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I'm middle class, a bit economically challenged right now, but for the last almost two years I've ONLY shopped at thrift stores. Why? I went from a size 20 to a 10. I have an extraordinary amount of stress in my life and I refuse to go to Macy's for a pair of short when I can get a pair at the local thrift store here in Melbourne, FL where there is a thrift store in every strip mall for about $3. Odds are I'm only going to wear it for a short time and then need a smaller size.
And that's why this middle-class chica shops thriftily!
I'm very low income, and I shop for the best deals. Sometimes you can buy new stuff at discount places for the same price or even less than some thrift stores want to sell them for.
For instance, I can usually find new stuff at a Ross Dress for Less for the same price the local Good Will store wants to charge for old ratty stuff.
Maybe you've experienced a culture thing, where someone would feel like they were of a lower class if they bought 2nd hand stuff. But, I haven't experienced that. I've been very low income for a good part of my life, and have known friends who are low income, and nobody I know had a problem bragging about getting deals at thrift stores.
On the other hand, my upper-middle-class friends don't shop in thrift stores. They will, however, look for deals on Craigslist. But, for clothes, they don't want to spend the time it takes to find clothing in good shape in the right sizes or styles, etc., in thrift stores. They want it to be easy to find what they want, and are willing to spend more for that.
Some low income people are bad money managers, some low income people are really good at managing their money. I don't think thrift store shopping is all that tied to income level.
I used to cruise through the thrift stores occassionally looking for things like hand thrown pottery and monkeypod wood bowls. But I never see any of that sort of stuff any more, I suspect that the eBay resellers are in there constantky, scooping up anything of value.
Cookware, which I would also buy is often priced the same or higher than the same thing new.
Sometimes thrift-stores are not a good deal, the prices are just not that good anymore. So even for someone like me, on a low-budget, it often makes more sense to find new sale-items at places like Walmart or Sears.
I am in the market for a new pair of boots. Going to thrift-stores is not even worth it.....a decent used pair of boots, is more than I would pay for a new pair, at various different stores.
I agree that what you're seeing is likely the result of young families who have high salaries but also big debts (schools, mortgage) and expenses (daycare) primarily shopping for children; although, I will mention that my elderly mom and her friends love to thrift, too.
Last edited by randomparent; 05-08-2018 at 12:59 PM..
When I was little, the local thrift store was filthy and disgusting. I never knew anyone who shopped there. I think it was Wayside Mission. Decades later, the Salvation Army opened a thrift store. They had some decent stuff. When my son was a toddler, I shopped consignment stores. There was no thrift store in the area.
There's a pretty great thrift store down the street from me. People from the neighborhood both sell and buy things from there all the time. Kills two (three?) birds with one stone. They get to itemize their donations and purchase what they need at a discount while feeling good about supporting the social organization that runs the store. It's win-win-win for the upper-middle class.
There are different kinds of thrift shops and some are definitely nicer than others. Often times, a standalone store that is associated with a particular local hospital or charity will get lots of really nice, high end stuff from the donors whose funding supports that charity. That's obviously a far cry from a Goodwill, etc.
And there are also non-charity oriented consignment stores, which tend to be pretty selective about what they will take. They sell the item at a discount from what it was new, but it's not a crazy low price. The consignment store keeps some of that money and some of it goes back to the owner of the item.
I think someone's economic status will factor into choices to shop at these kinds of places as well as more traditional thrift stores.
I will also add that I live in a large planned urban community. My income is on the lower range for the area, but in general, I'd say it's upper middle class. We have several community based online swap groups, where people sell their items to other people in the community. Usually at pretty low prices, because they would otherwise donate it anyway, so this way they get a few bucks. People sell a lot of kids stuff as their own kid outgrow it but also clothing that they decide they just don't wear enough to keep, and home and kitchen items. It's also a very mobile area, with people moving here for a job but then moving back out again in another two or three years for another new job. So they frequently sell lots of stuff then to make the move easier. I went a little nuts when I first moved here because I was buying all kinds of things for my house, like gorgeous glass vases for a super low price, and I would feel like it was too good a deal to pass up. But now I'm the one with too much stuff and I'm going to have to start getting rid of some of it! lol! But in any case, definitely no stigma at all here in terms of buying used items from each other.
Social class is about a LOT more things than just income. Education, enculturation, self-image, ambition, heritable characteristics like IQ, and one's social network, all play roles in our class standing.
If we're talking about just income, then 'Lower Class', to me, would be double-Minimum-Wage, or less. So, in most of America, that would be a household income of thirty thousand or less. Pew defines 'Upper Class' income as double the national median. So, that would be income of 120 thousand or so. But that's ridiculous. That kind of money won't even let you afford a home in an Upper Class NEIGHBORHOOD.
To me, "Upper Class", if we're ONLY talking about money, begins when you start getting REALLY big returns on your money (money that you're not deriving from businesses you're personally, actively, involved in, that is). That critical mass comes for BILLIONAIRES. So, if you're getting true yearly growth of your capital, in the range of 120 million or more, then you're Upper Class. Pew is off, by three zeroes.
Then again, I know plenty of truly Upper Class people, who manage (precariously, of course) to remain Aristocrats, on household incomes far lower than the money coming into a great many truly Lower Class households. They live in barely-maintained Victorian mansions, in dying towns, in dying regions. And, as OP says, THEY SHOP THE THRIFTS.
And it's a matter of WHAT you buy. An Upper Class person will go into TJ Maxx or a better thrift, and emerge with gorgeous, classy-looking stuff. A truly Lower Class person will go in, and emerge with sports memorabilia, things that make noise, plastic things in day-glo colors, and things covered with the faces of Disney characters. The truly Upper Class person will spot the delicate reproduction lacquered Chinese Chippendale fretwork chair, while the truly Lower Class person will lug-home the giant, overstuffed flop-out-style seating.
The confusion part is why don't lower income people shop at 2nd hand store more often. In my head, the lower the income the more 2nd hand shopping a family will do. But in reality its not a linear graph
There is nothing wrong with middle class shopping in 2nd hand store, I myself do it too but I didn't when I was poor.
My wife calls this the 'price of being poor'.
We have seen many used car dealerships that self-finance cars [at very high rates]. They target marketing at the poor.
Home appliance rental stores often target the poor, who will pay twice as much for the same product.
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