What do you loathe about thrifting?

In the first installment of my thrifty query series we discovered what there is to love about thrifting but what about the opposite?

Take a peek at what happened when I asked the preloved style gurus in my gone thrifting group: What do you loathe about thrifting? + grab my thoughts too!

Kirsti: The judgement from people who don’t get it. I live in an area that seems to have an issue with people who like thrifting and hand me downs, and unlike my friends who are all over a good deal (or an awesome find), they don’t seem to understand the environmental impact of their purchasing choices.

Katie: I’ve embraced thrifting for both me and my daughter, but there is a light judgment from some of my family who see me as cheap for not buying new.

Me: To any and all who think secondhand & preloved shopping is “cheap”, “gross” or “unhygenic” & buying new is better, kindly take a peek at and share this article, this article, this article and this article and this video:

Brandy: Lately I dislike the prices. Almost all of the thrifts around me have began to price more than new fast fashion. I’ve tried explaining that they can ask any price they want but that doesn’t mean that customers will pay it. I search for vintage clothes and lately a thrift near me has been pricing them so high that once they get to the 60% off dates they are the price they should’ve been to begin with.

Marian: The prices have consistently been increasing to the point that they are not much cheaper than buying new. I have thrifted for a long time and it used to keep me on budget dressing my 4 kids, now not so much unless I go on a 1/2 price day.

Anne: I have found that the prices have really increased over the past couple of years. It used to be that items were all priced the same (all jeans for $8, all tops for $3, etc), now there are more individually priced items. For profit thrift shop prices are really high and the charity shops are getting up there too. There are still good deals out there but you have to search a bit harder. I have found a wonderful consignment store in my area that offers excellent items in great condition and ALL money made goes to local charities.

Jenny: Agree on the prices. I dislike shopping in general but try to buy preloved items. Garage sale prices are best but very hit or miss.

Corky: I’m becoming somewhat disillusioned with some thrift stores who are hiking their prices up, but the quality is not sufficient to justify the price. If I can buy a brand new tee shirt for 5 dollars, why would I pay 4 dollars for one with stains or a hole in it?

Me: Why are thrift & charity shops pricing their donations the same & even higher than new unethically produced fast fashion?

They receive literally tons of items every day for free, so many that only about 20% of those donated items actually make it out into the store for sale – large thrift stores even advertise that they add 2000+ items to their over stuffed racks & shelves daily. Clearly the supply is massively greater than the demand so why not price accordingly?

The charity shops I went to in Europe priced most of their large textile items under €3 (like winter jackets, suits, footwear, etc) and smaller textile items at €1 or less (shirts, pants, towels, bags, etc). Kitchenware, books, toys, accessories, etc were always sold for cents and furniture was usually under €10. Why? Because the supply was greater than the demand and donations came in faster than they could sell them. The logic there is simple: getting more out of the store and in use at a very reasonable price means less needs to be tossed + makes a bit more room for the massive donations arriving daily.

The shops I frequented when I lived in Germany (2008 – 2016) + the ones I visited in Poland, Romania, Denmark & the Netherlands during that time had the prices I mentioned above. Sadly, I’ve come to discover that Canadian chain thrift stores (even those run by charities) are ridiculously overpriced, especially when compared to European charity shops. Even thrift shops in the US have better prices than Canada – humph!

Vivian: The musty smells of some stores.

Me: Snag all of my cleaning tips & laundry tricks here and banish those unwanted odours!

Stefanie: When someone beats me to an item I wanted!

Vanessa: Competition for the good stuff!

Ren: My favorite place to go sells by the pound. What I don’t like is competing with people re- selling for a living. They can be very aggressive!

Me: Never miss a potential thrift score again with my wealth of thrifting tips!

Stormy: When you buy a super cute shirt; I mean so cute and your so excited. You wear it for the first time a BAM! A tiny hole you missed.

Me: Here’s my quick fix for that sneaky hole in a thrifted garment.

Elizabeth: Ummm, nothing?

Head on over and take part in an upcoming thrifty query with the Gone Thrifting group!

If you’d like to refashion your entire wardrobe for pennies yourself check out my E-courses right over here:

and start your sustainable lifestyle journey with my groovy CoaR tutorial E-book collections right here: