If you haven’t figured out by now, we do alot of op shopping here. From a quick browse to an in depth rummage, we manage to get at least one or two trips in a week. As charity stores are volunteer run, have limited resources and aren’t like your typical big box store, we acknowledge that it can be hard to maintain standards and practices. However, overtime we’ve noticed a few things that we think would improve the overall shopping experience. Let us know in the comments if you also have a wish list!
Stop Putting the Plus Size Section at the Back of the Store
Let’s stop putting the bigger lady clothes at the back of the store near the kids stuff like we are ashamed of it please? Need we say more?
Stop Organising Kids Clothes by Gender
Please stop perpetuating gender stereotypes by organising clothes by gender. Girls can love dinosaurs, trucks and space, and boys can love fairies, unicorns and sparkles. This goes for ALL retail stores too, and not just clothes, but toys, shoes and even small things like birthday cards. Let’s show our kids it’s ok to live outside the box.
Organise Garments by Size
The amount of time saved browsing a store which have their clothes organised by size rather than style is HUGE. You can go straight to the size section you are looking for! Amazing! It’s understandable why this isn’t done in alot of stores though as it’s time consuming to implement and maintain.
Have a Loyalty Program
If you do a lot of thrift shopping, be sure to check if the store you are going to has a loyalty program. We are big fans of the loyalty programs of Good Sammy’s and Salvos here at NNG. Every $10 you spend or donation you make at Good Sammy’s you get a stamp on your card and after a certain amount of purchases you receive 20% and 50% off (some conditions apply). We’ve saved hundreds of dollars during big hauls! It really encourages donations and spending, so every thrift chain should do something similar in our opinion.
Price Fast Fashion Low
This often comes up as a sticking point for many a thrifter. It’s becoming more and more common to see cheap fast fashion labels (Anko, &me, Ally Fashion, Valleygirl etc) being priced in secondhand stores for the same amount or more than original retail price. As secondhand shopping becomes more and more popular, and fast fashion continues to belch out ridiculous amounts of stock every week, these brands will be continue to be the majority donated, and therefore sold, through charity stores. The price they are sold at should be a reflection of their quality and quantity.
Do More Fill A Bag Sales
Who doesn’t love a bargain? And which thrift store doesn’t love offloading stock in bulk? The thrill of filling a bag for $10 and finding out you scored something for 70 cents (true story!) is so addictive, we wish more stores near us did this! Maybe make a bin of all the fast fashion brands and let us have at?
Do you have a pet peeve at the op shop? Let us know in the comments!
