As college students, it’s more than obvious that we’re all struggling just to afford another cup of Easy Mac. With a college student’s slow income of money, how are we supposed to control ourselves when it comes to clothes shopping compulsions and the expanding of our wardrobes? Before you even notice it, you can be spending an entire paycheck on just one shopping spree.
Communication professor, Claude Taylor, said, “I am a huge fan of Goodwill and consignment, they’re an ethical way of shopping. Shopping at thrift stores is a stretch from a cultural norm that everyone should have new things all the time, which I disagree with. There’s value in recycling, things still have a use they’re just not new. The fact the someone else couldn’t use it, doesn’t mean it can’t be used.”
Thrift stores such as Goodwill carry a variety of clothes and basically anything you can think of, and it’s all cheap too. If you’re anything like me, the first thing you think about when you hear the word thrift shop is Macklemore. Besides him, thrift stores are great places for college students to shop when we are ballin’ on a budget.
Shopping at a thrift store also leaves a lot of opportunity to be creative. There are endless pages of crafty products you can find on Pinterest, and a thrift store is a great way to buy all of your supplies to start a project.
Sophomore English student, Ally Afandor, said, “I think being able to become thrifty is always a benefit as college kids are known to be a lot more savvy with cheaper deals.”
If you’re unfamiliar with Goodwill and thrift stores, they’re pretty easy to understand. Basically, people drop off things th
ey don’t want (clothes, furniture, toys, etc.) and they’re sold to shoppers for a pretty reasonable price. These stores are good for helping our environment too. In just New York and New Jersey, donors to the Goodwill stores have kept an estimated 117 million pounds of unwanted goods out of landfills in just this past year. One of the goal of thrift stores in to decrease what’s in landfills.
Goodwill carries more than just clothes. They even have furniture, movies, and pretty much anything else you can think of. Almost anything that is donated to the store is sold to the customers. If you’re living off campus and need furniture,
Goodwill is the perfect place to shop. Instead of spending on a brand new couch, a thrift store couch can be just as useful for even half the price. Junior Communication student Kristin Harrison said, “I like going to Goodwill stores when I’m looking for furniture.
Sometimes there are a lot of vintage pieces that I like to buy and touch up. I always seem to find a lot of unique things.”
Not only are the prices cheap, but they also offer a student discount. What could be better than another discount at an already cheap store?
At any location in New Jersey or New York, you can show your Monmouth ID any day Monday through Friday and get an additional 10 percent off the already low prices. The cheap prices allow a college student to have a shopping spree and splurge on themselves a little, but not feel bad about it.
The purpose of these stores is to recycle perfectly good items that we just don’t want anymore, instead of just throwing them out. It’s the perfect place for a college student to shop because all of their prices are so affordable, and the extra discount definitely doesn’t hurt. Thrift stores, like Goodwill, are the perfect example of, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
IMAGE TAKEN from www.mtv.com
