Thrifting During a Pandemic

Originally published here on The Long Island Advocate by Melanie Haid.

These days, everything is curated, personalized and at your fingertips. Netflix tells you what you think you want to watch. Amazon nudges you on what to buy. And even news organizations think they know what you want to read.

The same goes for thrifting, to a certain extent. When you open the clothing resale app Depop, you’re met with “MADE FOR YOU” and “Based on your interests.”

Alexandra Shadrow, founder of a now-defunct resale app, said she believes thrifting will eventually solely become a mobile experience, though sellers on resale apps will continue to be the customers of in-person thrift stores. Currently, Shadrow is focusing her entrepreneurial talents as chief marketing officer for ListPerfectly, which helps sellers post on multiple resale platforms at once.

“Most people don’t have two or three hours to go thrifting to find an outfit,” Shadrow said, “versus Poshmark, where you search it and the seller does everything for you. You have very nice pictures, they’ve listed the details, the damages — it makes it really easy for you.”

With the ease of mobile and digital thrifting, it’s a wonder that any physical thrift stores are still open — smaller shops especially — after the global coronavirus pandemic shut down in-person retail for part of 2020 throughout the United States.

The Junior League of Long Island Thrift Shop is an exception, melding the personal experience of thrifting with the classic brick-and-mortar shop. Nestled along Old Northern Boulevard off Main Street in affluent Roslyn, everything about it is unexpected; its charm keeps locals coming back and making regulars out of new visitors, too.

Shadrow said she thinks social media is a requirement of the reselling business, so how does a nearly 70-year-old, small-town thrift shop with fewer than 100 Instagram followers keep its doors open in an age when social media presence and name recognition seem to be everything?

“We really take the time to stage things, to create stories,” Vice President of the Long Island Junior League Carol St. Jacques said. “I do think that’s what makes us different.”

Although the pandemic caused online secondhand shopping to increase, Junior League is staying afloat.

When you take your first step from the red-brick steps outside onto the creaky wooden floor inside, it’s like returning to somewhere familiar. The warm-colored wood and friendly staff make you feel welcome almost immediately. There are stories everywhere, and the shop encapsulates all that thrifting is, and why it’s appealing to so many people.

Natural light leaks in from the front and side windows, and there is character in every beam of the building — not to mention the hundreds of pieces waiting to be discovered. It’s a small shop with two levels: clothing and accessories on the first floor, with a wide staircase in the center of the room leading you down to the housewares section.

St. Jacques, who oversees the operation and staff of the thrift store, said that while the shop took a hit with the Covid-19 lockdown, the community welcomed it back, including the addition of college students among its frequent shoppers.

“I think it’s more personable. It’s a smaller town. It’s the homeyness,” she said.

The college student population is also becoming increasingly thrifty, especially as reselling apps become more popular and younger generations become more environmentally conscious.

Becca Lo Presti, a Hofstra senior, recently discovered Junior League. Lo Presti learned that Junior Leagues is an international women’s organization that promotes volunteerism, and that the thrift shop is a non-profit that gives money for community-development programs, which made her happy to support it.

“It’s more personable, it’s a smaller town. It’s the homeyness that sets us apart from other, bigger places,” St. Jacques said. “We really have a mission, and I think that’s what makes us more relatable for a lot of people. They really get to see where the money is going and what we’re doing with it.”

Like the Junior League, Valley Mission Thrift Store in Virginia is non-profit, and its funds specifically go toward a community homeless shelter.

“I think that consumers, especially Generation Z, are becoming more aware of the negative impact that fast fashion has on the fashion industry,” said Austin Allred, a sustainable fashion blogger and college senior at Liberty University who works at the Valley Mission in Staunton, Va.

It’s not only that thrifting helps keep clothing out of landfills, or that thrifting at places like Junior League or Valley Mission support small businesses and help fund community improvement projects. Lo Presti said shopping secondhand is like treasure hunting.

“Thrifting does require you to put a lot more work into it,” Lo Presti said. “Most of the stuff I try doesn’t work, but when I find something that does work, the reward is so much higher.”

Martha Hollander, an American poet, art historian and Hofstra professor, said secondhand clothing has been around since the 17th century; clothing resale apps are just another way to deliver a product, but will not put thrift stores out of business.

“It’s like the people that were convinced that the advent of eBooks would completely eliminate print books,” Hollander said. “I don’t think that this terrible economic crisis will put thrift stores out of business any more quickly than it will put other stores out of business.”

Lo Presti said that every time the economy tanks, the stigma around buying secondhand seems to diminish.

“People’s economic disposition is so different now, and that stigma is somewhat gone,” St. Jacques said. “Whatever it is, I’ll take it.”

“Thrifting … has kind of become its own style aesthetic,” Lo Presti added. “I think that it’s a lot more accepting of this kind of experimental kind of mixing decades, and having clothes that intentionally [pull] from the ’90s or the ’80s is seen as a really awesome fashion choice, versus something that you’re doing maybe because you can’t afford other clothing. I think it’s broken down the idea that new clothing is intrinsic to being well-dressed.”

“Mentally, it really frees you from being obsessed with the latest trend and buying the low-quality stuff that will end up falling apart,” Shadrow said. “I just wear whatever I feel like I want to wear, you know?”