In hip fashion circles, “used” is increasingly the new “new.”
Twenty years ago, thrift stores were basically glorified garage sales, with worn-out clothes and icky shoes strewn from corner to corner. But the Great Recession's frugal influence may have changed shopping habits for good. Resale shops are adding stores, offering more merchandise and introducing new concepts to expand the customer base.
An exploding trend among resale retailers is the “pound program,” which lets bargain hunters grab a bundle of merchandise, have it weighed and pay a set price. The concept has been so popular that the Salvation Army just switched half of its flagship Minneapolis store to a by-the-pound program that moves goods in and out weeks faster than before. Clothes, shoes and handbags sell for $1.49 per pound, while toys, kitchenware and tools go for $1.29 per pound.
“We want goods, especially clothing, to flow out the door quickly. If you let them sit too long, you have quality control issues,” said Tom Canfield, district manager for Salvation Army stores in Minnesota's Twin Cities.
In the by-the-pound program, men's, women's and kids' clothes unsold after three weeks are gathered from 12 stores and sent to the Minneapolis warehouse. There, they are divided into large containers and dumped onto tables every 15 minutes, where extreme bargain hunters quickly sort through each new load. The Salvation Army has more than 25,000 pounds of goods waiting to be sold in the pound program, Canfield said. Although consumers pay less than $1.50 per pound, it's still more profitable for a charity than selling it as surplus to operators overseas.
Customers can expect to see fresh merchandise every time they shop, Canfield said, not schlocky merchandise that is marked down.
Nationally, the number of used-goods stores has grown 7 percent each year since 2010, making it a $13 billion industry in 2012, according to the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops.
