Field Report
The local Austin area has many thrift stores in which I researched to find some thrift stores that were more sustainable for me to conduct my fieldwork. I immediately came across some thrift stores named Austin Pets Alive thrift! and Savers. My main focus on choosing the two thrift stores I picked was to differentiate between the both of them and try not to pick two thrift stores that were very similar to each other in what they did and how they organized their store. In regards to my topic which is fast fashion, I felt that thrift stores in general aid to the problem of fast fashion yet they can potentially still contribute to the issue depending on the way the goods are disposed of. In my field report, I will be focusing on what I found conducting my research as far as the affordability, selection, what causes each thrift store to raise money for as well as how this helps aid the problem of fast fashion.
My first destination was Austin Pets Alive thrift which interested me since I first heard about the thrift store because I adopted a dog of my own. Austin Pets Alive thrift focuses on raising money solely to shelter animals, a part of Austin Pets Alive in which all proceeds go to. This is very important especially for the city of Austin since Austin is a no-kill city meaning they do not put animals down simply for not being adopted. This also means that cost and space for these animals can become very limited which really highlights the importance of the APA thrift and why it exists. Walking into the store, I immediately notice how different it is compared to the stores I am used to shopping at regularly, meaning that the store was decorated in a boutique fashion with organized sections for each different type of clothing. Particularly, I immediately noticed the affordability in comparison to a lot of other bougie thrift stores which are ridiculously priced. What this store does differently is that instead of placing a price on each item based on brand or wear, they generalize each type of clothing under one single price, meaning all sweaters are the same price, all T-shirts are the same price, etc. The prices of the items were fairly affordable ranging from $5 apiece to $12 or $15 for sweaters or heavy pieces of clothing. I consider this affordable for a thrift store because if you were to shop at a Goodwill, for example, a pair of jeans that are of a good brand can cost up to $19.99 and a suit which is of good condition and brand can cost about $39.99. I noticed the store was affordable all-around along with appliances, knick-knacks, accessories, media, etc. When trying to find what APA thrift did to old clothing, they did not provide a clear answer, they just ask their donors to please donate gently used items since it costs them a lot of money to dispose of clothing.
Savers was very different from what I found at Austin Pets Alive thrift. When first entering savers, it resembled a Goodwill very much, the size in comparison to Austin Pets Alive thrift was bigger and the selection was bigger as well. When looking at the prices of each item, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t as affordable as Goodwill but items were priced individually instead of saying “all clothing items considered jeans are $9.99”. The clothing was placed at a much higher price than Austin Pets Alive thrift and while I didn’t see any clothing items with a price of $39.99, all items, in general, were at a higher price on average than both Goodwill and Austin Pets Alive thrift. I would consider the items at Savers to have less wear on them and be of better quality than what I saw at APA thrift but that is not to say that the items at APA thrift were very worn. I would say that the items are higher priced at Savers because they fundraise for local programs in the community and have also expanded into more than just the city of Austin, they range from Canada, Australia, and parts of the U.S. Savers also claim to recycle their clothing in order to prevent as much waste as possible from ending up in landfills similar to the method Goodwill does.
In regards to my topic, I feel like visiting these two places helped my topic as well as helped me think beyond that and improved me as a writer. When looking at APA thrift, I could relate to their cause and make the connection of why items were priced so affordably. I could see that prices were priced low, most likely to get as much merchandise as they could sell in order to minimize the amount of clothing they needed to dispose of before their merchandise became too repetitive. I also think this method is used in order to try and maximize sales for the end result of gaining profits to their cause which is to help shelter animals receive necessary items, especially in a no-kill city. Savers took a slightly different approach to the way they decide to make their sales. They decided to make their average prices slightly higher (not as high as what it retails for of course) in order to make the sale a higher price which is understandable considering their goal to help the local community as well as how much they have expanded both in and out of the U.S. With a higher selection, I think this price is a result of that as well and when disposing of their items, they claim to try and reuse and recycle as much as possible to keep as much out of landfills as they can. Overall, visiting these two places helped me as a writer because it gave me a different perspective on what creative ways to find out more about a topic in my local community.
Finally, visiting both APA thrift and Savers gave me the chance to compare their prices, selection, causes, and the way their items were disposed of in order to help me find more information on my topic. I decided to visit thrift shops because they are a large option against fast fashion and a lot of them are highly against simply throwing away the donations they receive, they usually try to reuse it or recycle it before deciding it needs to be thrown away. In my fieldwork, I found ways in which my local community also fights against the contribution of fast fashion and fights towards better causes such as animals and our local community.
