Goodwill used to be my family’s go-to for clothing at the beginning of every school year. We could comfortably afford to get at least two shirts, and two pairs of pants each for my brother and I. We’d then head to Payless for a pair of shoes, and finally Burlington and get our winter coats.

Now, if we were to make that same trip today, but in the same financial situation we were in then, we would only be able to get a shirt, a pair of pants, and hope we can go back for a coat before it snows.

Why is that? Used items and secondhand stores, like Goodwill and Burlington, were built for people who couldn’t afford popular stores, like Target, Kohl’s, Nike, and so on. They were cheap, and while you couldn’t always find your size, or a nice pair of shoes, there was still something you could walk out of the store with.

Now that Thrifting has become popularized though, those kinds of places are becoming less about those in need, and more about making money. People who can afford to walk into Hollister and walk out with hundreds of dollars worth of clothing are now heading to the nearest Goodwill to get some cheap shirts.

There’s nothing wrong with shopping cheap; the issue is that now both thrift stores and department stores are trying to compensate with those kinds of shoppers by upping their prices to about the same as the average store sells. The argument can be made that all store prices have been going up because of inflation, but the average pair of jeans at Kohl’s range from $40-100, while the average pair at Goodwill are $4.99-5.

Unfortunately, while this means good things for the store(more money), it’s an even further disadvantage for those in need, especially before a season change. It’s dangerous not having a coat and boots to wear when a blizzard could appear at any moment.

…A lot of kids get bullied for wearing second-hand clothes; but now that it’s popular, it’s all of a sudden ok. The same can be said about any popular item, such as a video game, and/or Crocs(those with Crocs back in the third grade may as well have been lynched). What changed? How come things that were previously looked down on are becoming popular because another group adapted them?

It’s insulting, because the things that used to set me, and plenty of others apart, have become a trend. We didn’t shop for secondhand clothing because it was “cool” or because we wanted to “save money”; It was all we had.