Thrift stores: We're seeing more middle-class shoppers

[Sequoia]

Forget about the outdated notion of thrift shops as the refuge of the working poor, the down and out or the vintage fashion hipster. In these troubled times, the powerful lure of a secondhand retail bargain is attracting a whole new breed of customer.

The Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries International, the nation's two largest charitable resale organizations, report year-to-date sales increases of 6 percent to 15 percent.

The gains are even more pronounced in the private sector. In an industry trade group survey of more than 200 resale and thrift shops, nearly two-thirds of those businesses reported higher sales in 2008 compared to the previous year. The average sales increase: 35 percent.

Consumers "can't change the price of gas. They can't change the price of food. They can't make the stock market go up again," said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops. "But they can control the price of clothes and furniture by being a savvy shopper."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/10/06/thrift.shops.ap/index.html

Heck, I've been shopping those kinds of stores for years. Watch it though, some lesser known named stores will charge as much as Wal-Mart.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. Shopping can be competitive.

As in "see what kind of high quality for low price" you can get.

That said, I have several boxes of family tchotchkes I need to sell.