Tag / thrifting

by Oriana

Everyone Benefits from Local Thrift-Shopping

photo courtesy of @flashbacksrecycledfashions on instagram

College is a time for self-expression. It can be hard to do this when brand name or high-quality clothing is so expensive. Thrifting is the best way to get the luxury feel without the luxury price, and Flashbacks Recycled Fashions is the premiere shop in Gainesville for your fashion needs. At Flashbacks, we have an abundant selection of modern clothing, but also sell authentic vintage pieces in great condition, mostly donated by the eclectic student body nearby.

There are several benefits of thrifting locally:

Find your Perfect Style

We are not just a thrift store, but also a consignment store. This means that we buy and resell hand-picked clothes that represent the best in fashion. Since Gainesville is filled with young and stylish students, it is easy to find clothes that are cool and modern, unlike the big box thrift stores that are often filled out outdated and unappealing apparel. At Flashbacks, you are guaranteed to find unique pieces that will make your style stand out.

photo courtesy of @flashbacksrecycledfashions on Instagram

Imagine going into your closet and being able to decide who you were going to be that day. By shopping with us, you can change your style with more ease than a regular store. Instead of being limited to trends, Flashbacks offers so much more to customers. Interested in plaid, but don’t want to break the bank to later discover it’s not your thing? Take it for a spin here knowing you’re going to get something stylish and durable for a low price. Worst case scenario, you sell it back and it’s not a total loss.

photo courtesy of @flashbacksrecycledfashions on Instagram

If modern fashion isn’t your thing, you’re still in luck! We have an entire section dedicated to authentic vintage clothing in mint condition. It is trendy to be wearing clothes from the past, and major stores sell clothes that are vintage inspired for premium prices. Here, you can buy authentic vintage pieces for a fraction of what it would cost you to purchase fake ones. When you shop with us, you can discover pieces such as leather jackets, pin-up dresses, bell-bottom jeans, and fur coats that were made decades ago and are coming back into style.

photo courtesy of @flashbacksrecycledfashions on Instagram

Support Your Community

Flashbacks has been a Gainesville staple since 1986, when former gator Steve Nichtberger used his finance degree to open up Flashbacks Recycled Fashions Inc. because he wanted to create a spot where people could enjoy themselves while shopping and build lifelong relationships with fellow customers. Most of the profits that Flashbacks makes gets recycled back into the Gainesville community, unlike larger thrift stores where you aren’t able to know exactly where your money is going. All of our supply comes from the community, so we are always supporting other local establishments in order to give back.  Many chain stores, on the other hand, have the tendency to get their goods from corporate, and are often not as personally invested in buying local. By supporting us, you’re also supporting your favorite coffee shops, pizza restaurants and nightclubs at the same time.

photo courtesy of google street view

Before you decide to shop at department stores or thrift store chains, consider that thrifting locally is better for your community, is more sustainable, and the best way to find something unique that will impress all of your friends. At Flashbacks Recycled Fashions, you know that you are always going to find something that perfectly defines your style without a hefty price tag.  

by Oriana

Marie Kondo Floods Thrift Stores with Unwanted Items

Photo courtesy of the herald-dispatch

The reality TV show on Netflix “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” has taken the world by storm since it first aired in January 2019. This minimalist home improvement show has revolutionized the tidying up game, and all of a sudden everyone has begun cleaning out their homes of anything unwanted. In the show, Kondo stresses only keeping items that “spark joy”, which entails for a lot of stuff to be thrown out or donated.  Although this sounds great for the person cleaning out their home, it’s not so great from thrift store employees, who are suddenly being hit by a colossal wave of donations.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Goodwill Industries International Inc., which operates used-goods stores across the U.S. and Canada, said January donations rose by more than 32% in Washington, 22% in Houston, 20% in Roanoke, Va., and 16% in Grand Rapids, Mich,” which is right around the time the show first aired. Donations are obviously a huge part of a thrift stores business, but recently the surplus of donations has been too much for the workers to handle. It is their job to sort through all of the donations that the store receives and they are also finding that a lot of the donations contain items that are inappropriate or unsellable. Some stores have even asked people to hold off on donations so that they can get through the backlog.  

If we don’t want them, and thrift stores don’t always want them, then what are we supposed to do with our unwanted items? Kondo is now proposing a new step to the decluttering method which, according to her, “encourages reflection on waste and action when it comes to reducing, reusing, recycling and respecting.” Instead of asking if something sparks joy when you are getting rid of it, you must ask if it will spark joy when you are purchasing it. Many times, people just buy things that they don’t really want or need, which is the reason they end up with so much junk in their homes in the first place.

For more on this, check out Rachel Pannett and Rhiannon Hoyle’s article “Marie Kondo Isn’t Sparking Joy for Thrift Stores”, Wall Street Journal (Mark 6, 2019). https://www.wsj.com/articles/marie-kondo-persuaded-you-to-jettison-your-junk-thrift-stores-sayenough-11551889124?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=2