Selling Thrift: Work Practices in an American Thrift Store
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v12i1.6914Abstract
Thrift, in its simplest definition, is the practice of using resources in a considered way. The concept has long been employed as a moral trope to condemn or promote a variety of human practices. In the literature, thrift is addressed as it is played out in consumption in and around the household as a way of preserving and saving resources. Thrift stores form part of a thrift economy and, as the receiver of divested objects from the household and a site for thrifty consumption practices, they present aspects of thrift in a variety of ways. In this article, I look at thrift as it relates to work and organizational practices in an American thrift store. Although often linked to work ethics, thrift has mainly been proposed as a moral concept guiding individual and not organizational practices. In order to explore the value of thrift in the thrift store, I present parts of my ethnographic research on second-hand markets. Examining work practices as “thrifty” shows how economic prudence is paired with material frugality and community concern. This, I argue, has significant effect on the flow of consumer goods, as resources flow through the thrift store and appear to be spent, not saved.
References
Alexander, C. and Sosna, D. 2022. Thrift and Its Paradoxes: From Domestic to Political Economy. New York & Oxford: Berghahn. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781800734630
Appadurai, A. 1986. “Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value.” In A. Appadurai (ed.), The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (pp. 3-63). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511819582.003
Arnould, E. J. and Thompson, C. J. 2005. “Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research.” Journal of Consumer Research 31(4): 868-882. https://doi.org/10.1086/426626
Askegaard, S. 2015. “Consumer Culture Theory (CCT).” In D. Cook and J. Ryan (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies (pp. 124-127). Hoboken NJ: Wiley & Sons Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs054
Bardhi, F. and Arnould, E. J. 2005. “Thrift Shopping: Combining Utilitarian Thrift and Hedonic Treat Benefits.” Journal of Consumer Behaviour 4(4): 223-233. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.12
Blankenhorn, D. 2008. Thrift: A Cyclopedia. Radnor, PA: Templeton Press.
Cappellini, B. and Parsons, E. 2013. “Practising Thrift at Dinnertime: Mealtime Leftovers, Sacrifice and Family Membership.” The Sociological Review 60(S2): 121-134. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12041
Garsten, C. and Nyqvist, A. 2013. Organisational Anthropology: Doing Ethnography in and Among Complex Organisations. London: Pluto Press.
Gudeman, S. 2001. The Anthropology of Economy: Community, Market, and Culture. Oxford: Blackwell.
Gudeman S. and Rivera, A. 1990. Conversations in Colombia: The Domestic Economy in Life and Text. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511558009
Haveman, H. A. and Rao, H. 1997. “Structuring a Theory of Moral Sentiments: Institutional and Organizational Coevolution in the Early Thrift Industry.” American Journal of Sociology 102(6): 1606-1651. https://doi.org/10.1086/231128
Horne, S. and Maddrell, A. 2002. Charity Shops: Retailing, Consumption and Society. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203167458
Howe D. 2011. “The Controversial Virtue of Thrift in the Early American Republic.” In J. Yates and J. Hunter (eds.), Thrift and Thriving in America: Capitalism and Moral Order from the Puritans to the Present (pp. 37-60). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199769063.003.0002
Hunter, J. D. and Yates, J. J. 2011. “Introduction: the Question of Thrift.” In J. J. Yates and J. D. Hunter (eds.), Thrift and Thriving in America: Capitalism and Moral Order from the Puritans to the Present (pp. 3-36). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199769063.003.0001
Larsen, F. 2015. Objects and Social Actions – On Second-Hand Valuation Practices. PhD Thesis, Copenhagen Business School.
Larsen, F. 2019. “Valuation in Action: Ethnography of an American Thrift Store.” Business History 61(1): 155-171. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2017.1418330
Larsen, F. 2019. “Transformations: The Appearing of Abject Objects.” In A. Michelsen, F. Wiegand, and T. Kristensen (eds.), Transvisuality: The Cultural Dimension of Visuality, Volume III: Purposive Action: Design and Branding (pp. 62-76). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Lave, J. 1996. “Teaching, as Learning, in Practice.” Mind, Culture and Activity 3(3): 149-164. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327884mca0303_2
Le Zotte, J. 2017. From Goodwill to Grunge: A History of Secondhand Styles and Alternative Economies. Chapel Hill: University of Northern Carolina Press. https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469631905.001.0001
Le Zotte, J. 2013. “’Not Charity, But a Chance’: Philanthropic Capitalism and the Rise of American Thrift Stores.” New England Quarterly 86(2): 169-195. https://doi.org/10.1162/TNEQ_a_00275
Moeran, B. 2012. “A Business Anthropological Approach to the Study of Values : Evaluative Practices in Ceramic Art.” Culture and Organization 18(3): 195-210. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2011.634193
Miller, D. 1998. A Theory of Shopping. London: Polity Press.
Podkalicka A. and Potts, J. 2014. “Towards a General Theory of Thrift.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 17(3): 227-241. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779134961
Strasser, S. 2000. Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Witkowski, T. H. 2010. “A Brief History of Frugality Discourses in the United States.” Consumption, Markets and Culture 13(3): 235-258. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253861003786975
Yarrow, A. 2014. Thrift: The History of an American Cultural Movement. Amherst & Boston: University of Massachusetts Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Frederik Larsen
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).