Habitat for Humanity ReStore survey<\/a>, which found three in five Canadians planned to thrift this year, citing the cost of living as one of the main reasons.<\/p>\n\u201cThe numbers are definitely increasing due to affordability of everything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Peters said staff can often tell when shoppers are buying necessities rather than simply browsing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll throw in like an extra item just to be like, \u2018Hey, you know what? We get it. Life is not always easy sometimes, and you\u2019re obviously shopping for a reason right now,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But affordability is only part of what\u2019s driving the growing interest.<\/p>\n
Retail analyst Bruce Winder said attitudes toward second-hand shopping have changed dramatically over the past decade, particularly among younger consumers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stigma around thrifting has gone away, especially for young people,\u201d Winder said. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a badge of honour now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peters has noticed that shift firsthand, saying many shoppers now see thrift stores as places to find unique items, express their personal style and shop more sustainably.<\/p>\n
\u201cBetween Grade 10 and 12, a lot more of them (are) coming. And then they\u2019re posting about the cool things they found in the thrift store, like an old vintage T-shirt that had Shania Twain on it that\u2019s probably 20 years old,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Among those browsing the racks this week were Calgary couple Billy Bourgeois and Madelyn Hynes. Like many shoppers, they initially came looking for a deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cJean are super expensive. I have a pair in my bag that I just bought for like $15, and they would have sold for way more,\u201d said Hynes.<\/p>\n
For Hynes, however, the appeal of thrifting goes beyond affordability.<\/p>\n
Shopping second-hand is also about reducing waste and giving clothing a second life she said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(I\u2019m doing it) for the environment. That\u2019s also a big thing for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bourgeois agrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to keep the Earth alive, and we want to stop throwing out so much clothing when we can just keep reusing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new survey finds more Canadians are planning to make their purchases at thrift stores due to affordability…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[712,49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-814563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}