Secondhand Shopping: An Eco-Friendly Alternative
With the rapid growth of globalization, many stores on offer are chain locations. Large corporations dominate the fashion industry; however, second-hand stores will never be this way.
The very nature of second-hand shopping ensures there is only one of any piece of clothing, making the shopping experience unique to each place. Furthermore, as opposed to large-scale corporations like H&M and Forever 21, who have online shopping with similar styles cycled throughout the seasons, each visit to a thrifty boutique will offer rare and uncommon selections.
Vintage styles are on the rise. The largest thrift marketplace, Thredup, has conducted research showing the growing number of vintage consumers in recent years. They predict that trends will continue to grow, causing the industry to double itself from $24 billion in 2018 to $51 billion in 2023. This is a great leap considering the market only obtained $10 million in 2012.
Interestingly, rapid growth in vintage consuming is coupled with a decline in the corporate grown ‘fast-fashion’ industry. On November 28th, 2019, Forever 21 closed all of its Canadian stores as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States.
The term ‘Fast fashion’ was originally coined in reference to the rapid movement of clothing from runway to retailer. However, this term morphed to describe the short lifespan of trendy clothing.
Consignment stores take an upscale approach to recycling clothing. Coveted brands and vintage items on trend can be found here. Consignment shops operate differently than most second-hand stores.
Owners of clothing, jewellery, antiques, etc. give their items to consignment shops, where the shop sells their items and in turn takes a fee for themselves, returning the remainder of income from the sale to the owners.
Consignment shops have helped eco-friendly shopping grow, as individuals are more likely to give away clothing if they are being compensated for their pieces. Science and Technology professor Dr. Angela Wisniewski believes shopping second-hand throughout the Christmas season is a great way to find the perfect gift.
“So you get to have some of the enjoyment of going out with friends and shopping or picking out individualized gifts. So you get that feeling of individual choice but without having to have a new product developed and all of the resources that go into creating it,” said Dr. Wisniewski.
Clothes make up a large portion of global consumption; however, toys, games and old electronics are all large contributors as well. Chase Benjamin Plourde, owner of Chase Antiques, opened his doors on December 7th, 2018, after his love of collecting guided him towards opening the store.
“I started college at the craft college downtown, and I was in pottery. […] I used to put vintage imagery on my pots like from old books and newspapers, kind of collaging them. Within that research I kind of got into old graphics and board games and books and a bunch of things and I started collecting,” said Plourde.
As locals hear of the store, more and more recyclers across Fredericton are bringing in their old antiques to be resold and repurposed.
A large factor in the climate change movement is the opposition to transnational corporations that show little regard for the environment in their economic practices. With second-hand shopping, your money is almost always going into the hands of small, locally owned businesses.
