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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Thrift Goes Mainstream (Thrift Shop)

Yesterday something happened that has never happened before. My son introduced me to a rap song I actually like. The song has some strong language in it, but I think there is a clean version. It is called Thrift Shop. The artist is saying that he buys all of his clothes from the thrift shop and he looks incredible. He also talks about people paying $50.00 for a t shirt and states flat out that someone who pays that much for a t shirt is being tricked by a business. With the exception of the language and the fact that our styles are completely different, I agree with this guy 100%. I will actually go farther than he did. Many of these businesses are raping people. They can only sell a t shirt for $50.00 because someone, actually a lot of someones are willing to pay that much for a shirt.

The fact that this song was on the radio tells me that there is the beginnings of a culture shift. Most people are struggling just to get by. There is a growing group of people that are looking for any way possible to make their money go farther. I applaud  this young man for being willing to proclaim the virtues of thrift store shopping.

I love thrift stores. I go into a thrift store at least once or twice a month. I am not just looking for clothing. I always look through their electronics and their kitchen wares. I have bought several drinking glasses, a couple of vases, and other things for the kitchen at a thrift store. We have even bought furniture at the thrift store. If you take your time you can completely outfit a home in the thrift store at just pennies on the dollar of what you would spend to buy new.

One of my New Years resolutions is to keep some cash on me at all times. Any time I see a promising yard sale, I am going to stop and see what I can pick up. I will only buy things that we need or we will truly use. I have a list in my mind of thing that I will consider purchasing.

My sons and I are very hard to buy for at a thrift store or yard sale. Men tend to wear their clothes completely out before we get rid of them. I will never fault someone for that. The boots that I wear everyday are five years old and I plan on getting at least three more years out of them.
My youngest son needed a new pair of shoes. I am not a fan of buying shoes at a thrift store, too much fungus going on out there. I won't buy underwear from a thrift store either.To quote my daughter, "that is just gross". So we went to a clothing store. I will not name the company. We walked to the shoe department and were looking around for him a pair. We did find a pair that he liked and he said were comfortable.

Me being me, I started looking at the clothing in the store. The first thing I look at is where the item was made. The countries that I saw today were Vietnam, China, Egypt, Honduras, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Mexico. The item that was made in Mexico was of US fabric. That was the only time I saw the US mentioned. I am fine with products being made in any of the North American countries as long as some of it was manufactured in the United States. If you wonder why you or your neighbor or someone in your family cannot find a job. I just showed you.

Buy everything you can at thrift stores and yard sales. You will save a lot of money and you will help people out in your community. The money for those items has already been sent overseas, they will not get a cent of your second hand purchase. I personally will not buy anything that I do not absolutely need that is not at least partially made in America. If we can get enough people to do that and to communicate to the corporations that this is why we are spending less money in their stores, they will bring the jobs back, plain and simple.

If you look up the song, please remember that I warned you about the language. Find the clean version and listen to the message that is now being broadcast to our young people and be proud of someone who is telling them that saving money and making smart purchases is cool.

Remember to Always Keep It Rural

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