As someone who spends far too much time thinking about thrifting, writing about thrifting and actually putting in the hours thrifting….well… I have opinions about thrift stores. Specific ones. These are three of them.

Hot Take 1: Thrifting plays right into a consumer mindset

Most thrifters will tell you that buying secondhand is a better choice than buying new. And on a per-item basis, that’s often true. But the habit of buying doesn’t automatically change just because you bought it at a thrift store.

The internal negotiation is fast and familiar. It’s $4. It might fit eventually. I could probably use this someday. It’s practically free so even if I don’t love it, no big deal. And my personal favourite: it’s so cool how can I leave it behind? What if no one else finds it and it ends up in the landfill?

And then you get home with a pile of things you don’t need, don’t use, and didn’t think hard enough about. Sound familiar? (It should. I’ve done it.)

The low price isn’t the problem on its own. The problem is using the low price as a substitute for actually deciding whether something is worth bringing home. Those are two different things.

Before something goes in your cart, the question is still the same one it’s always been. Do I need this? Will I use it? Does it actually fit?

Hot Take 2: If you’re not donating to a nonprofit, just give your stuff away for free

Donating feels good. It clears space, extends the life of your things, and lets you believe the story that your old stuff is going somewhere useful.

Sometimes that is true. But it depends a lot on where you’re donating.

If you’re dropping your things off at a nonprofit or charity-run shop, your donated goods are helping fund something. You might not be making any money from it but at least the proceeds go back into the community.

If you’re donating to a for-profit thrift store, the economics looks different. They receive your goods at no cost and sell them for a profit. You simply provided them the inventory. They kept the margin. And

At that point, cutting out the middleman makes more sense. List things on Facebook Marketplace for free. Post in a local Buy Nothing group. Leave a box on the curb. Give things directly to someone who wants them. Your stuff is guaranteed to find a new home. And a for-profit company doesn’t pocket the difference.

Hot Take 3: Value Village is a just a regular for-profit retailer that won’t let you try things on

Oh and they won’t even let you return things.

Can you imagine going to Old Navy and them saying sorry no change rooms. Just hold these clothes up to your body in front of a mirror and *guess* if they will fit. And hey if you get home and realize the proportions are off… well the only way we will take them back is if you buy something else from us in exchange in the next 14 days.

That is Value Village. They are a for-profit retail operation, owned by a publicly traded American corporation. It is a retailer. And as a retailer, it is asking customers to spend money on clothing with no standardized sizing, no ability to try anything on, and a “return policy” that is only for exchanges.

If any other clothing retailer pulled this, the response would be swift and loud. But because it’s a thrift store, because we’ve been trained to expect some level of inconvenience as part of the deal, it gets a shrug.

The inconvenience of secondhand shopping is one thing. Removing change rooms is different. That’s a deliberate operational decision by a profitable company that makes the shopping experience worse for customers while saving money on maintenance and floor space.

Bring. Them. Back.