So a new client walked in yesterday, telling me straight that I should organize the clothes in our shop by colour, category and size. She is 'in a hurry and really don’t have time to spend hours in a thrift store, sifting through things' (why then are everyone so in a hurry this time of year? Can’t what doesn’t get done, stand over till next year?) Then she adds (after my attack about why everyone must hurry this much) that she was recently in a store in London, and 'it was such a comfort, everything organized in colour, category and size'.
So I go on explaining, in vain, all the reasons why we don’t, only to grasp after she left the store, that I should have asked her...were you perhaps in a charity store or 'second-hand clothes shop' in London, as this is a vintage store (or as I'd like to think, a 'real' thrift store – similar to the ones in Observatory and Kloof street).
I carried on about our high turnover of stock, that by the time that we've sort out the sizes, half are sold already anyway…
I ended how I would 'think about it as we are always looking at ways of improving', and even added that maybe she could come and help sort in sizes!... but she was already off...hurrying out the door...
You see, we focus on different things here at 'Thrift Town'...
We take pride in hand-selecting every single item. It must look NEW. We regularly browse ourselves through our dozens of stock, throwing out the ones we think 'have reached their end', look worn, are torn from all the people browsing through them, that became dirty, or just suddenly appear old-fashioned (not our style). (These ones go straight on our R10 heap for the less privileged, or when it really had it’s days, gets put aside in the pile we donate to the University of Peninsula, who takes our unwearable clothes and up-cycle them (meaning make new clothes out of them).
We spend our time lending an ear where necessary, or listening to the stories some clients tell us (like the one who described how his sister has four cupboards stacked with clothing, and how one of her two houseworkers 'borrowed' a piece for her church baptism meeting on Sunday, come wash the clothes on Monday morning and hang it back in the cupboard, how she picked up a fight with the second houseworker and how the latter came out with the whole story with photo's she took at the baptism😊).
Then we never stop sorting. Somehow customers can't help but completely ruin any attempt at organization. They come in, take a look, and just dump things wherever they want. That's pretty much what happens at any retail store of any type. Fix a display? Ha-ha. Your hour of work will be ruined by a group of teenagers in 5 minutes. Or housewives. Or old people. People in all stores are horrible about shoving clothes back onto the wrong racks. Upscale stores have enough employees to deal with this, thrifts usually don't.
If we had to sort things by size I would have killed myself...
During the day it's easier to re-sort by colour to keep up with the customer mess. Sizes have to be checked, whereas colours can be quickly seen at a glance.
That’s not all we keep ourselves busy with...there’s our regular social media posts and taking the time photographing specific favorites to try make your choices as client easier for you once you come in. There’s of course also the bookkeeping, etc etc...
Categorizing in sizes as well?
Um yes, welcome to the thrift store.
We believe a true thrift store is for the TREASURE HUNT. You as client gain by getting good quality clothes at exceptional prices, so why not take the time to browse through the isles and look for the gems that often hides in-between (even to me who bought them in the first place!). Isn’t it generally understood that when something is cheaper, the buyer should be ready to pay in terms of time and effort to get it?
WE ARE NOT A GENERAL CHAIN RETAIL STORE (please, people).
In a regular store it's quicker and easier; clothes get sorted by size because they have clearly labelled tags. Where customers move stuff around, regular stores can re-shelve things by size because of the tags. Thrift store customers would have to look inside each garment for clothing size (which varies by brand), and then there's always the case of garments without tags. It's just easier to have our workers sort by colour.
(Also, the size organization is frequently buggered up at a lot of stores anyway.)
Don’t have all day to go through everything on the rack??
Then go buy new clothes!
Thrifting demands patience. You have to get in a zone. You have to be prepared to leave without anything. The rewards are very good clothes for cheap.
I like this system because it hides good finds in plain sight. When I thrift I never go looking for something specific, and I devote as much of the day as I can to exploring. I love jumbled up shops because I'm much more likely to find buried treasure! I've found some truly beautiful things for pennies so it's worth it. Sometimes I have a specific item in mind, but I look at everything, because you just never know what's going to turn up. I like to shop at thrift stores this way.
Sizes are unreliable
Categorizing in sizes probably wouldn't have worked out anyways.
