The gift of thrift: When second-hand shopping started to be stylish
Salvation Army manager was surprised by picky customers in 1983
CBC's What on Earth? newsletter recently told readers why environmentalists want us to stop decluttering. It said that studies show there are mental health benefits to getting rid of all that stuff, but it can come at the cost of the planet.
As CBC Radio's Cost of Living explored in March, used clothes can mean big business for resellers. But that comes at a cost to thrift stores aiming to offer a quality buying experience to customers on a budget.
The market for used goods of any kind seems to have gained popularity in the late 1970s, judging by a 1979 report on the garage sale "fad" from CBC's The National.
But a more widespread interest in thrift stores seems to have begun in the early 1980s, as people started to see them as places to find stylish options. By the '90s, they had moved into malls and attracted the eye of teens looking for something different.
'They even want style'
CBC Halifax reporter Dorothy Grant visited a Salvation Army depot in 1983 to get a peek behind the scenes and understand how their thrift-store operation worked.
"Huge piles of garbage bags that contain things people no longer want are sorted by the staff," she said as a quartet of women emptied trash bags and assessed their contents. "It's a never-ending task."
Grant explained that the Salvation Army was "anxious to receive good quality, clean items" such as clothing, shoes and furniture to sell in their thrift shops.
Clothing made "in the past few years" was especially in demand, and a store manager seemed surprised that thrift store shoppers could be picky.
"People come in and they even want style," said the Salvation Army's Maj. Harold Cull. "They come in and they say, you know, 'Have you got shoes here?' and they look at the shoes and if they see shoes aren't in … stylish fashion. They say, 'Well, we don't want that.'"
Old magazines and books didn't have to go in the garbage either. Grant said hospitals could always use them for their libraries.
"But don't send old, worn-out ones that children and adults probably won't enjoy," she added.
No place for a thrift store
In 1990 Halifax, Jeannie Connor was on the verge of opening her own store in a newly renovated mall.
As reporter Glennie Langille found, her shop was an outlet of "something of a Nova Scotia phenomenon" — Frenchy's, a second-hand clothing chain that had until then been confined to the outskirts of small towns or Halifax's city limits.
Langille said opening a branch of Frenchy's had been a "dream come true" for Connor.
"It's been wonderful for me, to be able to just go and pay $2 instead of $40 for a pair of acid-wash jeans or OshKosh overalls or something for [my] boys," said Connor. "I hope to provide that service for other mothers."
But Marilyn Marks, the owner of another store in the mall — Fields Fashions, which Langille said carried clothing in the "medium to upper price range" — didn't think Frenchy's belonged in the shopping centre.
"We were told this will be a high-class, first-class fashion retail mall," said Marks. "Frenchy's does not fit into that. They have their clientele, but not in a mall. Even if they are in the back, it is still part of the image of the mall."
Geri Sheppard, a manager at Bayers Road Shopping Centre, disagreed. She said Frenchy's would fit right in with the other stores.
"The customer profile of used-clothing stores are those people above mid-income," she said. "They're the same customers that shop in every store in this mall."
Skater wear
With a little skill on a sewing machine and a stack of large pants sourced from thrift stores, a Nova Scotia teen started his own small business in 1993.
"With these, I just take them and cut them off at about 15 inches, and then I'd hem them up," said Mark Hamilton, who made shorts for skateboarders.
He said the high price tags on clothing from skateboard shops had prompted him to look for another way to get the right look and function. Second-hand stores were an important part of the process.
"These are the kind of pair of pants I'd buy at Frenchy's or any other used-clothes store," he explained while showing a generously sized pair of trousers to the camera. "They're really big in the waist, which means they're really big and wide in the legs."
Hamilton got some help setting up his business, said reporter Clare MacKenzie for the CBC News program The Five-30. Hamilton's grandfather had loaned him some money, and he was awarded $100 by the I Want to Be a Millionaire program, run by the Central Nova Industry Education Council.
"I feel it's like any other sport. You have to have the right clothes to fit in," said Hamilton. "Just to look the part of a skateboarder, you have to dress like one."
Fellow skaters Neil Hamilton and Billy Parks said the upcycled shorts were similar to what skateboard shops carried.
"Except it's cheaper and Mark makes it, so it's [a] bonus," said Hamilton. "It's from Nova Scotia — Canadian made. And it's just really baggy and it looks great."
"It's a bit different," said Parks, demonstrating the plaid pocket sewn onto his shorts. "That's a bit more creative."
