In my own hometown and local community, the thrift store is a vital place for people in the lower class/low income/ trades workers to be able to afford clothing. The average working-class income does not allow for luxuries such as $25 t-shirts and $100+ shoes. In prior times, the thrift store was a place for charities such as Goodwill and Salvation Army and other religious organizations to give back to their communities by providing accessible clothing and home needs. However, with rapidly increasing corporate greed influenced by the new age resellers, poor people are being priced out of the lowest possible priced stores. Resellers often use the guise of selling “vintage” clothing. In reality, they wait outside the thrift and rush in as soon as it opens. They purchase all of the clothing that would be deemed presentable or someone might have the desire to buy. This leaves the tattered, often stained, and non-presentable clothing left over for the working class. They resell these items online for a ridiculously increased profit. The thrifts increase the prices of the clothing so they can increase profits in response to their new high demand. (Keep in mind, these corporations do not manufacture any of their products, everything is donated to them to give to lower-income communities and the less fortunate.) These resellers are primarily college-going or college-educated women who are middle or upper-class. They often will argue to their graves that their hobby and “side hustle” have no impact on local communities, even when the facts and trends show otherwise. When confronted about these issues, they become angry and non-empathetic towards the working class, the common sentiment being to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”. Entitled reseller blog posts pepper the internet frustrated with the working class’s response. The issues are further snowballed by lower-income Americans now having to resort to purchasing from fast fashion companies such as Shein and Romwe, which have become cheaper and more accessible to the average American. These companies have horrific environmental and labor practices but now have an increased demand. In conclusion, resellers can hit the road and I want them to leave my community alone. Let poor people live.
I created my own yarn from recycled plastic bags and crocheted them together to make a giant deconstructed plastic bag. I hand-dyed and altered the recycled thrift fabrics to represent colors associated with the body, organs, and death. The fabrics spilling out of the center are meant to represent the death of accessibility, the death of the community, and corporate greed. I repurposed the paper tags with the new increased prices from my local thrift store and reattached them to the piece with a tagging gun.
