Franklin's Thrift by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Government, Social Policy, Business & Finance, Economics, Economic History, History
ISBN: 9781599473529
Publisher: Templeton Press
Published: 2011-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

THRIFT IS GOOD BUSINESS

Over time, the goals of the many charities running thrift shops shifted from their original purpose of lifting up the poor in their own communities by providing employment to making money to support their mission. Suzanne Horne, in her book Charity Shops: Retailing, Consumption & Society, analyzes English thrift shops—she calls them “charity shops”—as having four main functions:

to provide a method of raising unallocated funds that can be used for any purpose … to provide a social service, offering cheap goods to those customers who cannot afford to shop at commercial retail outlets … to raise awareness of its particular charitable cause … [and] the recycling of goods, or the “green” function. …

She writes that “as the economic potential of the shops became evident, commercialization and profit making became a main reason for selling goods. Most charities go into retailing in order to make money, which will in turn enable them to carry out their individual primary purpose. …”29

With the potential of becoming more profitable, thrift shops upped their profile by moving to better locations that could attract more shoppers with more money. (This is not a new idea. Indeed, the Salvation Army store management noted the importance of this as early as the 1930s.30) Housing Works—a group of New York City charity shops that raise money for people with AIDS—has a stylish edge, stores in popular neighborhoods, attractive window displays, and an auction site on the Web. Its various enterprises in New York City—thrift shops, a secondhand bookstore and café, a catering business—are stylish and sophisticated, designed to be profitable businesses that fund the organization’s efforts as well as provide meaningful work for clients of its services. Thrift is not an explicit part of its values, which it publishes and which involve not passing judgment on others, direct action, and human rights. Housing Works’ shops choose the secondhand objects they sell for quality and style. Much thought goes into the arrangement and chic of objects displayed in the shop windows, which are auctioned online—for instance, a barely worn light-camel-colored pair of Bruno Magli open-toe, pebbled sling backs, lined in gold leather in my size, minimum bid $35, was auctioned off on September 5. Of course, they will not go for that, I think. I bid $60 online and am surprised to get them for $38.50. (Housing Works, in an indication of its seriousness, suggested I donate the difference.) They will make a good Christmas present for one of my sisters.

The Internet has taken on an increasingly important role in the thrift-shop marketplace, allowing charities as well as others to sell secondhand goods to the highest bidder. Goodwill Industries claims to have started the first nonprofit Internet auction site, in 1999. The site, shopgoodwill.com, allows the organization to offer its donated goods to a much larger public. Similar to the way that thrift shops were able to play a role in a neighborhood almost a century ago by encouraging community and bringing people together to share, swap, or recycle goods, Craigslist.

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