I wasn't planning on doing a diary today, but I came across this column by Amy Hardin Turosak, "Green shopping: Don't say 'eww,' to thrift stores," which says some things that have been floating around my mind lately, but—with the help of Dr. Seuss—says them much better than I ever could.
Sometime within the last 100 years, we lost the power to dialogue with shopkeepers to define our own needs. Now, retailers "inform" us. This exact scenario was foretold by the wise Dr. Seuss in his book "The Lorax." He said, "A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need! ... I'm figgering on biggering and biggering ... turning MORE Truffula Trees in to Thneeds which everyone ... needs!
According to Turosak,
There is an alternative to this wasteful paradigm, and its infrastructure is in place: thrift shopping.
Instead of letting the fashion industry (and many other industries) dictate to us, we can decide for ourselves what we want and need, saving the costs of raw materials, labor, and transport of new goods:
How does thrift shopping lower our carbon footprint? No additional energy is required to fill the consumer's need for a gently used product. The fuel of long-haul transport, often from the other side of the earth, has already been burned. The only fuel attached to the item is the car ride over to the donation site. Reused products do not have the weight and waste of excessive packaging new products do. Finally, thrift-store shopping diverts reusable items from landfills. That is a respectable energy savings.
Turosak points out that shopping at thrift stores also helps support our communities by giving jobs to people who otherwise might not find work.
I have been doing about 50% of my clothes shopping at thrift or consignment stores for over a year now, and I'm fairly pleased with my finds. You have to be willing to look carefully through the racks, as in some stores clothing may be sorted by color rather than by size. However, I find the most important thing is to have an open mind. If you go into a store looking for, say, a red sweater, then you may overlook the gorgeous never-worn green skirt or the perfect evening bag for your upcoming night out.
In general, I've been lucky with slacks, skirts, and cardigan sweaters and jackets; not so lucky with jeans and tops. And I've had better luck with fall/winter clothing than with spring/summer stuff. I haven't been doing it long enough to be sure, but I suspect the best times to shop are in the spring and the fall, when people are clearing out their closets to make room for the next season's things.
So what about the "eww" factor? As a recovering germ-phobe (said recovery imposed on me by nieces, nephews, and pets), I like to launder or dry clean everything before I bring it home. That's pretty much the end of the ick for me. And thinking about the world the nieces and nephews will have to live in helps provide the motivation to go thrifty. Put me in Turosak's "environista" camp!