Students often know the struggle of wanting new clothes, but being low on cash. Secondhand stores are the place to go for cheap, one-of-a-kind items with a backstory. Luckily for Michigan State University students, the Lansing and East Lansing area has a variety of thrift stores to explore.
Owner of Thriftique, a secondhand store offering a wide range of goods from clothing to housewares, Atalie Buycks opened her business back in 2009.
"I wanted to make a little boutique of unique, antique, quality picked goods, more curated than just your average traditional thrift store," Buycks said. "That was kind of inspired by my grandmother."
Buycks’ grandmother taught her the ropes of feeling textiles and checking tags to find high quality second-hand goods, she said. She hopes everyone, including students at MSU, will try thrifting and make it a part of their lives.
Located on South Washington Avenue in REO Town, Thriftique is about a 15-minute car ride from campus. One way to get to Thriftique by public transportation is to board the CATA 1 bus toward Downtown Lansing and get off at the CATA Transportation Center, transferring to CATA bus 2, getting off at Washington & Elm stop. During the warmer months, the most scenic and straight-forward route to take is the Lansing River Trail by bike.
St. Vincent de Paul, another secondhand store in REO Town, is one block over from Thriftique.
"[Thrifting is] more affordable, especially if you're going to school and spending lots of money on tuition and books," MSU alum Buycks said.
Psychology senior Maddy Fohey serves as the chairperson of Spartan Thrift Club. She was also inspired to thrift by her family and upbringing.
"I've always really liked… second-hand stuff," Fohey said. "My grandma was a big garage sale person."
Fohey added that she enjoys wearing clothes with another story. When she was younger, she got to see pictures of her cousins wearing the hand-me-downs she received from them, which then translated to her hobby of thrifting.
Spartan Thrift Club hosts events such as local thrift trips, thrift swaps and upcycling, Fohey said.
Apparel and textile design professor Therèsa Winge said thrifting can release dopamine not only when you find exactly what you have been searching for -- which for her was a pair of Doc Martens in the '80s -- but also when you find something you don't like. One friend will turn to the other while holding the most outrageous article of clothing they have ever seen to have a conversation about “Who would ever wear this?” which adds an extra element of connection and humor to thrifting.
"This is almost this gold-miner kind of mentality of ‘today I might find a nugget,'" Winge said. "Shopping already makes our head, our brains, feel good."
Another thrift store nearby that is accessible by bus is Volunteers of America (VOA) in Lansing South. It is a 16-minute car ride or an hour bus ride away. To get to this VOA location, you can ride the CATA 1 bus toward Downtown Lansing and take it the entire route, getting off at Cedar & Armstrong.
While fast fashion is known to have negative impacts on the environment, Winge explained that a portion of the clothing that gets donated to secondhand stores gets sent to landfills or barges in the ocean.
"A lot of the charities that have secondhand stores, they have to be very discerning about what they bring into the store, and they have certain criteria," Winge said. "That criteria doesn't always match up with the consumer in that local community."
Despite the potential drawback of charity run thrift stores, Winge mentioned that one of her favorite spots to thrift nearby is VOA.
"You get access to so many things, even from other countries and around the world," Buycks said. "Thrifting is just a hodgepodge, kind of a melting pot, of all kinds of goodies."
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