National Thrift Shop day is tomorrow. Have you taken time to visit your local thrift shop lately? August 17th is the day to do it! 

Some teens explore their local thrift shops after being influenced by famous youtubers and influential social media accounts. Thrift shopping is an affordable way to express your creativity and your fashion taste. 

More than half of the Bob Jones students polled revealed that they’d prefer to purchase clothes from the thrift store due to cheaper prices and to find interesting vintage items. Senior Trevor Peck replied, “You can find the coolest and weirdest clothes ever there, and no one else will have them, and there also cheaper.” When you go to the thrift store, you could be buying a shirt from the ‘70s, ‘60s, or even the’50s, so you never know what unique treasure you will find.

 Richard Carey shared this interesting fact in his article on about the rise of thrift-store shopping: “Fast-fashion — the fast and mass production of fashion trends from catwalks to department stores — has been under scrutiny by environmentalists and the fashion industry. While textile dye is the second largest polluter of water, retail has been considered the second dirtiest industry in the world, polluting more than any other industry besides oil. A huge component of fast-fashion is being able to use synthetic, fibers, many which are composited from microfibers. When washed, these microfibers get stuck in washing machines and end up floating in our oceans.” Buying used resources keep items out of landfills.  

Some teens may still feel that there is a negative stigma about thrift stores. Charles said,”‘Where did you get your shoes from? Goodwill?’ Always followed by moronic grins and laughter, this rhetorical question was often asked about my clothing when I was growing up.” Thankfully, there is no need to worry about this now. Times have changed.

Therefore, take some time throughout your Saturday to browse the clothing section at the thrift store and see what you can find. Here are some local places you can go explore: Asbury Thrift Store, Down Town Rescue Mission, and Sacks On 72.