Part of the problem is that a thrift store carries many different brands with different standards for sizes. Clothing sizes aren't really uniform. The sizes marked on clothes can be misleading, especially from one designer to the next. The different brand sizes differ depending on the brand and the model they use when designing the clothes. A large in Zara is not the same as a large in Poetry. Lots of t shirts can say L…but actually range anywhere from M to XL. A medium in one shirt might be larger than the large in another shirt!
A decent number of thrift stores have pant sizes 8 inches off, just to make customers feel better. If they organize everything by size it's not reliable and you're still going to want to try on anything that catches your eye before you buy it anyway. Since the size on the tag means so little, you will always have to look through all the racks anyways.
Inconsistent sizes in women's clothing makes the size labels all but meaningless. There's a lot more variance in sizing and cut for women's clothing than men's. You'll walk out of a thrift store with jeans ranging from a size 34 to 36, and they all fit fine.
Thrift clothes are also often missing size labels, which makes it not feasible or necessarily accurate to sort by size.
A lot of the clothes, especially vintage, have no tags or if they do, they are sized by the system of the 60s or 70s which are far smaller than today's sizes. Even some of today's donated clothes occasionally have the tags removed or sliced, so it would be a tedious process for any employee to try & figure out the sizing of the clothes.
Being able to organize in size can seem awesome...but it also means that you potentially miss out if stuff doesn't have labels and the employee makes a bad guess. That’s why you often end up trolling the other sizes anyway.
These are used clothes - used clothes which may or may not have been stretched out or shrunk since they were originally purchased.
Categorizing by colour is definitely a cost saving measure by the store. It's the cost you incur when shopping for cheap clothes. We don’t operate thrift stores to make big (any?) profit--the stores exist to help poorer people own essential items. So complaining is kind of poor form.
But in the case of an upscale for-profit 'second hand' boutique catering to wealthier clientele, you might have a leg to stand on. The pricier second-hand store often sort by size as well, that's why you pay more.
Bottom line: It’s too hard to size used clothing; it has shrunk, been altered, tags cut out, too time consuming to figure it all out when the consumer can do it for themselves.
Why categorizing in colour
I actually prefer clothes to be organized by colour.
I'd rather you know what colour you’re looking for and then browse through the selections to see which ones look like they'll fit you. (Rather than come up with measurements and re-tag everything).
You also now see a lot of charity shops organizing women's clothes especially by colour to look more like other high-street retailers. That's not always the case. Some thrift stores in my area also categorize by size.
If we had the time, I would have liked to organize them further by size, but if I had to pick between the two, I just know there are some colours I will not wear. Whereas sizing is inconsistent, I will always go for pink and never want to wear the colour navy!
Besides, 'Thrift Town' is a small shop…it will look messy when there’s all the different sizes in all the colours of the rainbow (size 34 in red, blue and yellow; size 36 in red, blue, yellow…)
When you thrift, start with colour/type and find your size, not the other way around.
Because you mostly wear black clothes, it means you only have to look through one section. 'I need a red shirt. Lets go to the red section.' Though it can be annoying to search for your size, you can skip the colours you’re not interested in. Maybe you’ve long wanted to only own three colours of clothing. You can find a thrift store that works this way and finally follow your bliss!
When you go to a thrift store you’ve already planned on taking a long time to browse. Arranging by colour makes more sense; it saves you time, as there are certain colours that you don’t even look at. You can't really trust sizes on different clothes anyway. You're not left figuring out what different sizes mean (this one’s a large but this ones a 14), or trying to find where the size even is on the clothing.
A fair number of people go to thrift stores intentionally looking for a particular colour. For instance, some people may need to wear a specific colour of shirt for their job or for a function. Others may be looking for the right colour for a themed party. You need a yellow jacket to complete your Freddie Mercury costume for your 80’s party or red pants for some mickey mouse costume, and it's much easier to find at the thrift store. Since it’s for a costume, you don’t really care as much about the size but primarily about the colour.
I think the colour thing offers a more aesthetic appeal to the shop as well (it looks prettier). We love our shelves. It's art! You’ll actually like it.
It is more efficient for our store to do it this way. At the close of business, the employees can quickly see if something is out of place. For us here at 'Thrift Town', 'Red shirt goes in the red shirt section' 'I don't know what this is, but it's blue, it goes in the blue section'.
(I even organize the clothes in my closet this way, by the order I learned working here at “Thrift Town”: white, light grey, eggshell, yellow, green, blue, navy, purple, red, orange, brown, dark gray, black…)
Shopping by category
Shopping according to colour doesn’t mean…You have to look everywhere, so that a grown man will find pants and shorts in the boys section, shirts in the women's section, shoes in the book section, etc...
