Are you kind of disgusted if someone tells you they're wearing clothes from Goodwill?

Not at all. I also shop there and some of my favorite pieces of clothing have come from Goodwill.

Nope.
I get a lot of my clothes from there.
They actually have some good clothes and I’m not the richest person in the world.
I don’t see what would be so gross about it, you can just wash the clothes anyway.

Disgusted? Jealous is more like it! I used to live in a town where the Goodwill and Salvation Army were 3 blocks from each other. Boy, was that fun. Now I buy all my clothes on Ebay or Walmart.com .
They could just be surprised but , if I kept finding people to react weirdly, I wouldn’t tell them anymore unless they asked.

No. In fact, that reaction seems bizarrely elitist. I give clothes to Goodwill all the time, and nothing about being moved from my closet to a store hanger seems to make them tainted. Why should the other clothes be any different?

@SavoirFaire I give clothes away there too. It’s funny…I’ll be looking and go, “Oh! I like that! O. Wait. I bought that here four months ago and it didn’t fit so I gave it back last week.”

@Dutchess_III, do you think that maybe when you say you got something from Goodwill that people may be under the impression that Goodwill is a charity and you are taking clothes that someone less fortunate could use?

Maybe they don’t realize that Goodwill operates stores where anyone can shop. It wasn’t always like that you know and perhaps they think you are going to Goodwill acting like a person in need and cheating by getting clothes meant for someone less fortunate. I can’t imagine any other reason they’d act strangely about your wardrobe.

Oh hell no. I have gotten most of my clothes from thrift stores since I was a teenager. Great finds there sometimes. And I have a huge pile of clothes I’ve been amassing to donate since they don’t fit me anymore.

Well, one reason could be that they are snobs, @bkcunningham, plain and simple.
Could be they think it’s teacky to buy used clothes.
Could be any number of reasons, @bkcunningham, depending on their personality.

oh maliciously

Looks like you answered your own question, @Dutchess_III.

Only if they didn’t wash them first.

I figured that’s what it was all along, @bkcunningham. I was just wondering if I was committing some sort of glaring social error that was obvious to everyone but me. After reading the responses, I’m OK.

Of course it isn’t a social error. I’ve never shopped there. Only because I’ve never lived near one. I am the yard sale queen though. I hate to be wasteful. This throw-away society we live in is disappointing. When you shop at Goodwill, you are making a financial donation to the organization and helping out the organization.

It’s the only way to shop here locally if you want to wear something different or higher quality. We have a ton of second hand shops so including those.

Quite a few of our ladies of higher class will proudly announce they shop at value village.

You save money find great clothes. Every one can afford to save money. And it can be fun. I do draw the line at undergarments and used socks though.

Most of my clothes come from thrift stores. Some people are disgusted and would never buy clothes from a thrift store because they think the clothes are dirty (I wash everything I buy, so they’re no dirtier than if I had worn them if they were new) and some people think it’s scary that I might be wearing a dead person’s clothes (I have no way of knowing, and it doesn’t bother me at all, in fact right now I’m wearing a friend’s MIL’s t-shirt who passed away but wore my size and I love the style) and some people actually think there’s something wrong about buying used clothes because there might be something wrong with them, or they might be worn out, or that somehow there is a quality issue because it ended up in the thrift store in the first place (I shop at thrift stores, but I only buy like-new items because I want my clothes to look nice and last, sometimes there are better quality items at thrift stores because they are vintage and may have been made in an era where quality was more important, sometimes completely brand new un-opened with the tag still on stuff ends up in thrift stores, as do items that were simply never worn and the person outgrew them). If I didn’t shop in thrift stores, I wouldn’t be able to afford to dress myself.

Plus I’m a hippie at heart and love the idea of re-using and recycling, plus I love vintage clothing.

Nope. I’m finding that more and more people (and at higher income brackets than mine) are shopping at charity or vintage shops. I think it’s a reaction to clothing prices becoming unreasonably expensive. Also, because thrift stores are choosy about what they will buy, you can get some very good quality pieces for a small fraction of what they would have cost new.

Honestly…you’ll find a higher quality of clothes at Goodwill than anywhere else. I bet none of the stuff that gets donated came from Walmart…because Walmart clothes are useless after about 6 months.

I think they are just being snobby and are possibly suprised that you are being forthcoming and not pretending to be buying expensive clothes. Once at work, I was talking with a three of my female coworkers and one said “omg! Your shoes are so cute, where did you get them?” When I said “Payless” there was a very awkward silence. Oh well, I was still wearing cute shoes (and they were not).

Perceptions are a crazy thing, aren’t they @Gabby101.

People who are snobs at heart may react with revulsion. I get the same thing when I mention getting something at Dollar Tree. It’s their problem, not mine. I wouldn’t buy used shoes or underwear, but clothing that isn’t falling apart or special items, like a glass bowl in which to serve trifle; you couldn’t get a better bargain unless someone gave one to you.

(They don’t sell underwear at Goodwill, guys!)
I buy all my dress shoes at Goodwill. They have a much greater selection than any retail store…why wouldn’t you buy shoes there @Sunny2?

Not at all! Actually I think people who can shop at the Goodwill and look stylish are very wise and clever. I knew this lady who always looked stunning and I asked her how she managed to afford and find such beautiful clothes. Goodwill!

I love Op shops/charity shops, some of my best purchases have been golden finds to be treasured. One thing though I feels strange about is If I have sent stuff to good will is seeing it walking around later on a stranger. I smile to myself and thing they don’t know it’s history. With my kids clothes i try to rehouse them to friends I personally know.

Not at all. I not only give old clothes there, I have also bought some.
The money goes to a good cause, and sometimes you run into an old friend.
about 38 years ago, I ran into a guy I knew in high school who was buying clothes there too.

