By Kayla Curry

Thrifting isn’t guilt free under capitalism.

In a globalized and capitalist society, worker’s rights and environmental sustainability suffer at the hands of the fast fashion industry. In recent years, consumers have turned to more ethical ways to shop. Buying second hand is the popular and, undoubtedly, more ethical choice, but the rising popularity of thrifting has come at a cost, literally and figuratively.

The gentrification of thrifting

Thrifting clothes is cheaper, better for the environment, and allows consumers to find pieces they might not find in store to create that sought-after vintage look. However, the high demand for thrifted items means thrift stores are raising their prices.

When I walk into the men’s section of my local Saver’s, I notice that the popular Harley Davidson t-shirts are priced at $7.99 as compared to the other lesser bought t-shirts which are priced around $2.99. This is a general pattern for most chain thrift stores like Red Racks who don’t always offer “thrift store” prices. Similar issues arise for online thrifting sites such as Depop where sellers thrift items for cheap and sell them for a higher price. 

I asked some friends for their thoughts on this. My friend Ashley Bresnahan has witnessed the gentrification of thrifting and its impact on low-income individuals. 

“Even though I’m the typical broke college student, I do not need thrift store clothing as much as others,” she said. “I work in caretaking and a lot of the individuals I work with only have about $15 a week to spend meaning if they need clothes they have to get them from a thrift store. I’ve personally seen how happy they get when they are able to find name brand clothing, so I feel bad thrifting and taking the opportunity of having high quality items from my clients and other low-income individuals.”

Another friend, Cassidy Farrar, said she couldn’t justify shopping at places like Forever 21 after learning about fast fashion, but she still sees how her thrifting habits aren’t completely ethical. Over the years, she has noticed rising prices that are hard on her college student budget.

“Not only have prices began to cater to people with more money, but I have seen businesses here in Springfield as well as individual Depop stores that take larger clothing that would normally be like $5 and put it on a thin model, selling it as ‘vintage’ for prices like $20 to even hundreds [of dollars].

It’s disappointing because I see my sizes dwindling from stores or becoming too pricey for me, and I know if that is the case for men it is worse tenfold for plus-sized individuals and/or those in poverty.”

Thrifting is not always size inclusive.

Another exclusive characteristic of thrift stores is the limited sizing. Popularized ‘thrift flips’ often include using plus-sized items and tailoring them to fit thinner bodies which takes away from plus-sized individuals who thrift. 

It’s hard enough to find special sizing in the fast fashion industry, but thrifting makes this even more of a challenge. Consumers are forced to sift through rack upon rack of clothing with no guarantee of finding something that not only fits but that they love.

Being ethical and sustainable isn’t accessible to everyone.

Despite studies showing it’s the richest 10% in the world who are responsible for about 50% of carbon emissions while the bottom 50% only account for 10%, shame and guilt is often directed at individual, everyday consumers to get us to do our part. It’s important to note that being an ethical and sustainable consumer is in many ways elitist and inaccessible to working class people.

Thrifting is elitist because it is time consuming and effort intensive for shoppers. For some, thrifting is a fun scavenger hunt for hidden gems, but for people working long hours, going to school full-time, or caring for their families, shopping becomes a chore and thrifting does not make it easier. 

Capitalism makes ethical consumption impossible.

Gentrification and high-jacking of thrift store items is a reflection of the larger, systemic inequality that arises from exploitative capitalism which values profit over narrowing the wealth gap and protecting the planet.

This has been summed up in the phrase “no ethical consumption under capitalism” by many anti-capitalists because the very nature of capitalism is to exploit those on the bottom. Every worker is paid less than the value of their work under capitalism in order for those who own the means of production to make a profit. In other words, as long as this capitalist structure exists, a mass shift into thrifting may solve some ethical dilemmas but will inevitably cause others to surface.

Despite knowing all of this, we should still opt for thrift stores over fast fashion while being aware that we must be conscious even when shopping secondhand. Everyone doing their part to be more ethical and sustainable creates collective change, and most of us are already making conscious choices as consumers. Even so, this will never be enough to combat the major issues such as climate change, unfair wages, and outsourcing of labor if we don’t address the larger source of the problem. 

This all sounds pessimistic, so how can we be better consumers?

The answer: buy less and advocate for systemic change. Our unending desire to consume paired with a society operating on unfettered capitalism and globalization makes it nearly impossible to achieve a truly ethical and sustainable culture.

Thrifting is always more ethical than shopping fast fashion because we aren’t contributing to the unsustainable industry or exploiting sweatshop workers in other countries, but even thrifting isn’t guilt-free. Turn your guilt into action.

As individual consumers, we should not burden all the guilt for the moral failings of our government and the exploitative systems it operates on, but those of us who can, have a responsibility to challenge these systems.

Fight capitalism and climate change in other areas of your daily life by doing other things like cutting red meat from your diet or replacing your makeup wipes with reusable cotton pads. More importantly, support grassroots movements that advocate for a Green New Deal, for worker’s rights, and for socioeconomic change on a systemic level. We all have a part to play. Ask yourself what yours is.