Steve Dorris

@downloadthrift recently shared a post about “what thrift stores won’t tell you,” and they made a lot of solid points.

But this one really grabbed my attention.

“A lot of the best stuff never makes it to the floor.”

I think there’s another side to this conversation that’s worth talking about.

For some smaller, independent thrift stores, relationships with resellers and regular customers can actually be part of how they survive. Getting the word out is harder when you don’t have a huge marketing budget, a recognizable national name, or thousands of people walking through your doors every week.

Sometimes those relationships create consistent buyers, move inventory faster, and help keep more usable items from ending up in the landfill.

And that last part matters to me.

I believe the future of thrifting should involve more connection, not less — thrift stores, resellers, nonprofits, recyclers, local businesses, and communities finding ways to work together.

At Stellar Thrift, that’s something we want to be part of building.

There absolutely needs to be fairness and transparency in the secondhand industry. But I also don’t think every behind-the-scenes relationship is automatically a bad thing. Sometimes it may be one of the relationships helping a small thrift store keep its doors open.

Download Thrift brought up a conversation worth having.

What do you think? Where should the line be between giving everyone a fair shot and thrift stores building relationships that help them survive and keep more goods out of the landfill?

#Thrifting #Sustainability #CircularEconomy #Reselling #SmallBusiness