Thrifting through the Great Recession

Written by Melinda Ennis-Roughton Friday, December 03 2010

On a recent shopping expedition, a stylish off-duty businesswoman (we’ll call her Marsha) busily browses the racks. Suddenly, a female business acquaintance of Marsha’s enters the shop. Marsha quickly ducks into a fitting room, desperate to avoid an encounter. After all, the other woman is a client.

If the accidental meeting was in Nordstrom’s or Nieman’s, Marsha would happily greet her client. But the shop is a local thrift store, and Marsha’s client is bringing in a big bag full of her own designer clothes to donate. It wouldn’t be good for the account, or her fashion image, for Marsha to show up at their next business meeting in her client’s elegant but nevertheless discarded Armani suit.

While the names have been changed to protect Marsha (and her client), this scene is real and may be recognizable to some of you. Only one thing is worse than showing up at an event in the same outfit as another woman --- and that’s to show up in an ensemble that another female recognizes as the outfit she just donated to Goodwill.

Today this scene may be common. While retail boutiques and department stores are struggling to survive during the Great Recession, thrift shops throughout the nation are doing a record business. According to the National Association of Resale Professionals known as NARTS (explanation to follow), resale shop sales were up 12.7 percent for 2009 over 2008.This is compared to a decrease of 7.3 percent in traditional retail for the same period, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Thrift and resale shops, from Goodwill to locally based Junior League and church thrift stores, are seeing an unprecedented boom in business. And, they also have attracted a new kind of client – mid- to upper-income women who are still desperately seeking stylishness as budgets have been squeezed by the economic downturn.

Adele Meyer, the executive director of NARTS, explained some of the reasons “thrifting” has migrated to the mainstream. By the way, don’t try and make sense of NARTS as an acronym. Meyer says they dropped the t-word (thrift) and the s-word (stores) to be more “inclusive.” It must be presumed that the p-word for professionals was added for additional inclusivity.

According to Meyer and the NARTS website, the trend is fueled by a perfect force of fashion factors that has been building for 20 years.

In the 1980s the “conspicuous consumption” trend fed the consignment business with goods that were donated in perfect condition by voracious consumers eager to discard the barely worn in favor of the next new thing. In the 1990s the ecology and recycling movements began to take hold, followed by the burgeoning trend toward “simplifying our lives.” And now we have the Great Recession, which has forced the hand holding charge cards to either trade down or fold.

In this economy, thrift stores have become the new normal. "With less money to spend, they (women) still want to dress well and send their children to school in new clothes and also continue to furnish and decorate their homes,” Meyer says.

"Many factors contribute to the popularity of resale during both strong and unsettled economic climates," she adds. "Increased awareness of recycling, the quest for higher quality for less money, the lure of finding something distinctive, the thrill of the hunt, and the excitement of a good buy are just a few things that allure the savvy shopper.”

And it’s not just the trendier consignment and resale shops that are booming. Goodwill retail store sales increased by more than 10 percent nationwide from January to July of this year. Part of that growth was fueled by a proliferation of new or relocated stores to answer the demand. In 2010, there were 96 new or relocated Goodwill retail stores opened in the United States and Canada, with reports of “new faces” at the outlets, according to a recent press release.

National chains have also taken root to answer the demand. Winmark Corp., headquartered in Minneapolis, boasts sales increases in all of its resale operations including Plato’s Closet (resale for teens), Once Upon a Child (resale for kids), Play It Again Sports (resale for sports equipment), and Music Go Round (resale of musical instruments). For the nine months ending Sept. 25, net income was $7.2 million compared with $4.4 million for the same period in 2009, a 64-percent increase. For Winmark, everything old is new again – and golden.

For those of us with a tendency toward shopaholism, thrift stores are the politically correct, guilt-free methadone treatment.

You can help the environment by recycling previously worn/used items. You take a political stand against rampant consumerism (which demands a constant stream of new merchandise produced by underpaid workers in sweat shops). You are benefiting a worthy charity. And, you are saving money (and perhaps your marriage’s health) by purchasing items that would almost go unnoticed as a line item on any family budget.

Yes, with thrift shopping, you can feed your addiction and feed it often (frequent shopping is key to getting the best bargains) and still feel good about yourself.

Just follow this 10-step program and you will be on your way to a new you – or at least a nearly new you.