Although a small shop, we do categorize by category (meaning all shirts together, all jackets together, etc.)
In fact, our many categories include:
Woman:
Crop tops & Cropped jerseys; Shirts; Jerseys; Long tops; Mini dresses; Long skirts; Jackets and Coats; Long dresses; Cocktail dresses; Evening fancy tops; Dungarees and Playsuits; Nightwear; Shorts and Mini skirts; Jean jackets; Jeans; Pants; Gymwear; Sweaters and Hoodies; Swimwear
Men:
Retro tees; Short-sleeve Shirts; Long-sleeved tees; Long-sleeve Shirts; Hawain shirts; Golf shirts; Jerseys; Windbreakers; Jackets & Coats; Sherper Jackets; Parka jackets; Eve suits; Shorts; Jean jackets; Jeans; Trousers; Gymwear; Sweaters & Hoodies; Swimwear
Kids and Todlers (only the pretty/trendy ones)
Festival wear & bikini tops
Themed party clothing
Even underwear (hidden out of site) (free)
Shoes:
Doc Maartens; Vellies; Sneakers (Vans. Converse, etc); Gym sneakers; Funky shoes or Booties/Boots; Heels (only the pretty ones); Throw out shoes (at R10)
Accessories:
Ties; Scarves; Silk scarves; Belts; Handbags; Purses; Hats; Boere Hats
Jewelry (rings; necklaces; bracelets; Earrings; Studs)
For teens; For other
Other:
Throw out clothes (at R10); Bedding (at R10); Books; Records; Cd’s & Videos
Last thought…
Sizes can't be trusted so I might just hang a few other tips here where they'll be seen...
There are techniques to find what you want. It will enable you to eyeball stuff to see if it'll fit you (when you haven't got a tape measure).
For instance, if the shirts are hanging on identical hangers, you can get a rough idea of the size by how long the sleeves are. Walk along the rack checking each shirt whose sleeves hang to around your right length.
Same with jeans, how close are the cuffs to the floor?
Maybe you’re at the extreme large end of the scale. What do you do? You just walk down looking for anything that is extra long. Pants or tops. Most of the time it's something half hanging off its hanger.
Also, men should always check the women's section for coats! It's a much larger selection and you often find misplaced garments.
Men's clothes have the buttons on the right.
If you're bold, men can wear women's jackets and coats, but not jeans or shirts.
Take pants that you know fit you very well. Hold the waistband in your right hand with your fingers pinching down on it (kind of like you're trying to clap with one hand), straighten your arm, and then see where on your upper arm the waistband ends. You now know how to gauge which pants have a waistband that will (hopefully) fit you. This is a rough guide to sifting through pants that may have wildly different size labels on them.
Men, when buying jeans or you need to determine if a pair of pants will fit you quickly: For most men, your jeans waist size is exactly twice that of your neck. In other words, make sure the jeans are snapped closed, then stretch them around your neck. If they touch, or slightly overlap, they will fit your waist.
For shirts an easy trick is to simply take the two underarm seams and see if they match up with the underarm seams of the shirt you're wearing at the time. If there's too much stretch it won't fit you.
Never buy anything with a brand visible on the outside. Politics aside, it always means substandard quality. The brand is there to distract from the poor quality.
Leather never dies. Leather jackets and shoes can almost always be rescued if there are no holes or splits and it doesn't smell like mould. You can buy kits to re-sole and heel shoes, and restorative creams and polishing does the rest. (Men used to walk miles every day in shoes that lasted for 20 years through dozens of soles).
You can also get very nice shoes at thrift stores too. Look for shoes with very little wear on the bottom and check for "toe imprints" on any sandals. If you can see someone else's foot outline... ew. Next pair please.
Black dye sachets are great to rescue jeans or dark coloured shirts if they are stained but otherwise worth saving. Remember to clean them well first. You can use hot dye on the stove.
Shirts that are 1 size too big can be taken in very easily by sewing a pinch seam down the side. More than 1 size and the shoulders are too wide.
Then maybe look through that colour for stuff that fits? Doesn't sound too hard to me…
PS: If you don’t like colour coordinating, or are rushing like everyone else does, this is not the shop for you. Maybe try another.
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