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Make closet organization worth the effort by selling gently used clothes online or recycling them for discounts on new clothes.
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When it comes to creating social media content, thrifting is one of the hottest topics, albeit second-hand.
Videos of people proudly holding up potential purchases in stores, wandering the aisles looking for the best shoes or home goods, or combing through all the items in “Thrifts” (a compilation of everything they find while thrifting) receive hundreds of thousands of views and likes. Additionally, some people turn their recycled items into cash and resell the items online to other antiquarians.
Changes are happening in stores right now. The companies say these videos are contributing to a cultural shift around thrift and consumption, as more people flock to stores to find unique items to complete their wardrobe and home decor collections.
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“The thrill of the hunt” for recycled content creators
Influencers on social media platforms are not new, but people are now dedicating their content specifically to saving money. These content creators are now taking their viewers to rummage through racks of clothes and virtually experience their finds.
For Lilianclairee, a 23-year-old social media content creator who posts to more than 2 million followers on TikTok as @lillianclairee, recycling means more than just walking into a thrift store to find something to buy. Her series on TikTok, “Thrifting Tuesdays,” involves her spending a day scouring local stores for the best items, sometimes spending more than four hours inside.
In Lily Claire’s experience, people are drawn to money-saving videos because they have a consistent freshness. The store’s inventory changes and the videos change, sometimes reaching more than 1 million views, she told USA TODAY.
“I think this is one of those series that never gets old because there’s something new in every video,” she said. “Compared to the ‘Get Ready With Me’ (video), which I’m also filming, it can feel stagnant in a way because I’m wearing the same makeup every day. I’m always finding new things by thrifting. I find every video fun to watch because you never know what’s going to show up.”
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Lily Claire’s hope is that her videos will not only inspire people to start saving money and find joy in doing so, but also help them shop sustainably while doing so.
“There’s a lot of clothing that ends up in landfills and ruins a lot of things about the environment. So buying secondhand instead of fast fashion brands is a very positive thing… One of my goals is to bring that to people,” she said.
As USA TODAY previously reported, people are turning to second-hand shopping instead of fast fashion and mass-produced materials as a way to save money and the environment. For Marissa Trafton, a 32-year-old thrifting content creator whose TikTok account @marthrifts has 79,000 followers, thrifting allows people to acquire new items while not “exacerbating the environmental crisis that we may be facing,” she told USA TODAY.
Trafton hopes her videos inspire others to buy second-hand, but she recognizes that overspending can also happen while shopping, especially when she sees others constantly saving on great things on social media.
“We want what other people have. For better or worse, we are inspired to go buy something or go look for something that other people have,” Trafton said. “But I think overconsumption is a problem in the world, especially on social media…I think frugality is doing its best to combat that, so we’re not all spending money on new items that end up in landfills.”
Overall, Trafton said a big part of thrifting’s appeal is the character it gives people. Consumers may not want to own the same items as their friends, he added, and thrifting allows them to choose items that stand out.
“It’s the thrill of the hunt. I always have this checklist in my head that I have to find. If I found something like a vintage Coach wallet, I would die,” Trafton said. “It’s an activity… You can go and find anything, and that’s what’s so exciting about it. For example, you can go today and find nothing, or you can go today and find a Cartier plate. And I think that kind of thing is really cool and exciting. It makes it more interesting than just regular shopping.”
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Thrift store chains feel the impact of social media
The appeal of frugality isn’t limited to social media. Stores are seeing first-hand a cultural shift around frugality, and it shows in the numbers.
Popular thrift store chain Goodwill is seeing an increase in donations, foot traffic and sales, Oney Crowley, chief marketing officer for Goodwill Industries International, told USA TODAY. More than 150 individual organizations collectively operate more than 3,400 retail stores and outlet centers, and revenue for the entire Goodwill network last year increased by a record $7 billion, or about 7% from the previous year, he said.
Other stores are also affected. At Salvation Army, the regional thrift store’s website saw a 55% year-over-year increase in website visitors on both its search page and monthly loyalty coupon page, and online sales in certain regions were up 50% year-over-year, the company told USA TODAY.
These increases indicate a new attitude toward frugality, Crowley said. Ten years ago, she says, thrifting and buying second-hand had some correlation to necessity. Now it has become a more well-known choice, driven by people’s individuality and values that demonstrate support for sustainability.
“It was like a must-do and a must-do, so I never told anyone that my clothes were second-hand. But now it’s almost a badge of honor,” Crowley said. “It’s a way of thinking that makes you loud and proud that you’re circular and that you’re environmentally conscious.”
Crowley credits the surge in popularity in part to social media, which he said has brought in different demographics to the store, including resellers, customers who buy items from thrift stores and sell them for a profit. Resale is not a new phenomenon, and both resellers and Goodwill’s core shoppers help people choose second-hand items by promoting thrift, she said.
“There are a lot of platforms today where people can easily sell, whether it’s live auctions or other platforms where you can make money from things you don’t need, and from a Goodwill perspective, we think it’s just part of a broader circular economy ecosystem,” Crowley said.
Savings boom changes culture on resale sites
One of those platforms, Depop, an online marketplace for reselling clothing and items, is also feeling the force of cultural change, Steve Doerr, the company’s senior director of brand + creative, wrote in an email to USA TODAY. People are turning to sites like Depop to buy second-hand goods without going to the store, and Dool believes this is also due to customers’ desire to be sustainable.
More than three in five purchases on the site are replaced by new purchases on other sites, he added, and most buyers say they’d rather keep looking for used items or skip the purchase altogether rather than buy new. Additionally, resale allows some people to cover expenses such as bills, and purchasing supports second-hand goods while connecting users directly with consumers, Doerr wrote.
“In-person recycling and online recycling are not competing practices, but complementary practices. Members of our community who own or work in thrift stores say they often receive more used inventory than they can realistically sell,” Doerr wrote. “Therefore, providing more options to bring a second-hand clothes-first mindset to more people is the ultimate victory in our goal of making fashion circular, whether online or in the real world.”
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Goodwill’s Crowley acknowledges that some consumers aren’t thrilled about the increased number of people looking for the best used items, but the change remains a positive no matter why people shop.
“The good thing about this is that there’s a general awareness of frugality, right?” Crowley said. “Because when you have resellers and influencers selling online or highlighting thrifty items they find online and talking about how they save money, it kind of normalizes thrifting, but also glorifies it as a new core approach to the way we shop today.”
Kate Perez covers national trends and breaking news for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kperez@usatodayco.com or X @katecperez_.
