Shopping at Thrift Stores – Good for the World, Good for the Wallet

I posted earlier about our back-to-school shopping trip but wanted to go into more detail about the benefits of thrift store shopping. When we initially considered shopping at thrift stores, my first thought was, “Ick!” In case that is also your reaction, here are some reasons to consider it. 

First, the savings. As I mentioned in the previous post, we picked up eight items, some of them expensive name brands, for less than $31. That comes to less than $4 per item, including tax. We are always looking for ways to save money and these kinds of prices help us do just that.

Second, a chance to exercise the “reuse” portion of “reduce, reuse, recycle.” According to the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste, Americans throw away 68 pounds of clothing and other textiles each year. Wow! That is more than a full suitcase (on today’s airlines) full of clothes going into the trash.

Third, the opportunity to prevention pollution. Recycling makes a difference at every point the life cycle of a product. Recycling means not only that raw materials are preserved but also that pollution is prevented during the product’s creation. Air and water pollution is reduced since additional raw materials are not being collected, transported to factories, and turned into products. Greenhouse emissions are also reduced since additional manufacturing and transportation is not required. In other words, the benefits of recycling have a ripple effect.

For more on related environmental implications, visit “Waste Couture: Environmental Impact of the Clothing Industry” in the September 2007 edition of Environmental Health Perspectives.

Fourth, our purchases are helping to fund some neat programs. Goodwill and the Salvation Army do some great things with the funds they receive from their thrift stores. Visit Goodwill and the Salvation Army to learn more about their programs. Since we have to buy clothes, I am happy to have the money we spend have a direct benefit on our community.

Last but certainly not least, these shopping trips provide our children with proof that we mean what we say. We’ve learned that in parenting, what we do is often more powerful than what we say. (This is such a pain!) We’ve had lots of discussions with our children about sharing, spending money wisely, and not wasting things. They get to see all that in action when we stop by Goodwill.

We are also trying to stack the deck for our shopping future. After we shop, we talk about how much money we saved by purchasing items at Goodwill instead of the mall. Then we do something fun (this is a good excuse for an ice cream run!) and explain that we were able to pay for the treat because we saved so much money by shopping at Goodwill. We’ve got a few years before they become teenagers so want to lobby for our position while they are still actively listening to us. :)

Just in case there is not a thrift store in your area, there are also online options such as Rehash you can explore.

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