Editor’s note: This article was submitted for publication Fall 2018. This is a late upload.
By: MacKenzie Taylor
As adults we have various financial obligations to worry about, whether it be bills, tuition, rent, or all of the above. I’ve both heard and said the phrase “broke college student” more times than I can count. Our income is often going so many different places that we rarely have any left over to buy something for ourselves. Even finding the money to purchase something as simple as new clothes becomes a challenging task. If we’re lucky, maybe we can go to the mall once a month or every other month to get a new top or pair of pants. Other times, we resort to ordering clothes online that are dirt cheap, but may not be the best quality. Of course, there’s always the less glamorous, but still affordable option. The middle ground. Thrift shopping.
I grew up on shopping in second hand stores. I was always the odd one out when it came to my wardrobe. My friends were usually sporting the latest fashions from Hollister or Aeropostale, and then there was me in my solar system shirt that I found at the Shoe String, one of the second hand shops in downtown Clovis, New Mexico. My mom and I used to spend hours downtown, walking from shop to shop. I never felt embarrassed about where we shopped though. In fact, I was quite proud of my very unique and eccentric wardrobe. I had so many more options to choose from and the possibilities always felt endless.
I still remember the first time my mom and I went to the Mile High thrift shop in Denver, Colorado when I was nine. We walked through the automatic doors and were in awe of the huge shop before us that was filled from wall to wall with clothes, toys, books, and household items. Gigantic thrift shops were our candy stores, and we would both choose them over going to a mall every single time.
Despite my eventual love that developed for thrift shopping, as a kid I would often get bored with it. I would tire of sorting through rack after rack and would begin to bug my mom to see if she was done yet. She never hurried on my account and would just return to finishing her browsing. The amount of time she would spend shopping used to blow my mind. Now, as a grown woman, I have become that annoying shopper who can spend two or more hours in Goodwill and be perfectly content. You can always find me there on Monday nights because everything in the store is 25 percent off.
I don’t thrift shop solely to save money. I’ve always thought about walking into a thrift shop as if I’m walking into a million strangers’ closets. You’re surrounded by an endless mixture of colors, patterns, and textures, and you never know what you’re going to find. I go rack by rack until I feel like I’m starting to go insane from the endless loop playing in my head of hangers scraping against their metal fixtures. Some people laugh when I tell them this, but it’s how I’ve found some of my favorite clothes. This past Monday, I bought a pair of Carlos Santana boots at Goodwill for $7. I looked them up online the following day and it turns out they retail anywhere from $90 to $100. If you’ve ever heard someone say that thrift stores are full of hidden treasures, they’re not lying to you.