Thrift Store Shopping is Middle class thing not for lower income?

[heretoo]

I think you should direct this question to your SIL, why doesn't SHE shop at thrift stores? Ask your old neighbors why are THEY not buying at thrift stores?

[JonathanLB]

There's a saying my business partner (Iranian born Assyrian guy) used to say, "People fight for what they don't have." While it's true also that when you do have money to burn, it's natural to want to buy the nicer things and enjoy your money, it's also true that if you have plenty of money you really don't care what someone else thinks of your financial status. If anything, it's kind of cool, to be honest. It's like your little secret. You never know someone else's financial status just from what they own, which is one of the crazy things about America. Granted, if they live in a $10M house, there's probably a pretty darn good chance they're exceedingly rich. But I knew a guy in Los Angeles who ran a business run with venture capital and he rented a house in the Hollywood Hills for $10,000/month, expensed half of it to the business because his employees worked from the home too, and he leased a Ferrari and a Maserati. He didn't own either car, he didn't own the house, and he made other people pay for half the house. So while he had some money, clearly, he wasn't anywhere near as rich as you'd think he was. You see a dude driving his Ferrari down Sunset, if you followed him home, saw the house, you'd think wow maybe he's a celebrity or something (to be fair, he kind of is now, he has about 6.4 million followers), but at that time he was just a businessman living on loans and leverage.

Sometimes I can be kind of cheap, and my GF will say, "Jeez we're too poor for (whatever)," and I'm like, "This is how we stay rich! Rich people don't stay rich by wasting money on stupid purchases." It's a joke but it's also partially true, I mean if you're poor, there's a certain psychology to that, think about it, who wants to admit, "Yeah, I'm poor." In this country that's humbling, people get embarrassed by that, they don't want other people to think of them that way. It could be fine at a certain point, like "I'm just a poor college student ha ha" but after a while it's not something people enjoy other people knowing. So if you can wear nice clothes, drive a nice car, etc. you can at least appear to be just an average middle class person.

[Quantumly]

I like to let rich people purchase the items, then donate them so I can purchase them.

Sometimes the items are new, most of time they are aalmost like new.

Prices can be up to 90% (or more) off regular price.

[tickyul]

The selection has gone into the dumps, prices are getting fairly nutso.

[smt1111]

I'm middle class and yes, I shop in thrift stores, along with a friend of mine who is probably lower class. We both look for quality items. The fact is that stores don't carry what I like and need. For example, I wear classic styles and cannot find these in stores such as Target or Walmart where they tend to stock more trendy, cheap looking clothes--pink skinny jeans, spaghetti strap tops, ruffly dresses. Classic plain dress pants, for example, are hard to find in mainstream stores. Ones that aren't some odd cropped length or too skinny.

[Hemlock140]

With 9 kids my parents never set foot in a thrift store, we all got hand-me-downs except for the oldest boy and the oldest girl. Some of the clothes even went from #1 to #9, and that was over 20 years. The only people I know that shop at them now are E-Bay sellers. One for example, looks for unique or rare kitchenware, such as 1950s or older Fiestaware that someone donated, not knowing the value. Often he can buy something for $5 and sell for $200. Getting ready to downsize, we have made at least 10 trips to the local donation centers in the last few months, but have never gone into one of their stores.

[AnywhereElse]

Forty or fifty years ago, it was probably the lower working class that shopped 2nd hand for the most part where I come from. Now, the thrift shop prices are high for what you are getting where we live, as if I shop the clearance specials online, I can get new paying maybe 10 to 15% higher, and for "better" quality also.