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capitalism really is a system built exclusively for scamming and gambling
If it just referred to moving your base in Starcraft, the world would be a better place
It probably varies by region but the resellers at my local goodwill are all like young moms and fresh immigrants who spend hours sifting through piles of garbage to make the smallest profit ever. I’ve never really understood why I’m supposed to hate these people when they engage in the mildest form of arbitrage around. Like 95% of it is going to end up in a landfill anyway, who cares?
In my area its mainly well-off yuppies doing it as a “side hustle”.
If they’re so well off then why are they doing it
Some things are easier to do as a side job than as a main job if you have enough money to live on to start with. Any amount of variability or risk is automatically cushioned until you hit profitability.
Or not. I’ve seen idiots play big business boy before and come out way negative and they keep going. It’s not a side hustle for them, it’s a hobby pretending to be a side hustle the way they do it.
One could ask the same about billionaires
I don’t see billionaires at the thrift shop (I assume)
These apples aren’t orange!
it’s a hobby for a lot of people
In my area it’s affluent kids who push around immigrant moms in order to find anything worth reselling
Thrift stores increasing their prices due to people flipping stuff from them is so fucking depressing lol
I worked at a thrift store. The amount of brainworms all those old volunteers have are incredible. “The right buyer will pay 20$ for this” SHARON WE HAVE TO THROW OUT THREE DUMPSTERS WORTH OF CLOTHES EVERY DAY BECAUSE THERE IS NOT ENOUGH SPACE ON THE RACKS WE CANNOT HAVE THE 17TH GLASS JUG ON THE SHELVES FOR FUCKS SAKE
Not to mention that we have no way of contacting “the right buyer”. Clothes is one thing, but furniture, instruments, art, pottery, games, electronics, and everything else? Yeah you can make a living finding stuff like that and reselling it, but WE ARE A THRIFT STORE WE DO NOT HAVE THE CONTACTS NECESSARY TO DO THAT SO YOURE JUST WAITING AND HOPING FOR SOME RANDO TO WALK IN THE DOOR WILLING TO PAY 200$ FOR A COUCH BECAUSE GOOGLE TOLD YOU IT RETAILS FOR 1000$ I HAVE THROWN OUT 17 COUCHES TODAY FUCK OFF
Did y’all just throw clothes away in a dumpster right near you? That seems like a neat way to get clothes for very very cheap
I worked at a second-hand store attached to a garbage dump/recycling centre. The clothes we couldnt put on racks or sort through would just go to get torn to shreds in order to be reused as textiles. Depressed me a lot.
I think part of the deal of accepting donations to resell should be that you’re barely allowed to evaluate quality and pricing.
Thrift stores should have categorical prices. T shirts are $5, dress shirts are $8, shoes are $15, and so on. It doesn’t matter if the shirt is from Walmart or Gucci, a t shirt is $5.
There are whole computer programs for evaluating thrift quality and pricing.
The people who wrote those programs should go to prison
Is this Project Cybersyn?
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i don’t really think merchandising is productive labour, it is more like becoming a mini petite bourgeois no? the line can be blurry about what i find “acceptable” but it is profit seeking at the end of the day
petite bourgeoisie
that sounds similar to scalping
scalpers have an appropriate name to what we totally won’t do to them
It’s fine they can cover up the damage with those Metallica tickets they bought that I didn’t
I don’t like it when thrift store prices start climbing, so I’m going to agree with you.
But since I’m a commie I must begrudgingly point out that “gentrification” and price rises are the result of income inequality and not because <insert group> are assholes (they’re taking advantage, and not the primary cause).
the maoist uprising against the landlords was the largest and most comprehensive proletarian revolution in history, and led to almost totally-equal redistribution of land among the peasantry
And also recycled clothes
I think there’s some nuance to it, mainly based off how well off the person doing it is, but overall I’m opposed because it drives up thrift store prices. Maybe it’s just my area but all the thrift stores have been going downhill/gentrify-ing for the past decade. Was Macklemore’s Thrift Shop to blame? In part probably, yea.
I still thrift because that’s how you find old stuff that’s well made and not just plastic crap but the prices have been climbing.
The council agrees
Get a real job
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If I see you buying a nice shirt for 5$ and then I see it for sale online for 30$ then you’re going to the gulag
Retail is a really fascinating concept to me because it does produce value in the sense that the retailer is connecting the consumer with a product that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Retail is probably the oldest trade and has been essential to the development of civilization. It’s an incredibly fine line between that and rent seeking though. Ideally the surplus created by socialized production and industrialization should do away with retail and to a limited extent it has, but instead private ownership has flipped it totally on its head so the whole thing is marketing and rent seeking now.
kill the buyer, the seller
I have a friend who runs a small vintage clothing store, she sells at what she considers fair prices, and will also put in tons of physical labor to actually repair stuff with period accurate materials and such.
She’s got local highschool kids coming into her shop now to buy up random things then selling them at a 500% markup online. She doesn’t want to ban them, and she doesn’t want to raise prices and participate in the scam, but it sucks for everyone.
Band-T-lords
