Online Thrift Shopping? This is a thing?

I'm going to be honest.  I actually don't enjoy shopping, just in general.  I don't know that I ever, really, have, especially for clothes or household goods.  

I used to enjoy grocery shopping with Deus Ex Machina on Saturday mornings.  It was a whole experience.  We would drop our daughters off at the dance studio, and then, go to the grocery store together.  We were there on the same day at the same time, and we discovered there were dozens of other shoppers who did the same thing.  We started to recognize people, and they, us.  We found out that the employees also recognized us regulars and would give them nicknames.  Like the "no pants lady" who always wore a thigh-length, white turtle-neck sweater (no leggings or pants, though) and flip-flops - even when it started getting really cold.  I always imagined that she was a reclusive writer, and grocery shopping was one of those necessary evils, because she needed coffee, but she would have preferred to have stayed at home working on her book.  

Deus Ex Machina and I were the "fun couple," because we joked and laughed a lot.  

Then, our lives changed.  

There was no more Saturday morning dance class drop off.   

There were new jobs for both Deus Ex Machina and me.  

The pandemic happened, limiting the number of  people allowed in a store, and so only one of us could do the shopping.  It fell to me, which was unpleasant on so many levels, including losing my "fun" partner.  I started looking for other options for getting groceries into my house, and finding grocery delivery services solved the problem of having to go to a physical store, but there are other things we need, besides groceries.  

At the beginning of the pandemic, many stores closed down, not that I was heading over to the mall for an afternoon of retail therapy anyway, but for a few weeks, between March and sometime in May 2020, while everyone figured out how to respond to this health threat, the second-hand clothing shop I used to go to was just shut down.  I didn't know if it would reopen.  They didn't know IF they would be able to reopen. 

They did open back up with limited hours, limits on the number of shoppers allowed at a time, and curbside pick-up available.  Like every where else last year, masks were required for in store shopping.

For the record, I'm not an anti-mask person.  I wear it, when required, but it is not comfortable, and I do have a difficult time with it.  

First, I wear glasses, and not just glasses, I have progressive lenses (which are fairly new to me to begin with.  I've only been wearing prescription glass for about three years, and my first pair, ever, were progressives).  For those who don't know, basically, a progressive lens gives me two places on my glasses to look out of.  I have one prescription for seeing things that are up close (like this computer screen) and one prescription for seeing things that are far off (like when I'm driving).  The mask interferes with my ability to see the close up stuff, because the way the mask sits on my face changes the way the glasses sit on my face.  I have to read labels at the grocery store, because sometimes gluten is hidden in the ingredients (did you know that gummy bears are made with "wheat sugar"?), but the way the glasses sit on my face with a mask on makes doing that very difficult.  And then, the glasses fog up, and I can't see anyway.

Second, I have two big dogs and three cats, all of whom shed rabbit-sized puff balls.  All of my clothes are covered in fur.  It's just a part of my life.  With no dryer to remove the fur and lint, those things stay on the mask.   When I get the mask on, I invariably inhale a hair, which starts to tickle, and then, I need to cough, and well, don't cough in public these days.  I'm pretty sure there's a tangle of pet fur in my lungs.

So, if I can avoid wearing a mask, I do.

Which has made online shopping my best option.

Amazon is like the online Walmart.  My opinion about Walmart and the fact that I haven't shopped there in more than a decade, is well known.  I don't shop on Amazon, if I can help it.

I have purchased items, if I know what I want, direct from the manufacturer - like Dr. Bonner's soap.

But I was having a hard time with the whole clothes shopping thing.  Did I mention that I don't like shopping?  I enjoy, even less, shopping for clothes for myself (although I will happily shop all day for clothes for Deus Ex Machina).  I never try things on, because I just don't like taking off my clothes in the store - even in the relative privacy of the dressing room.  I think it's just too cold in most of those stores.  Or ... I don't know.  Is that a two-way mirror?  Silliness, but there it is.  

So, I don't try on the clothes, and I bring them home, and too many times, they don't fit.  Or the style looked good in the store, but not on me.  Then, I can either take it back (I hate shopping, remember?  I hate returning items even more), or I can leave it in my drawer until I start thinning my clothes and then donate the never-worn item a few years later.  

Sometime during the pandemic, my daughters signed up for this service called StitchFix**.  It's a pretty interesting business model.  Basically, you sign up giving them your style preferences, and they will select clothes that match what you say you like to wear.  They charge a $20 "styling fee" to send the box to you, and then, if you choose to keep any of the items, they will apply that $20 toward your purchase.  

It sounded fun, and so I signed up.  My first box was a disaster.  Nothing in the box was anything that I would ever wear.  I sent it all back.  They sent another box, right away, at no extra charge, and I ended up keeping two things - a lovely faux-wrap dress and a pair of white capris jeans.  The funny thing is that I would never wear white pants.  But those jeans were so wonderful and fit me so well, that I kept them, and I've worn them half a dozen times. 

What's also nice about StitchFix is that they are committed to being socially and environmentally conscious, but the clothes are new, never-been-worn, and while new clothes are nice, I have a hard time with the ethics of the fashion industry, in general.  If I can get my clothes second-hand, I will.  In fact, until 2020, all of my clothes were second hand - except shoes (which I will repair rather than replace) and my undergarments, which I always purchase new, because ... sanitation.

I was watching a Do It on a Dime video recently, and Kathryn was talking about this clothing service that she uses.  It's, basically, the same model as StitchFix - order a "goodie box", and at regular intervals, they will send you a box of clothes.  You try them on in the warmth and comfort (sans the possibility of two-way mirrors) of your own home.  Keep what you like and return (in their self-addressed prepaid envelope) what doesn't fit your body and/or style.  

The difference between StitchFix and the service Kathryn mentioned in her video is that ThredUp is an online consignment shop.  Get that?  It's USED clothes, and members can both purchase AND sell clothes.  It's exactly like my local brick-and-mortar designer clothes consignment shop, except I get to try on the clothes here at my house; I don't have to sort through the thousands of clothes they have available to find the one or two things that might fit my body-type and style, because I have a personal stylist who does that for me; and I don't have to worry about things like masks and that girl who keeps crowding me, because I've been standing in the sweater aisle for longer than 30 seconds.  

Thrifted clothes without having to go to the store??  I'm calling it a WIN.  I ordered my first goodie box from ThredUp this morning, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they send.

If you have used either ThredUp or StitchFix, I'd love to hear about your experiences.

On a side note, Deus Ex Machina and I stopped in at Goodwill the other night looking for an old tent for a project we're working on.  We didn't find a tent, or anything else we wanted.  What we did notice was how crowded the store was, and that plates, which we used to be able to purchase for less than $1 each are now 3/$8.  The price more than quadrupled.  I didn't look at any of the other prices.  It's crazy!  

Everything is going up.  Even the Dollar Store has decided to raise its prices.  Everything is no longer just $1.  

**This is a referral link.  If you sign up for StitchFix using my link, I will get a $25 credit toward my next purchase with them.  ;).