Nonstop op shop drops

Thrifting is all the rage.

US second hand store, Savers, is opening up new stores around Australia on a regular basis. Vinnies opened 11 stores in Melbourne alone in the last year. Thrifted garments were choice du jour at Australian Fashion Week.

It’s not just clothes. 

Neighbours fans (also known as ‘Brits’) were delighted to hear boxes of props and costumes from the cancelled soap had recently been donated to Melbourne op shops. In South Australia, residents of a small town thrifted an entire school for just $1.10. They turned it into an op shop.

Online, thrifting has become akin to a competitive sport. Depop recently launched a new creative platform, Depopamine, while its revenue increased by even more than the average price of Levi’s Engineered jeans, up 42% in 2024.

Young people are the biggest fans of second hand scrounging, but their motivations may not be as pure as circularity and sustainability. Those aged 18-35 are also the biggest consumers of fast fashion, helping online retailer Shein make more than $1.2 billion in Australian sales in just one year.

The nature of thrifting is also changing. Once the almost exclusive purview of charities, Savers and Depop now represent a for-profit takeover of the sector. In Queensland, soaring rents and increased competition are closing purpose-led op shops.

It appears the surge for secondhand is less about moral righteousness, and more about a desire to keep up with ever accelerating changes in taste and need to do so with less disposable income. 

And if that isn’t an allegory (ahem) for the modern world, we don’t know what is.