The Accessibility of Thrifting
Shopping secondhand has long been touted as an affordable way to shop sustainably. And I do agree with that. I’m a huge advocate for secondhand shopping. I own a secondhand store. Most of my closet is secondhand. But, there are still things to keep in perspective— it’s not a perfect solution for everyone. If we are going to celebrate and push for secondhand as a solution to our overproduction and overconsumption problems, we must acknowledge its shortcomings. When we flippantly suggest that thrifting can replace shopping fast fashion, we ignore that some populations don’t have the same accessibility and privileges that makes secondhand a good solution.
Thrift Privilege
Thrift privilege is having the luxury of time, freedom, ability, and experience to shop secondhand in a beneficial way. It may seem counterintuitive that shopping at a thrift store is a privilege given the past stigma surrounding secondhand. Yet, thrift shopping is a fast-growing sector of the fashion industry. In 2020, 33 million people shopped secondhand for the first time in their lives and a majority of them intend to continue doing so. The secondhand market is expected to double in the next five years, reaching $77 billion. This growth is 11 times faster than the rest of the fashion industry. It’s fair to say secondhand shopping is mainstream. Given its societal popularity and its revered place within sustainable living, it’s important to acknowledge that such privilege exists and work to counteract it.
Thrift privilege exists mainly in the time it takes to shop secondhand. Browsing a thrift store is a time investment due to the volume of clothing to sort through and the way it’s organized. Often only sorted into broad categories, you have to flip past hundreds of items to find what it is you may be looking for (and you still may come up empty). Enter in considerations like work hours, family obligations, and other time commitments, spending a couple hours in a thrift store can be nearly impossible. Even that depends on your ability to get to the store, the commute, and access to transportation. Physical ability plays a role in the accessibility of thrifting, as well. For those with disability (visible or invisible) and other health concerns like being immunocompromised or having germ-related anxiety, thrifting can possess barriers due to store layout, the energy it takes, and cleanliness concerns. Even online, thrifting likely isn’t usable to those with disability. One assessment of the top 1 million homepages found that only 1% of those sites met the most widely used accessibility standards. The ability to thrift online also assumes availability to technology, internet, a way to pay online, etc.
Even if you’ve successfully passed the barriers to shop at a thrift store, the inventory won’t always work in your favor. For those that need extended sizing like tall, petite, or plus sizes, clothes can be really hard to find. To begin with, there’s already a shortage of clothing within those categories. Then straight-sized shoppers may purchase those items to modify or “flip” them. To find what you love in your size can take a long time in an already time-intensive activity. Another barrier can be a lack of experience in thrifting. If you are a seasoned secondhand shopper, you know that there’s a learning curve to optimize your shopping trip. You’ve learned how to browse the racks to spot what you want, what days to go according to restock or discount schedules, and which stores are best for what you’re looking for. If you don’t have this experience, secondhand shopping can be really overwhelming (honestly, even with experience, some days it still feels like a lot).
Barriers to Secondhand Shopping
The time it takes to shop and sort through everything
Physical ability and health
Lack of extended sizing
Item scarcity
Geographic area, lack of near-by stores
Need of transportation to reach a store
Need of technology, internet, payment methods to shop secondhand online
Lack of know-how, thrift overwhelm
Some Perspective
For those of us with thrift privilege, these barriers may not even occur to us. Most of these barriers exist with any kind of shopping, sustainable or not. That’s why it important to recognize this when we are vocal about how we “should” shop. This is particularly relevant because thrift shopping is pushed as an alternative to fast fashion. The main reason being that the price point can be similarly low and that thrifting is generally seen as more available than a small, sustainable brand. So if we are going to encourage thrifting instead of fast fashion, let’s be realistic about it. For example, ultra-fast fashion brands have actually made extended sizing more available than ever before. And while I would never encourage shopping from a brand like SHEIN, I’m not ever going to shame someone who feels they don’t have other options. Those that are shopping fast fashion out of necessity and affordability are not the ones contributing to the excessive overconsumption those brands are built on. And likely, they may be the same population that finds shopping secondhand to be inaccessible based on the constraints.
