or, Why I Love Thrift Stores
It's strange to think I was the kid who whined and had to be dragged to go clothes shopping with my Mom. I didn't like shopping at the mall with my friends either -- oh, I'd jump at the chance to walk around the mall, but I just wanted to walk and chat. I groaned every time a friend wanted to actually enter a store and try on clothes.
How did I become this person whose heart races in excitement at the sight of a thrift store? What happened to that little girl who would sit on a bench reading a book while friends tried on clothes?
I can't explain the thrill I get running up and down racks of clothing at thrift stores, or why I don't feel that way at normal stores. I can explain why I don't experience the sense of guilt I do when I buy something at a normal store: thrift stores encompass a trifecta of "doing good." First, people bring in things they don't want anymore instead of throwing them in a landfill. Second, buying second-hand items means I'm not adding helping to add chemicals to the environment in the extraction, bleaching, dying, and manufacture process of new goods. Third, all thrift stores I've seen have some social agenda: be it religious or a charity, they give at least some portion of their profits to something that helps people.
So maybe I enjoy it more because it lacks negative associations, but that doesn't seem to explain everything: when I was young I didn't understand any of the ecological repercussions of shopping, yet I still hated it. Maybe it's because my money goes further and now I often can buy much higher quality items than I could afford (or even find) through retail. Or maybe it's because I can see a much larger range of taste in one spot, instead of having to wade through trendy pants with "juicy" written on their bottoms and other ugly "fashionable" items. Maybe it's some mix of all the above.
Whatever the reason, I'd be remiss not to share the great advantages of thrift store shopping with my friends. Following this post is another on Popular and Hidden Thrifts Stores in MetroWest Boston. The focus of that post will be to locate and review all the thrift stores within a reasonable distance of the MetroWest Boston area (reasonable is analyzed by time rather than distance: 45 minutes barely moving on Rt.20 driving in to Waltham can be much less reasonable than driving twice the distance West in 30 minutes).
No comments:
Post a Comment