When I lived in Wichita had had picked up this long, cotton, Indian print-looking skirt. It really ballooned out, but I could carry it off because I was quite slender. I went to sub at a school. A teacher there commented, “I used to have a skirt like that. But I got rid of it because it made me look like a blimp!”
I said, “What did you do with it?”
She said, “I gave it to Goodwill.”
I opted not to say anything else at that point!

I used to date this guy who could very well afford to buy designer clothes. He regularly went to the op shop to get shirts and the like. He was thrifty. He argued it was silly to pay top $$ for designer shirts when he could go to the op shop, get the same brand but perhaps not this season’s shirt, for a fraction of the price and there was nothing wrong with the clothing. Made perfect sense to me.

Not a bit. I consider it a sign of common sense.

Goodwill is all my parents were able to afford when I was a kid, so I have no qualms with it whatsoever. Many pieces in my wardrobe are secondhand.

Yesterday I stopped to buy my newspapers and I got behind a young guy obviously right out of the barn. His clothing was soiled and he smelled so bad, it might make some people’s eyes water. I looked into his eyes and we nodded to each other and smiled. I don’t judge people by their clothes.

Half my wardrobe comes from there, I love a bargain. And the best op shops to frequent are the ones close to ritzy neighborhoods!

Goodwill and Salvation Army are awesome. People create and consume way more than we actually need, but buying/ donating used stuff allows us to interrupt that cycle.

Not at all. I wouldn’t judge someone if they shopped their or shopped high end stores.

@Dutchess_III Shoes wear down with the imprint of your personal footprint. I have skinny feet with high arches and am not comfortable in other people’s shoes, that’s all. It has nothing to do with hygiene or cleanliness, which are things some people are worried about.

Only if they are the kind Pat Robertson says are possessed by demons!

I adore thrift shop clothing. I’m broke like 99.5% of the time, so if I can get cool, cheap, slightly used stuff, I will do it for sure. Honestly, even if I somehow got rich, I wouldn’t stop thrifting. The clothes are much more interesting. Everything tells a story.

We don’t gave goodwill shops here on this island, they are called “charity shops” here, and they are probably very similar to the ones in the UK and the goodwill ones in the USA, just more basic.

My cousin who likes brand names and designer stuff refuses to go in them, he is ashamed to go in there for some reason.

Personally I love them, if you don’t go in and look around from time to time you are missing out on a good trick, you can get loads of great stuff there.

Here are some of the things I picked up:

Gold 18k tie pin, with 1 tiny diamond, ruby and emerald – 50 cents. (jewler value +100 bucks)

Antique hand carved stone chess set, with a high leve of carving detail – 2 bucks.

Louis Vuitton hand bag ‘worth’ 300 bucks new. – 4 bucks.

I think it is brilliant and also well done of helping and sharing some good will.

Not at all you are actually helping. Your money goes to charities when you buy those clothes so they should have nothing to be disgusted about! If they are disgusted just change the subject.

Also listen to the song thrift shop XD

I loves me a good thrift shop bargain. Last week, I got a really nice lined fleece jacket for 12kr. (2 dollars) As an avid crafter and seamstress, I always look for good quality fabric and pieces I can alter, personalise and reuse for both me and my son. Another prize I brought home last month was a cashmere sweater that needed a small mend that I think ended up costing about 8kr. I get a lot of wear out of it because of all the time I spend outside in the cold with my job. I don’t want to spend tonnes of money on clothes because I end up full of food, paint etc… and my clothes need to be practical and comfortable and serve several purposes and take a lot of washes.

I don’t really like the idea of some of the charities that get my money. They are allowed to ignore many of the labour laws that other businesses are bound by. They have been allowed to deny employment to gays and people living in civil unions or ‘shacked up’ .

There is a website called The Thrift Shopper that lists all the thrift shops in the US. Type in a zip code or city/state and it will tell you the locations.
The site also has a place for customer reviews.
I use it when I travel. :-)

The Goodwill in my area supports ABVI (Assoc for the Blind and Visually Impaired). They have blind people working the registers. They have an automatic bill reader that calls out the denomination. (But everyone tells anyway.) Every blind person there can calculate the change faster than the sighted people who seem to need the register to tell them what to do.

@paytie Thanks for telling us about that song! It’s… awesome! Great Answer!
Thrift Shop Macklemore

@LuckyGuy did you know that many countries have paper money of different sizes to assist the visually impaired, but the US doesn’t? shame shame (and fine, fine…. call me a US basher all you want, I am simply pointing out issues that could be so easily fixed….)

@cazzie Yes. Different size bills would make some things easier. Did you know a US bill weighs exactly one gram? You can weigh a stack of new bills and know how many are in it.
A new penny weighs exactly 2.5 grams and nickel weighs 5 grams.
A penny made before 1983 weighed 3 grams when new.

Not at all.

How ironic that the US money system uses grams.

Not at all – most of my clothes come from thrift stores!

@Sunny2 I only had that problem one time…whoever owned the shoes before me tended to walk funky. I couldn’t wear them!

No. I’m not a snob.

Well, maybe if it’s a swimsuit.

I wonder how much of a shadow our own perception, stereotypes, prejudice and so forth of the situation we cast on others when judging their reaction? Do you know what I mean? In your mind somewhere do you imagine that people will think less of you because you didn’t pay full price for the clothing? Not just with this particular example, but with other things in life.

I know what you’re saying. That’s possible @bkcunningham but since I’m not self conscious about it, I don’t “expect” others to be. I can tell when someone’s smile fades a bit and they pull back, break eye contact. I make sure I don’t tell those folks where I get my stuff any more!