Given the fact that those who face barriers to thrifting and shopping are not a part of the population that is largely responsible for our current consumption culture, how do we address the narrative around fashion’s role in climate change? How do we make it nuanced, inclusive, and laced with understanding for how the system works and how we got here? For example, much of the current discussion around the industrial impact on the environment places responsibility on the individual to change their behavior. Switch your lightbulbs. Take shorter showers. Drive less. Don’t shop there. And often everyone is grouped into those admonitions and calls for action. Even the IPCC’s latest assessment casts a wide net, claiming “humanity” is responsible for the climate catastrophe. Let’s not fall into the trap of believing that each of us have equally perpetuated the crisis to it’s dire state. Rather, it was the decisions and behaviors of a small percentage of the population.
In Kamea Chayne’s piece on the IPCC report, she quotes Nick Estes:
“[The attribution to humanity as the cause of climate change] is a universal application of all humans as responsible. It misses the point. There are actually industries, 20 companies responsible for a third of global emissions. How is that everyone's responsibility? That a lot of us have to consume oil or emit carbon to go to work is not necessarily our fault if we're trying to feed ourselves and survive. There's one economic system that's deciding the essentialness of a fossil fuel economy.”
It doesn’t make sense to pin responsibility on humanity as a whole, yet everyone is pushed to “do their part.” And I do believe in the power of collective action. But I also think that this new-found public urgency for change ignores the people groups, specifically Indigenous peoples and people of color, that have been living sustainably for centuries and will be the most harmed if we can’t get this planet back on track. We can’t get lost in the “everybody take responsibility and act now” narrative and continue to dismiss those that have been doing the work and those that have done the least to contribute to climate change. Chayne also reframes “privileged” as “disassociated,” noting that it shouldn’t be considered advantageous to be out of touch with reality. Rather than aiming to get everyone on the same level of “privilege,” we should be aiming to ground those that have lost touch, so that we can all recognize and live according to our interconnectedness and how each of our actions harms and helps others.
All of this to say, we must hold some perspective when we make sweeping statements on what we should all be doing to combat the climate crisis. In the same way that Indigenous people groups don’t bear the same responsibility as governments funding fossil fuels, those that can’t afford to spend a couple hours at a thrift store don’t bear the same responsibility that high-income individuals who consume in excess do. In reality, an individual’s contribution to the climate crisis is minuscule when compared to that of industries’. We shouldn’t get caught up in judgement or shaming of individuals. There is no one correct path forward when it comes to individual action.
Thrifting can be an incredible tool for taking advantage of what already exists and reducing consumer demand for more. It can be an excellent alternative to fast fashion and one that we can strive for. However, it doesn’t work for everyone. And while we should work to counteract those inaccessibilities, we should also acknowledge that those that can’t shop in thrift stores aren’t as accountable for the consumer’s role in climate change as those of us who have more flexibility in how we shop. In fact, our flexibility allows us to take the time to change our behavior, shop more mindfully, and create a more accessible experience for others. Coming from a place of “thrift privilege” is an opportunity to reconnect (and not stay disassociated as Chayne noted) with how we can shop in accordance to our collective role as an interdependent community.
Here are some ways that we can create a more inclusive environment when thrifting.
Mindful Thrift Shopping & Increasing Accessibility
Only buy what you need
Shop your actual size
If you're in a high-need area with a thrift store with a low-supply, shop secondhand online instead
Avoid high-demand items like winter coats, kids clothing, plus sizes, and professional wear
Offer to shop along with someone who could use assistance
Babysit your friend’s kids so the friend can shop or go along on the shopping trip to ease the load
Share your tips, tricks, and hacks to make thrifting easier
If you’re a reseller, be mindful of the demand of your inventory and be considerate in your selections
Note: Thrifting is NOT a privilege for everyone. For many, thrifting is a necessity and a normal part of life, especially for lower income households. It may be the only way people can afford to shop, which can come from a place of lack of privilege. Thus, someone thrifting doesn’t mean they are privileged. Rather, this article is meant to address the viewpoint of those that use thrifting as a catch-all sustainable solution without recognizing the factors that have to align for that to be true.
Additional sources and inspiration for this article:
Clotheshorse Podcast’s Post
Kamea Chayne’s Uprooted Substack Piece on Privilege
This Article on Time Privilege
This Article on the Average Person’s Role in Climate Change
September 2021