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The Ethics of Buying Used When You're Not Poor

Supply and demand - a quick refresher

The economics of supply and demand are straightforward:  When demand for goods increases, prices go up. When the supply of goods increases, prices go down (where prices are not constrained by law or other factors).

The implication, then, is that if we all turn to buying our clothing used, it will drive up the price of used clothes, potentially pricing economically disadvantaged people out of the market. 

Meanwhile, there is no question that clothing now enjoys a second or even third act before being discarded. Witness the rise of Poshmark, an online retailer of clothing, both new and used. While it's touted as a way to shop other people's closets, it's also a way for sellers to perform a sort of "clothing arbitrage," purchasing quality or trendy clothing from Goodwill at rock-bottom prices, and then re-selling the clothing at a substantial markup via Poshmark.

If we all bought most of our clothing used and stopped buying primarily new clothing, however, something else would happen - the seemingly endless supply of new clothing would have to ratchet down. That would be good news, because what we currently have today is still way too much supply. As I wrote in an earlier blog, the equivalent of 81 pounds of discarded clothing per person in this country ends up in landfills every year. Buying at least some of your clothing used should help slow down demand on new clothing without appreciably driving up the prices of used clothing. I was just there today, trying to find one more warm winter top, and I can assure you that the prices are still low and will likely remain low as long as our supply of new clothing remains so strong.

Cowl neck sweater bought at a consignment store for $20.00

My wish for the future

I would love to see the day when clothing prices at Goodwill start going up because so many people are buying used. That might mean that the ridiculous oversupply of low-quality new clothing has begun to slow, or that the quality (and therefore the price) of new clothing has begun to rise.

I have had great fun writing this blog; I hope that you've had fun reading it. I feel that I've said everything I wanted to say about used clothing and money. I plan to leave the site up, and I may occasionally add to it, or edit blogs as new information and statistics come out. Thanks for following along.


Comments

  1. Kris TuallaJanuary 9, 2021 at 7:58 AM

    What an interesting perspective! I never thought about the demand for used clothing driving up the costs... But if the demand for new clothes dropped, the two markets would get narrower in price. That would be interesting.

    Meanwhile, I do think there are great bargains to be found at Goodwill and Savers if you take the time to look at labels. Hunting through the racks makes for a fun outing, and scoring a high end item (or two) for a fraction of the price is the reward.

    I have really enjoyed your posts! I do hope you will post future "finds" when you make them! It's inspiring to see what options are out there. 💙

    ReplyDelete

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