A high schooler stood in the checkout line at my local thrift store. He wore dress pants, a tweed vest, collared dress shirt, and round wire glasses. His buddy wore typical high school gear: sweatpants, Crocs, and a ratty T-shirt.
“What do you like about shopping at thrift stores?” I asked.
While his friend grinned, the nattily dressed fellow answered, “Oh, I like to dress like a grandpa, so I need to shop here.” He was carrying a black wool overcoat he planned to purchase.
I couldn’t help but smile, looking down at my outfit that was mostly thrifted. I carried several craft items I intended to buy. We understood each other perfectly.
The love of thrifting crosses all age, gender, and socioeconomic divides. High school kids defining their personal styles with limited funds, moms saving money on clothes their children will quickly outgrow, impoverished people looking for a nice warm sweater or winter coat, crafters funding their hobbies without ruining the budget, many hoping to help save the planet one pair of pants at a time.
Thrifting is a fast-growing industry and popular pastime, but it can also be a deeply spiritual exercise. The early church, according to Acts 4:32–34, “shared everything they had … that there were no needy persons among them.” Donating clothing and home goods that no longer serve you can help meet the needs of those in your community, thus serving them. It is a good way to practice stewardship, too, as we take care not to waste money acquiring more and more stuff.
Caring for the environment is another consideration, as thrifting (both donating and buying) keeps millions of pounds of textiles out of landfills annually. Plus, thrifting can help curb the fast-fashion industry that has been known to exploit workers across the world. Thrifting is one answer to these spiritual matters—serving others, protecting the environment, caring for the needy—but thrifting points to deeper spiritual matters, too.
The US thrift and retail market reportedly grew from $20 billion in 2017 to $56 billion in 2025. Growth is expected to jump to $61 billion this year. That is a 305 percent growth over 9 years, nearly quadruple the rate of inflation (3.5%) over the same time span.
Resale shops can range from high-end consignment stores specializing in haute couture to mom-and-pop thrift shops like one I visited recently. The husband in the business, a long-time junk disposal expert, had access to enough stuff to start a thrift store run by his wife.
Goodwill Industries is well-known across the United States and abroad, as is the Salvation Army. Goodwill provides job training and other assistance for those in need, while the Salvation Army offers food pantries, shelter, summer camps, and financial assistance programs. These mega-organizations are augmented by local and regional thrift organizations, often run by churches, religious schools, and mission organizations.
Legacy Thrift, another outlet, began as Bibles for Missions in Holland, Michigan, in 1992. Planners modeled it after thrift stores in Canada that supported Bible League International. Rebranded Legacy Thrift in 2023, its 15 US locations—from West Michigan to Memphis to Houston—give over $4 million annually to six ministry partners, including Bible League Bulgaria, Living Water International, and Unknown Nations.
“Our guiding principle for how we operate our stores is to raise money for these ministries,” said Jessica Nolan-Bruinsma, vice president of operations for Legacy Thrift. “If we do what we do really well, this enables our ministry partners to do their jobs really well.”
She said thrifting is far different now than when Legacy began more than 30 years ago. “Back in the ’90s, thrift shopping was almost shameful. People expected stores to be dark, smelly, unorganized. But now thrifting has become recreational too. The customer base is different.”
Thrifting reminds me of stories of renewal in the Bible, taking what is unwanted and tossed away and remaking it into something new and treasured. Jesus does the same with us, taking our old lives and making them new. When we thrift discarded yarn and make an afghan (as my friend Rachel did recently), we warm ourselves or others with a new creation. The old has become new.
The olive-green sweater worn by someone new or a dusty candy dish just like the one that used to sit on a table at Grandma’s house point to the work of the Savior who finds value in what isn’t inherently valuable. The candy dish recalls fond memories, and the olive sweater looks perfect on its new owner. Each item has value to the right person.
My daughter discovered a mid-century modern dresser at Salvation Army late one Saturday afternoon. She took pictures and researched it over the weekend, discovering that this Drexel dresser with dovetail joints was selling used for nearly $1,000. I rushed back Monday morning, draping myself across the dresser while an employee set the price at $229. We loaded the very heavy dresser into the car and took it to my in-laws’ house. My woodworking father-in-law waxed, sanded, and shined the wood, added a few drawer inserts, and redid the brass hardware. It’s stunning, now ready to move with my daughter into the house she just bought.
Jesus, too, found value in what isn’t obvious. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, a reviled member of the Jewish community. Jesus called him down from a tree and invited himself to Zacchaeus’s house (Luke 19:1–10). The man of short stature came away from the encounter a changed man, repaying what he had swindled fourfold. Even a tax collector can be redeemed.
My church’s Easter Sunday service included a clip from The Chosen showing Jesus’ encounter with the bleeding woman who touched the hem of his garment with the faith that he would heal her. Jesus stopped, delaying his visit to a powerful synagogue leader with a sick daughter. When asked who had touched him, the woman came forward and told him the story of her illness and how she was healed just by touching his robe.
“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering,” Jesus told her (Mark 5:34).
Jesus saw hidden value in this woman who had been ostracized and couldn’t work, marry, have children, or even be touched by anyone in her community or family. He saw her value hidden beneath an illness that kept her perpetually unclean.
Jesus could have ignored the tax collector and the sick woman.
We could have easily ignored the dresser because of its dingy, scratched surfaces and its dull hardware. But my daughter and my father-in-law revealed the value of the piece that will now have years of new life. Searching for ways to recognize the gifts around us, even those covered in a layer of dust, is one way to be like Jesus.
Thrifting also helps us value people. Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids, with 18 retail locations, offers programs “to assist individuals who are facing barriers to employment,” said Erica Eash, its marketing manager. This can mean programs such as nursing training for those wanting to enter the health care field, struggling to find work during major life transitions, dealing with disabilities, plus professional growth for current employees.
“When you think about the fact that we’re serving 2,158 participants and providing 1,498 employment opportunities annually, that’s a big impact we’re making,” Eash said. “All of this speaks to our mission of changing lives and communities through the power of work.”
Nolan-Bruinsma points to the importance of donors. Without them, thrift stores wouldn’t exist. “We want to be good stewards of the things people donate,” she said. “We treat items well; we clean them, display them properly, and take good care of them.”
She says that time and again someone will stop by to drop off clothing on hangers or in boxes, saying, “‘My wife passed away and I’m finally giving away her things.’ Her clothes are lovingly cared for and carefully laundered. We want him to know that we really do care for the things he donates.”
My own volunteering at Legacy Thrift recently yielded three tins of vintage buttons. It would have been easy to toss them—we can just buy new buttons!—but instead I sorted them.
I thought about the woman who laboriously cut them off discarded clothing or replaced old buttons with new, who carefully saved every button during hard times. I wanted to honor her care and safekeeping of these small things.
The volunteer in charge of vintage items was thrilled about the buttons, putting a fair share of them in a special display case. Whoever donated them and whoever collected those buttons was honored in that care. What a gift to be able to pass them on to someone who will treasure them.
Ann Byle is a writer living in West Michigan. She is a diehard thrifter and author of Chicken Scratch: Lessons on Living Creatively from a Flock of Hens.
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