I get it. You’re standing in Value Village holding a $10 tee, and your brain goes, “Hell no. I could get this brand-new at [insert any fast fashion retailer] for the same price.” Yeah, join the club.

Thrift prices feel a little steep these days. Especially when the assumption is that these objects are of lesser value than their brand new counterpart. They’re used and donated at no cost to the store so we tend to expect a cheaper price tag.

But the problem isn’t just that thrift stores feels pricey. It’s that we’ve been conditioned to think NEW clothes should be cheap. We treat $10 fast fashion tees like a good deal, but the truth is these “deals” come at someone else’s expense.

$10 Shirts Aren’t Normal

Let me say it again. That $10 fast fashion shirt is not what clothing should cost. It only seems normal because we’ve been conditioned to expect cheap prices.

But with every new shirt comes the whole mess of production. Cotton grown. Water drained. Factories fired up. Dye dumped in rivers. Containers shipped across oceans. Plastic wrap trashed before you even wear it once. All that damage, and the shirt still sells for $10. That number doesn’t reflect the water, the energy, or the waste that went into making it. The price tag only shows what you paid, not what it actually cost.

And no, that guilt shouldn’t fall on us. Shoppers didn’t design this system. Billion-dollar brands did. Mad at thrift prices? Fine. Just don’t let fast fashion off the hook.

Not Every Thrift Price Is a Rip-Off

Back to that $10 thrift store tee in your hand. If it’s a secondhand fast fashion shirt priced the same as new then yeah, that’s a rip-off (shame on you Value Village). BUT what if it is solid, high-quality cotton and built in a time when seams actually stayed together? It’s survived a few years of chaos laundry already, which means it’ll probably survive a few more. How much would that shirt cost if it were brand new today? Spoiler: a lot more than $10.

We need to be more discerning about thrift store price tags. Sometimes it’s worth it, sometimes it’s not. That’s why we keep thrifting. Because when you peek at that tag and see ‘Made in Canada’ for thrift store prices… ooooh that’s the serotonin jackpot.

The Greedy Side of Thrifting

And it’s not just about the quality of the item. The type of store matters too. You can still find the church basement shops running on volunteers and cash boxes where tees are a buck or two. Nonprofits and curated shops might charge more, but it often reflects the work of sourcing, sorting, wages and rent. That part makes sense.

But then you’ve got the big thrift chains treating secondhand like luxury goods, slapping premium price tags on fast fashion castoffs. That’s not just standard overhead, that’s greed. And that is absolutely worthy of our outrage (I did in fact create a whole Petition against Value Village).

Why We Keep Thrifting

Thrifting isn’t perfect. Prices can feel high and sometimes you’ll see a tag that makes you grumble. But every time you choose thrifted, you stretch the life of what already exists and keep one more thing out of the landfill. And when you shop with discernment, backing the stores worth supporting and skipping the overpriced junk, you prove that shopping with purpose actually matters.