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Helping people and protecting the planet

Thrift store shopping helps offset what's destructive about the fashion industry

October 3, 2024

Every three days, a new rack of clothing is wheeled out in front of 3958 Main St. next to a sandwich board that reads: “Quality thrift and new clothing for all genders, featuring local designers,” and a sign labelling everything at $5. During these tough economic times, this small price tag makes a huge difference — and there’s many more like them around the city.

“We want to make the price range as accessible as possible,” says Samantha, who is the manager of development for Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS), and manager of My Sister’s Closet thrift shops on Main Street and on Commercial Drive.

“It’s just great because not only do we want to generate funds for BWSS, but we also want to do our part in recycling and reusing as much as we can.”

Social enterprise thrift stores such as My Sister’s Closet offer employment and volunteer opportunities, generate unrestricted funds for non-profit organizations, serve as a marketing tool and offer a sustainable way of shopping for the eco-conscious thrifter.

“In 2001, BWSS had to come up with a way to generate funds to ensure our doors stay open and our crisis line is answered. At the time, the government was making huge cuts, and many women’s organizations didn’t survive. Some had to shut their doors and others had to start charging a fee for their services,” she says.

The idea was to start a community thrift store. People could donate to the shop, but also the clothing could be passed on to women who needed to flee unsafe domestic situations. The first My Sister’s Closet opened on Commercial Drive in 2001 without any government grants or other capital. 

In their 23 years of “thrift fashion to end violence,” My Sister’s Closet has diverted more than a million pounds of textiles from landfills, with a yearly average now of over 60,000 pounds diverted. At the forefront of the zero waste, eco-fashion and the thrift movement, the two stores generated more than $800,000 in revenue for BWSS last year. This helped fund its violence prevention and intervention services, including the 24/7 Stopping the Violence Crisis Line, where upwards of 30,000 requests were received in the last year.

“It blows my mind, it warms my heart,” says Samantha, who has been with BWSS since 2005, initially signing on as a counsellor.

“As a survivor myself, I got onto the path of learning about various oppressions and violence against women, and really realized it’s not a personal, but a social issue. I started with women’s organizations and then I got connected with BWSS.”

She worked with many girls and women directly, and along the way was asked to help with communications and resource development. She began working at the Seymour Street location downtown (which has since closed, in 2022) to step in for the manager there who was leaving.

“That was 12 years ago and I’m still stepping in. Because I love it. I love that every day we get to connect with amazing people.”

Samantha says they hear from customers all the time who either shop there because they are survivors, they need clothing they can afford, or they want to support the mission. 

“I could cry, because it’s just like, wow. When you’re doing the work, you hear about the awful things people do, then at the store you see people like the volunteers who are giving their time, or people who choose to donate and sometimes they’re donating something that’s so sentimental and has a whole history.”

The stores try to use as many of the donations they receive as they can. For example, Samantha says they don’t sell fur, but if it comes in as a donation there is a volunteer who passes it onto Indigenous artists. Each year the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre Herstory Fundraising Gala hosts a fashion show, and outfits are donated by My Sister’s Closet. Everything else that can’t be sold is passed on to Diabetes Canada.

“We want to make donating easy,” says Samantha. “When donations come in, first we say, ‘Thank you so much.’ Then we do all the sorting. If there are things we can’t use, we’ll pass them on. Even with jewelry, we have a volunteer who is upcycling it into beautiful treasure pins.”

There are so many reasons to shop and donate, and being friendly to the Earth is another.

Pumping the brakes on fast fashion

Fast fashion has a tremendous impact on people and the planet, from environmental implications, to exploitation of workers. The term was coined to describe how by continuously offering new trends at extremely low prices, brands encourage consumers to buy more and more clothing, cycling through items so quickly that the now out-of-date styles (often just weeks old) are discarded at an alarming rate. The items produced are often inexpensive and low-quality, so they don’t last long, but they mimic the latest big-name style trends so they are sought-after.

According to the Metro Vancouver Regional District, approximately 20,000 tonnes (44 million pounds) of clothing waste is disposed of annually in the region. 

Residents throw out an average of eight kilograms (17 pounds) of clothing per person per year — equivalent to the weight of 44 T-shirts.
On average, collectively, we buy three times more clothes than we did in the 1980s.

Of the items donated through Metro Vancouver locations (https://recycling.metrovancouver.org/) that are reusable, non-reusable, shoes, or textiles, only about 20-25 per cent is resold or reused locally. That’s because the volume of clothing donated is higher than the demand for local reuse. According to Metro Vancouver, any remaining clothes are sold to used clothing brokers, who then sort and sell the clothing to markets where they can be put to use.

Shopping at thrift stores is a great way to slow down your fashion consumption. You can stay on trend and expand the lifespan of garments, while also finding great deals on designer items.

For example, you can find a Brooks Brothers Sweater Dress for $50 in the My Sister’s Closet online store (https://mysistersclosetvancouver.shop), which normally retails for $275 to $400, or a Balenciaga skirt for $225, which would be over $2,000 from the designer. 

“I think more and more people are trying to be eco-friendly — around weddings too — because that’s a huge amount of fabric, like a huge amount,” Samantha says pointing at a $50 wedding dress on a rack.

Of course there’s a ton of everyday wear in all sizes for all genders, including the $5 deals out front, and a wide selection of shoes, jeans, shirts, athletic wear and dresses most within the range of $10-$50. There is a designer area at My Sister’s Closet on Main Street, with items that get showcased in their online store.

“None of this could be possible without volunteers,” adds Samantha. “We have a team of 80 people, from the ages of 15 to 80, who give their time to attend to the floor, attend to community engagement and so forth. Without them we couldn’t do seven days a week and all that we’re doing.”

Many volunteers have been with the shop for numerous years (five, 10, or even 20), and have become experts at power sorting. There’s an entire volunteer squad that also comes in every week to populate the online store, which was a project that began during COVID-19 when the stores were shut. It’s been such a success it has continued on.

Volunteers select the lineup, mostly designer items, they measure every piece of clothing, they price it and prep orders for shipping. The team loves to see their clothing and shopping experience as accessible to all thrifters, and recently they sold and shipped items as far away as California and Newfoundland.

Donations are accepted every day from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at both of the My Sister’s Closet locations. Often they have some callouts for items, such as all gender clothing and sizes 14+. Retailers who have new apparel and accessories to donate are also eligible for a tax receipt.

More thrift stores:

• Wildlife Thrift (1295 Granville St.) in support of Covenant House Vancouver, wildlifethriftstore.com

• Aunt Leah’s Thrift (3328 Fraser St.) in support of Aunt Leah’s Independent Lifeskills Society, auntleahs.org/thrift 

• Chinatown Vintage (131 E. Pender) a social enterprise by Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, chinatownfoundation.org/chinatown-vintage 

• UGM Thrift (671 E. Hastings St.) in support of the Union Gospel Mission.
 ugm.ca/thrift-store. The UGM also operates Found Boutique (641 Columbia St.) in New Westminster, foundboutique.ca 

• Community Thrift & Vintage in support of PHS Community Services Society with three locations in Vancouver: 138 E. Hastings St. (Studio by appointment only); 311 Carrall St. (Frock Shoppe) 11 W. Hastings St. (Unisex Shoppe) communitythriftandvintage.com 

Check with each thrift shop for their donation wish lists, donation dates/times and store hours.