Chapter 4 Summary

Chapter Four

The chapter starts out by noting that thrift stores have been around now for a little more than a century. According to those who had immigrated to America, the noticed that Americans relied mostly on buying retail and not thrift like they had experienced in their home countries. Thrift shops were started by charities when the need to provide men with jobs increased greatly. Their main goals were to offer goods to the poor at prices reasonable to them. The creator of Goodwill Industries, Edgar James Helms, developed an idea in 1902 of a business that collected donations of clothes and household goods to help struggling parishioners of his Methodist parish. His ambitions were to eliminate poverty and by collecting secondhand goods, repairing them, and selling them for a low price, his dreams became a reality. In 2005 alone, Goodwill grossed $1.63 billion in retail sales. Like Helms, other charity thrift stores were developed and inspired by religious teachings to strive to eliminate poverty. Women played a huge role in the fight to advance thrift in society. Many accepted the idea and felt that their influence on the domestic scene would promote thrift greatly. The ideas of secondhand clothing and goods were not the original goals of many thrift stores. Many goods were still made at home for stores to sell rather than donated. Even though thrift stores were a great service to the poor, the chairpersons of the stores still felt that their businesses could be profit centers. Supplied by funds and internal donations, stores such as The Red Cross and Salvation Army put extra care into making their stores more appealing by hanging and organizing clothes, putting goods on shelves, and inviting prominent figures to sell their goods. Before the Second World War, thrift stores were just a kind service for the poor. But after World War II, the middle class were “regulars” in a sense of thrift stores and the shops became places to acquire quantity of clothing and see items that have been overlooked. Buying secondhand was now popular. The ideas of owners originated from helping the poor and changed to offering jobs and helping raise money for their missions. The only problems facing thrift shoppers were just continually buying more stuff that they did not need. In conclusion, thrift stores originated to help the poor and those struggling but quickly became places to find good bargains and make good money.