 50s collect them and younger people find them creepy and don’t collect them anymore.”
Although there are all of these benefits to thrifting, a lot of people today still avoid the thrift stores. Many believe it’s inconvenient and even dirty, however, many thrift stores sort the items they receive. If items are overly stained, super dirty, and or broken they don’t make it to the shelves. Just because things are second hand doesn’t mean they aren’t the best of quality possible. There are even items that make it to the thrift unused and new, someone could find an article of clothing with its original tags on it.
“I think some people view it as like below going to the mall or something, but I would say a lot of stuff there was purchased first hand at some point,” Emily Paden said. “I’d say a lot of people would think it’s dirty that others have worn it before, but I’d say it’s fine as they’ve probably washed it before and they don’t even take things that are super dirty.”
Overall, after reading about all of these benefits of shopping at thrift stores over retail and or online, maybe more will consider going out and supporting the local thrift stores in their community.
“I’d say I really recommend it because even if there’s not always something you find that you like it kinda opens your eyes to things other people are wearing and it can open your eyes to other people’s styles,” Paden said.
