For the 2013 Finals Fest, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis rocked the Kibbie Dome with their song “Thrift Shop” to all of the adoring Vandals in attendance. The song, which reached No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100, humorously advocated thrift stores as places to find great deals and cool, albeit odd, clothes.
While most pop culture trends may result in people stampeding to emulate the latest trends, this one sadly did not. Despite Macklemore rocking a tiger-striped coat with what must be a world-record- breaking collar in the music video for “Thrift Shop,” no nationwide stampedes were seen from fans trying to get their own “flannel zebra jammies.”
The power of hip-hop couldn’t even overcome the nationwide distaste for thrift shops. The rationale for people shunning thrift shops is understandable at its roots.
Clothes at a thrift shop are falsely perceived by many as germ-ridden fashion abominations that came from some dead person’s closet. The full fashion horrors of a thrift shop were visualized for the world in the “Thrift Shop” music video with Macklemore somehow managing to squeeze into a Batman onesie.
However, thrift shops offer a haven for budget conscious college students. While the occasional shoulder-padded jacket of yesteryears may peek its head out from a clothes rack, thrift stores and their cousins, consignment stores, offer a surprising array of wearable clothing.
During my thrift store travels, I have encountered clothes from notorious high-end stores such as Ann Taylor, Title IX, Macy’s and many others — all of which were priced less than $3.
Even at the temptation of name brands for low prices, some still balk at the thought of germs. It is easy for the mind to imagine what terrible, terrible things must have befallen items to lead them to be donated instead of sold. However, the most likely reason that many things are in the thrift shop is taxes.
Since clothing has an unreasonably low resale value, many people chose to donate clothing that they are tired of or that simply don’t fit to the nearest thrift shop, and deduct the value of the item from their taxes as a charitable donation. This is important to keep in mind for college students that are often constantly on the move, since some items may be easier to donate then haul halfway across the country. Some thrift stores will even come to your home to pick up your donations, so that you don’t even have to haul heavy items to the store.
Shopping at the thrift shops can also benefit charities and the environment.
Many nonprofit thrift shops use the money from sales as a source of revenue to fund programs, such as the Idaho Youth Ranch, which uses their thrift shops to fund programs to support at-risk kids. Donating to thrift shops benefits the environment by keeping useful items out of land fills and buying used items helps eliminate the environmental cost that would be associated with creating something from scratch.
Furthermore, there are entire rows of the supermarket dedicated to cleaning products to be used on your thrift shop purchases. If you so desire, a couple bucks is enough to purchase cleaning products to kill 99.9 percent of germs and bacteria on anything. The cost of buying cleaning products to use on thrift shop purchases still won’t take you above the cost of retail store purchases.
Most college students are at a point of their lives that saving money is critical. Thrift shops are a place to get nice clothes that often cost less than anything at Walmart. So go out and wear your grandad’s clothes. You will look incredible.
Aleya Ericson can be reached at [email protected]