The internet loves a villain. And lately, the villain of sustainable fashion discourse is the thrifter. The person scanning racks at Goodwill for a deal, wearing vintage, hunting secondhand for something unique. The claim: by shopping secondhand, you’re pricing out poor people and taking what isn’t yours.
It doesn’t hold up.
Why Thrift Store Prices Are Rising — and It’s Not Because of You
The most common argument is the price one. Thrifting has gone mainstream, so you are driving up costs for people who can’t afford to shop anywhere else.
Except store employees will tell you that’s not what’s happening. A Goodwill employee in Ravenna, Ohio put it plainly: “It’s a gradual incline due to inflation.” On resellers being the culprit, the same staffer said: “I think that does affect the prices, but not as much as general inflation. There’s not enough of them, and I don’t think resellers are drastic enough to affect the prices.”
The overhead numbers back that up. Retail space rent has risen an average of 10% annually, with urban thrift stores absorbing the worst of it. Labor costs are up. Utilities are up. These are the same pressures hitting every retailer.
Your Saturday afternoon at Savers is not why prices went up.
Secondhand Resellers Aren’t the Problem — They’re Entrepreneurs
Yes, some people shop thrift stores to resell. There is a real conversation to have about inventory. Online resale platforms have encouraged people to sell rather than donate, reducing supply at brick-and-mortar stores. That’s worth acknowledging.
But the person who trained their eye, put in the hours, and built a small business buying and selling secondhand goods? That’s not a villain. That’s someone who found a skill and used it. Calling them a problem is just another way of gatekeeping who gets to participate in the secondhand economy, and that’s the opposite of what this movement is supposed to be about.
The global secondhand market is worth $393 billion. There is room for all of us.
How Mainstream Thrifting Is Erasing the Stigma That Hurt Low-Income Shoppers
Here’s what the thrifting debate almost always misses: the stigma used to run the other direction.
Not long ago, shopping secondhand was something people hid. It carried shame. If Goodwill was your only option, that was something to be embarrassed about, not celebrated. New meant success. Used meant desperation.
That has changed. Between Q2 2022 and the end of 2025, foot traffic at thrift stores increased 25.6%, far outpacing luxury retail, which grew only 1.3%, while traditional retail declined 7.8%. 58% of U.S. shoppers purchased secondhand apparel in 2024, a record high. Secondhand is not a niche anymore. It’s a core part of how Americans shop.
That normalization matters for everyone, including the people who have always shopped secondhand by necessity. When thrifting is mainstream, the shame attached to it disappears. When millions of people do it by choice, it stops being a mark of poverty.
The Real Secondhand Shopping Problem: Too Many Clothes, Not Too Many Thrifters
The fashion industry produces approximately 92 million tonnes of textile waste globally every year. Clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2015, while the average garment is now worn 36% less than it used to be. The U.S. alone generates about 17 million tonnes of textile waste annually.
We are not running out of clothes. We are drowning in them.
The argument that more thrifters hurt low-income shoppers gets the problem backwards. The problem is a fast fashion system built on overproduction and disposability. In 2024, approximately 80% of discarded clothing ended up in landfills or was incinerated. Less than 1% was recycled into new textile fibers.
Every person who chooses secondhand over new is one fewer purchase feeding that system.
How the Growth of Secondhand Shopping Is Taking On Fast Fashion
The global secondhand market now represents roughly 10% of total apparel spend, according to ThredUp’s 2026 Resale Report. That is not a hobby. That is a legitimate economic force putting pressure on an industry that has operated without accountability for decades.
The more people who thrift, for any reason and at any income level, the harder it becomes for fast fashion to keep selling the idea that cheap, disposable clothing is just how things work.
Does Thrifting Hurt Low-Income Shoppers? The Answer Is No
The framing assumes a fixed pie, that every middle-class thrifter is taking something directly from a low-income shopper. Thrift stores are not running out of inventory because of shoppers. They’re dealing with a supply shift driven by online resale platforms and the economics of running a nonprofit retail operation during inflation.
72% of thrift shoppers say they shop secondhand to save money. Most people choosing secondhand are not doing it from a position of excess. They’re making a practical, often financially necessary choice, just like people always have.
The stigma that once made thrifting shameful was the real problem. Its disappearance is not.
More Ways to Shop Secondhand (Beyond the Thrift Store)
Part of what makes the “thrifting is elitist” argument so frustrating is that it treats secondhand shopping as one monolithic thing. It’s not. The options have never been more varied, and a lot of them don’t require setting foot in a Goodwill at all.
Consignment stores let sellers set their own prices and take a percentage of the sale. The inventory tends to be more curated, which means less digging but sometimes higher price points. Good for people who know exactly what they’re looking for.
Pop-up markets and vintage fairs are where a lot of the best finds actually live. Vendors bring curated collections, prices are often negotiable, and you’re buying directly from the person who sourced it. Check local event listings, Instagram, and Eventbrite for markets in your city.
Online resale platforms, including Depop, Poshmark, Mercari, ThredUp, and Facebook Marketplace, have opened up secondhand shopping to anyone with a phone. You can search by size, brand, color, and price point. No driving, no digging, no Saturday morning commitment required.
Buy Nothing groups and clothing swaps are the most accessible version of secondhand of all. Free. Community-run. No transaction required. Search Facebook for your local Buy Nothing group or look for clothing swap events at community centers, libraries, and local boutiques.
The secondhand ecosystem is bigger and more accessible than the debate gives it credit for.
Where to Start: Lex in the City Thrift Tour Guides
If you want to actually get out and thrift, I’ve built neighborhood-by-neighborhood guides for cities across the country. These are not aggregated lists. Every store has been researched, verified, and vetted — with skill level, price range, store type, and hours so you know what you’re walking into before you walk in.
Some Second Hand Tour Guides:
West Coast: Silver Lake / Echo Park, Los Feliz, Burbank / Magnolia Village, Downtown LA, Sherman Oaks, Santa Monica, San Diego, Old Towne Orange, Coachella Valley
Southeast: Nashville, East Nashville, West Palm Beach
Mid-Atlantic: Washington, DC guides in progress — Capitol Hill / Eastern Market, Adams Morgan, and Columbia Heights / Petworth are live, with more neighborhoods coming.
More cities are in production. If your city isn’t on the list yet, it’s coming.
Shop secondhand. Resell if you’re good at it. Donate what you don’t wear. The more people in this economy, the better off we all are.
