I am from the Midwest. I grew up in St Louis, Missouri so I was inside a city, but I had friends who came from small rural communities in Missouri. In a city, you have so many options for buying more sustainably- from thrift stores being reliably available, to having large communities to lean on to help clothe everyone.

In smaller, rural communities you may not have this. Typically, rural communities also can be lower income so mom and pop owned thrift stores would be hard to find as those stores tend to have higher pricing due to overhead. If there is no Goodwill, Salvation Army, or other large thrift shop, you’re probably out of luck. I think this is a big detriment to a community for a few reasons.

1. Lack of places to bring your old clothes that you will not wear anymore.
2. Lack of available, affordable secondhand clothing for those who absolutely need the resource
3. The essential monopoly big box stores will have on clothing sales within this community

If there is no place for anyone to bring their old clothes, more than likely they will end up in a landfill unless there are hand-me-downs or community clothing swaps happening. Back in the day people would continuously tailor their clothing to fit them until they simply could not any longer, but now those techniques are not as widely known. It’s a shame for a community to possibly have only one stream of life for a garment- bought at a big box store, worn, sent to landfill.

A way to combat this problem is to encourage hand-me-downs between neighborhood children and families. Another great way is to facilitate a clothing shop. This could be at the local school, church or community center. Essentially, everyone brings in a bag of clothing they would like to get rid of, bring them all out for display, and shop what people brought. In previous clothing swaps I have been part of, if you wanted an item someone had brought, you would leave an item you brought. Anything that was left behind was given to charity. It’s an easy win-win.

Facilitating a clothing drop off would be great too. In a church or community center basement, set up some racks and take clothing donations. Anyone and everyone is allowed to browse the racks, taking what they want.

When there is no ability for a business to fill the void, fill the void with community initiatives to reduce waste and help others.

Of course, there is always the option of the secondhand marketplace online. Poshmark, Depop, Ebay, Facebook Marketplace and even luxury secondhand like The Real Real are great options to sell old clothing and buy secondhand. Pricing here can get dodgy, as some resellers do overcharge for what they are selling, not to mention the surcharges of using the service and shipping. It’s not the best for being more sustainable either, due to the energy it takes to run the website and ship items. But, regardless, these are absolutely options that can help someone find their way within a thrift desert.

The affordability of clothing can absolutely be a large problem for many families in thrift deserts. Yes, there has been an upward trend of thrift stores overpricing their items, but typically you will still find at least some sort of discount from when the item was originally bought. If affordability is a problem for a family, clothing a child can prove to be incredibly difficult with how fast they grow, not to mention general wear and tear clothing goes through. Expecting low income families to drive long distances to be able to find affordable clothing is out of the question. We all have seen gas prices lately.

I would argue that my community based suggestions really help here. Being sure that these spaces are judgement free is key to helping others who may have found themselves in a financial bind. I would also argue that when this is a problem, there is no issue in buying what you can afford, new or used. If money is the difference between a child being clothed or someone having a coat for the winter? Get whatever you can afford. Go to Walmart and buy what you need. Don’t worry about trying to online thrift and paying insane prices in order to be eco-friendly. I am of the belief that one needs to be sure that they can survive before ensuring the planet’s survival. With how small our impacts are as individuals, there is no reason to go above and beyond to be sustainable if it puts someone in a bind.

In the case of affordability in particular, community and government should rally and ensure their people get necessities they need. Clothing is absolutely one of those necessities.

My third point is not so much a social issue as it is a market issue. If the only available place to buy clothing in a small town is Walmart, you have a monopoly on your hands. As Americans, we all know that monopolies are bad, we have legislation against it, and yet this is a prime example of how small monopolies can exist. A simple search brings up articles talking about the monopoly Walmart has in local grocery in rural areas or food deserts. I’d argue the same as far as clothing.

By holding a monopoly on clothing, especially as cheap and affordable as big box retailers make clothing, it makes it so difficult to start a small business to compete. Smaller retailers cannot compete with the large range of sizing or large amount of items being made in order to drive down prices. If a small business opens, they may only be able to carry sizes S-L at first. They can only manufacture a handful of a style at a time due to cost, so their manufacturing cost will be higher than a big box store. The short end of the stick is very obvious here.

The small business cannot expect people in a low income area to fork over more money for clothing- a thing that many people do see as a luxury beyond replacing any necessities- when they are struggling to put food on the table.

I would love to say “Don’t buy from big box stores if you are in a thrift desert!” but that is simply not realistic for many of these communities. Sure, perhaps some families can swing making their way to a town that does have secondhand options, but expecting this is unrealistic. No matter how much we want to debate or push an agenda in the secondhand clothing industry, we have to understand the realities of different communities. What is realistic for someone in a major metropolitan area is incredibly different than someone else from a small farming community hours from the nearest city.

In the end, we have to meet ourselves wherever we are. If there is a thrift desert and many people cannot afford any other options, there needs to be a focus on community involvement. It’s as simple as that, and this can go for many of the issues we face as a society.