Is thrift shopping broken?

There are 100s of ways to buy secondhand, and that's a good thing, but also.........?

Secondhand shopping has never been hotter. It’s a great thing that we’re trading in our worn goods for other people’s pre-loved (or at least, pre-purchased) fashions considering the stats:

• Experts suggest there are enough clothes on earth at this very moment to clothe the next six generations of humanity.

• The fashion industry is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions.

• Clothing companies create more than 1 million new articles every single day.

• It takes about 2,700 liters of water to make one t-shirt – that’s the same amount of water an individual person drinks in ~3 years.

• Everything you’ve ever owned in this lifetime still exists today (heady, no?).

As we consumers have grown more aware of the damaging consequences of fast fashion, tighten our budgets, obsess over vintage, invest in higher quality fabrics, hunt for sick deals, or some combination of the lot, our penchant for secondhand has surged. The U.S. used clothing market hit $43 billion in 2023, up from about $23 billion in 2018, according to ThredUp’s 2023 resale report.

My thesis today is that while it’s useful and good to have such access to secondhand clothing, the business model is broken. Corporate-owned online thrifting follows the same mechanisms employed by fast (and medium) fashion, a capitalistic system that invokes overconsumption (see: hauls) and the inextinguishable itch for dopamine that hits when we buy something new (even if that something new is used).

So let’s get into it. As our interest in clothing resale intensifies, so too does the number of secondhand shopping platforms. There are SO many ways to get your hands on this stuff.

1. Online shopping sites. Consider: ThredUp, Poshmark, Ebay, Etsy, Depop. Mercari, Facebook Marketplace, Unclaimed Baggage, The RealReal, Vinted, Vestiaire Collective, 1stdibs, Kidizen, Tradesy, and the countless other platforms that ease the process of sifting through used clothing from the comfort of your desk.

   Many of these sites are niche-specific, some focused on luxury items and brands, others dedicated to kids.

2. Beyond these platforms, some brands have launched their own resale offshoots that allow their customers to resell in a consolidated marketplace and buy new or used with earned credits. Patagonia’s Worn Wear seems smart, Lululemon has a (somewhat suspicious seeming) trade-in-for-credit program, cutie kids brand Hanna Andersson has a “Hanna-me-downs” shop, and even IKEA has a buy back and resell platform (not clothes, but felt worth mentioning).

3. New tech for old shit: There are a host of new digital tools that can improve the search process, surface better deals, and even find new items at discounted prices. Beni (

   Out with the New
   on Substack) is one such extension that I’ve found myself using a ton. It’s an AI-powered shopping tool that aggregates resale deals from 40+ sites, prioritizing resale over new.
   join_beni

   

   A post shared by @join_beni

   Similarly, Phoebe Gates (@phiafinds), daughter of — yes — is launching an AI-powered Chrome extension called Phia in early 2025. According to reps, it “instantly sources the best secondhand and vintage items on the market,” with the intention of “extending the lifecycle of great designs” and contributing “towards a better future for the planet."

Image courtesy of Phia

With the onslaught of sites and services that seamlessly integrate secondhand shopping into life online, I’ve found myself delighted, addicted, overwhelmed, and spent by the wormhole of possibility. There are endless paths to take when you’re in search of the “best” or “coolest” or “most original” piece to buy. Like, you can keep shopping forever.

WTF am I trying to say?

Buying used is an economical and environmental action, and in today’s era of overconsumption, it’s sold as the virtuous antithesis to overconsumption.

AND YET: The majority of these newer digital platforms and services encourage overconsumption — and keeping consumers on their pages — through the same marketing tactics employed by fast fashion, like: discount codes, free shipping, rewards and points, ad targeting, suggestions of scarcity, membership tiers, and more.

As a person who indeed loves to buy clothes, I’m not complaining, and I think that’s because I’ve been trained like a Good Little Capitalist to revel in a sale or a good deal, and I foam at the mouth over a personalized discount code and fall victim to #girlmath (ew).

But as a person who has (regrettably) named herself Good Little Garbage Girl, I can’t help but to see the…hypocrisy is it? Maybe it’s just a little dose of greenwashing, actually.

Shopping secondhand (on these platforms, with this particular model) is at least as seductive as shopping fast fashion: The act elicits in me that surge in adrenaline when you find a “steal” — uncovering something special buried deep within a discount bin, and you better be the first to grab it. It’s a treasure hunt. There’s an added layer of — what is it? gamification? reward? — that comes since many secondhand finds might be one-of-a-kind(ish).

I spoke with Catherine Sullivan, the head of marketing at Beni, about this contradiction: I want to buy secondhand as a way to be a more mindful consumer, I don’t just want to substitute one mode of overconsumption for another. I want to quit the cycle of always looking for more and scoring better, and I want to…… touch grass, I unfortunately dare to say. I worry that extensions like Beni only extend the amount of time I spend consuming, looking for better deals and dupes.

"That’s something we talk about internally as well, and why we’re careful with how we market the cost-savings benefits,” Sullivan said in an email. “We don’t want to encourage people to buy more than they would because Beni helps extend their purchasing power – we want to demonstrate that when you buy something you were already planning on buying new with Beni instead, you now have more purchasing power for other experiences. I.e. When you save $200 on a dress to your best friend’s wedding, you can now afford to upgrade your hotel room.”

I think hers is a good answer, and it’s not on Beni alone to save the world. Providing consumers with more options and tools to buy second-hand is a good start. But there also needs to be equal messaging to say: Hey, don’t you already have a bunch of shit in your closet, and don’t you want to get offline and stop spending money?

I realize it’s not black and white: Something can fall into the trap of capitalism and also be a better environmental choice (i.e.: you can over-consume secondhand, and that’s at least better than over-consuming new).

The act of buying secondhand also signals a change in consumer behavior to businesses, Sullivan points out. “As more people use Beni and shop secondhand, the demand for these new items goes down, and the onus on brands to create higher quality items with the end-of-life in mind increases. Effectively, this reverses the trend and shifts quality up at every brand tier.”

I do believe in this theory.

OK, that is simply enough about that for now.* But I’d love to know what you think.

*There are WAY more problems to unpack around secondhand shopping, I know. This is just one.

Some links I care 2 share:

• Emily Kirkpatrick
  ’s piece on Maga fashion

Fashion's Alt-Right Flirtation

• Over on FoodPrint, an informative piece from

  Bridget Shirvell
  (who’s got a new book about parenting in a climate crisis coming out) that tells you everything you need to know about nonstick cookware.

• This piece from Slate about the “human doom loop” and how to break the cycle of living online — one that’s making us lonely and unhappy. Particularly enlightening and relevant:

“There’s a bidirectional relationship underway here; the growth of online goods and services is both the symptom and cause of a disappointing physical world. Consider the cab: Over the past two decades Uber and Lyft have all but entirely replaced free-flowing taxis in most cities. Taxis were imperfect, but now the option to reserve one without a phone has been nearly eliminated—and with it the option to move through the physical world without digital mediation.”

“The pattern is clear: The more we go online, the less we show up in person. And the less we show up, the less likely our physical realm will offer experiences that can compete.”

Hope to see you IRL, I guess! Bye!

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