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Why I Only Shop at Thrift Stores
When I was a kid, I always kicked off a new school year by revamping my wardrobe. I threw out the old jeans that had ripped in the crotch area and donated the “babyish” t-shirts decorated with glitter and ponies to the Goodwill.
Afterward, I always went shopping for new back-to-school outfits with my mom. Except, these outfits weren’t really new — they were someone else’s unwanted clothes. They came from dim, carpeted thrift stores, not the fluorescent lights of Macy’s.
Throughout my childhood, I only ever shopped at thrift stores.
While my friends prided themselves on their designer outfits they’d plucked off the mannequin, I was sifting through the racks of the nearest thrift store. I won’t lie and say I didn’t also want designer clothes, but I didn’t have a choice. My parents lived on a shoe-string budget for most of my childhood, and they didn’t have the money to spend hundreds of dollars on clothing.
If I wanted more than a t-shirt from JCPenney, I had to get creative. I spent a lot of time scouring the local Goodwill for a diamond in the rough. I learned how to put an outfit together — what colors complemented each other, and which ones clashed.
I was a thrift-store diva — the ultimate bargain shopper. If a Prada purse or Burberry blouse managed to find its way to the Goodwill, I knew it. It was in my hands and paid for before anyone else could see it.
As an adult who can finally (sometimes) afford the $30 tops I see in the window, I haven’t been able to kick the habit of shopping at thrift stores. At the end of the day, I still end up at the Goodwill.
But, despite the embarrassment I might’ve had as a pre-teen who didn’t want to be caught dead in someone else’s hand-me-downs, I’ve since realized there are a lot of upsides to shopping in thrift stores.
You never know what you might find
People tend to associate thrift stores with old, unwanted clothing that nobody or their grandmother would be caught dead in. The Goodwill is supposed to be the place that people go when they’ve given up on caring about their…
