thrift shop
A second-hand or second-hand shop buys and sells used goods .
Second-hand shops in the strict sense
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Traditionally, stores for "used clothing" are called second-hand shops . Most shops have only limited space and are located off the main shopping streets of the city centers - second-hand shops for designer goods are rarer , such as Secondella, which opened in Hamburg in 1970 or Le Fyn, which opened in Trier in 2007 .
Different second-hand shops, especially in the clothing sector , appeal to different buyer groups:
- Lovers of the fashion of certain decades. The different trends towards so-called retro fashion, “trash style” and “second-hand optics” in the various subcultural scenes, as well as partly also in mass fashion, make the original garments from the coveted decades more valuable or more authentic than the imitated retro models appear.
- Collectors of historical clothing and uniforms.
- People who like to experiment or are creative.
- People with alternative , consumer-critical ideas about life who want to put together their own non- conforming and, in their opinion, non- commercial clothing style. A deliberate anti-aesthetic and a scruffy look or shabby chic is often cultivated here, which deliberately refuses to accept the superficial chic of consumer-friendly, conformist people. Second-hand clothing with visible signs of use meets this intention.
- Financially weak people who buy from thrift stores for cost reasons. They usually prefer the most up-to-date clothing possible, often originally expensive branded goods that you can't tell that they were needed. For this target group , second hand is sometimes seen as a flaw.
- Clothing that is necessary for one-off or rare occasions, even expensive for the broad masses of the population, such as B. the wedding dress or the clothing for the initiation rites of the religions.
The children's second-hand shops play a special role . In view of the high prices and comparatively short period of use, children's clothing, strollers, toys, etc. Often passed on in the family or among friends. The decline in the birth rate since the late 1960s and increasing individualization, especially in urban areas, have reduced this possibility.
Second hand stores in the broader sense
For several decades the industry has been calling itself “buying and selling” after the term junk dealer received a derogatory note. In addition to their shop, the used goods dealers (like others besides a main job) often take part in flea markets .
Second-hand bookshops thatbuy and sellused or out-of-print books and other printed matter exist in parallel - they are to be classified as a special form of second-hand shop. Corresponding shops for entertainment media ( records , later CDs and videos as well as computer and console games ) have established themselvesparallel to the second-hand shops for used clothing.
In addition to clothing, many second-hand shops also offer items from the categories mentioned, so that the boundaries, for example to the antique trade , are fluid.
Charitable institutions
Increasingly operate and open organizations like Diakonie , Caritas , workers' welfare or self-help associations homeless (like "motz & co" in Berlin) nonprofit thrift stores (in Switzerland often Brockenhaus or Brockenstube called). They usually get their goods free of charge and mostly have volunteer workers. This enables them to offer their goods cheaper than commercial dealers, sometimes at only symbolic prices. Some of these establishments are downright second-hand department stores with a wide range of goods from clothing to books , kitchen supplies and electrical appliances to furniture .
Public waste disposal companies (e.g. Hall 2 of the Munich waste management company ) are increasingly operating used department stores with used items from the bulky waste collection or from the recycling depots .