When best friends Angie and Jamie found themselves in uncertain spots with work, they decided to create something meaningful of their own. That decision turned into People’s Thrift — a community-driven online thrift shop where Canadians can sell mid-range and premium pieces without doing the legwork themselves. It’s simple: you clean out your closet, they handle the rest, and everyone shares in the profit.

Five months in, they’ve already built a loyal base of sellers, paused new intake because of demand, and earned a Best New Business nomination at the GEMS of Etobicoke Awards. We wanted to hear more about how it all came together, so we asked Angie and Jamie to tell us the story in their own words.

What inspired you to start People’s Thrift?

We just opened 5 months ago, June 2025. Both of us were facing challenges and changes with our careers and with uncertainty in the job market in general, we felt the best path forward would to be to create our own meaningful employment. We have been best friends since childhood, so it just seemed like the stars were aligning at the right time for this opportunity.

Where are you based, and what kind of shop is it?

We are located in Toronto, Canada (Etobicoke to be exact)!

We’re a community-curated online marketplace for secondhand fashion. Our collection of mid-range and premium pieces comes straight from the closets of people across the city—where we share in the revenue together.

What do you sell, and how do you choose what deserves a second chance?

We sell mid-range to premium women’s and men’s apparel. We aim for quality, but shy away from luxury brands & products. We felt there was an abundance of luxury consignment in the online space, but nobody really doing the middle of the road stuff, so we stepped in!

We sell garments that are in good, great, and brand new condition — including brands that people love today and yesterday. Of course, material quality if super important to us too as more and more people are looking to purchase clothing with a longer lifespan.

We have such a variety of items — from a jacket featured on Vogue to sky-high pleasers dancer shoes.

Our favourite part is definitely processing new arrivals from our merchants! It feels a bit like Christmas, opening the boxes wondering, “Ooo! What did we get!”, and being excited to share these new arrivals with our audience.

How does your model work?

Unlike a traditional brick and mortar thrift store, we operate online (with pick-up availability for Toronto area orders) and ship nation wide. We have a unique concept where we partner with people in our community to obtain our product, and we share revenue with the original garment owner when it sells.

There is a huge segment of people who have a closet full of unwanted garments that do not wish to resell themselves or donate them to large corporate thrift entities. Our model gives our merchants a way to drop the load on us and let us take care of the entire reselling process — from photos, listing, customer, shipping. We do it all.

We’ve had such an overwhelming interest from merchants, we’ve had to pause in-take! I think this is proof that this model is definitely viable!

You also give back. Can you tell us about that?

We donate $1 from every garment sold to local community organizations. Right now, we are supporting Haven on the Queensway.

In recent news, we were just nominated for Best New Business as part of the 22nd annual GEMS of Etobicoke awards, by MP James Maloney.

What makes People’s Thrift different?

We coined the phrase “The wearvolution is here” to capture our more rebellious spirit. We hate what we see happening in the fast fashion world, unethical practices, exploitation, mass consumption, greed—the list goes on. We just want to create a pathway for people to take in supporting their wish to reduce their carbon foot print and support new green start-up businesses.

What have you learned since opening, and what’s next?

How HARD it is to reach a new audience with a resell business. We thought we so many of the amazing pieces we have in-store, they’d be flying out the door, but we learned it’s a slow build, takes time, and patience. We’ve earned so many new grey hairs in the process!

With so much economic uncertainty, we think more and more people are looking to save money where they can with clothing essentials. We think the thrift economy will continue to build, especially those in the digital space. We worry that sales won’t continue to grow or over-saturation in the market.

Is there a thrift myth you wish people would drop?

“Thrift items are gross” — Not true. We’ve received so many garments in great condition that have been really well cared for. Also, so many garments that have been maybe worn once or twice that have so much life left in them.

There’s such a thrill in finding exceptional, unique, and even vintage pieces when thrifting! There is just something special about finding amazing pieces from decades past that are representative of that era and story.

People’s Thrift is off to a strong start. In a few short months, they’ve built trust, momentum, and a business model that makes sense for thrifters and for sellers. If this is how they’re starting out, it’s a good sign for what’s ahead.

Shop now on their website or follow along on Instagram for new arrivals and updates.