Thrifty & Nifty - Thrift Stores

Whether you are saving money or just want to help the environment or a charity, you may have shopped in a thrift store. Second-hand clothes, shoes, furniture, or other knick knacks are sold in thrift shops which are also called charity shops or second-hand stores. Since a thrift shop is also a charity shop, most often they are operated by a non-profit organization. If you want to help out but are too busy, you can now shop at a thrift store online thrift.

Charitable Beginnings

The origin of the first thrift shop can be traced back to the 1940s when Red Cross opened stores to sell items to be given as gifts. Thrift shop customers were not allowed to re-sell products from a Red Cross shop. As a result, the first Oxfam thrift shop opened in Oxford in the United Kingdom in 1947. This thrift store is still operational and has over 700 locations in the UK and several affiliates abroad. Nowadays, the Salvation Army thrift store is one of the most well-know, non-profit institutions that help worldwide. These thrift stores or charity shops are often managed by volunteers usually from religious groups. A thrift shop usually carries second-hand items but sometimes sell new things on occasion such as Christmas, Halloween or other special holidays.

Profitable Business

Today, even though a thrift shop is also sometimes called a charity shop, not all sell goods for charity. There are now several second-hand stores built by local businessmen for their own profit. They usually get their good from auctions, garage sales or pawn shops. Second hand stores may carry odds and ends which include clothes, dishware, CDs, vinyl phonograph records, books, comic books, trading cards, and chairs and other furniture, among many others. These items are sold at very low prices since they were also acquired for a small cost. Most thrift shops that are charity shops usually get items by donation.

This form of business has also reached cyberspace with hundreds of online thrift stores offering second-hand goods sometimes on auction. Online thrift stores include eBay, America’s Thrift Store, Arc Thrift Stores, Thrift Store USA, and others that sell goods for very low prices and sometimes operate for a cause.