Most shops are just landfill waiting to happen.

Buying secondhand is great if you have the time and patience for it. In any case it’s only ethical because the person who bought it first has done the good deed of bothering to take it to the charity shop so you can buy it.
If you buy new and then wear it to the end of its useful life, sell it on Vinted or take it to the charity shop, surely that’s still a good thing to do too?

I can't believe what I've just watched over the last few pages. Berating posters (who I gather have little disposable income) for not being as green as you'd like when there are far more people with far more disposable incomes around buying things they don't even use! It is like complaining about drops when across the street is a deluge. Those at the bottom of society (income wise) should not be fighting over the scraps. I get it is easier to berate and blame people you think who are the same lever or lower than you but it is pointless. This isn't even how you would win most people's hearts and minds if that was the point.

I agree.

I prefer to buy new things that are good quality and wear them until they have fallen apart. I don't think buying second hand is more virtuous and I can't be bothered to traipse around charity shops most of the time.

Exactly . That’s what I was trying to say.

Unbelievable. Like the other threads - you have written to me first; carried on responding and asking me questions; and now (even though I wasn’t talking to you, and was responding to another poster!) you’ve written to me again asking me to ‘leave you alone’. Such a victim! But I will happily do so.

I feel like there are many out there who expect the world to show them a social conscience but will simply serve themselves ‘because why should I do X or Y if it doesn’t suit me?’

I agree with this, but I don't think the PP you have been haranguing is a good example of that. She isn't saying, "I could buy something for £30 from M&S that will last but would rather have 6 bits of polyester tat for a fiver each from Shein because it's moy royte". She's saying she buys within her budget and wears things until they are beyond repair. This is not an example of the type of excess consumerism that this thread is about (she has said she hates shopping, for a start, so it's not like she's browsing the aisles at B&M for yet another cheap ornament!).

We can all do better in terms of our ethics when it comes to shopping, but dictating to people how they must spend their time is not the answer.

There are always threads on here complaining about Vinted.

You have already tried to dictate what I buy and where from. Now you want to dictate what I do with my time. Not working does not mean I am not busy. Plus I fucking hate shops and shopping.
You are just getting more offensive with every post. Please do not quote me or reply, or refer to me to other people. This is on all threads. Please leave me alone.

Thanks.

She doesn’t work so has no time constraints in terms of browsing charity shops.

That is a bit of a value judgement about how someone wants to spend their time. 😕

I think it's a shame that second hand clothes are viewed as 'less' than new.

I've bought amazing quality second hand clothes from charity shops that there's no way I would have bought new because of the price. Really good brands, and items that look and feel almost new.

I think my best buy was a top brand waterproof coat for £25 which was £220 new, and it must only have been worn a handful of times at most.

I do think you need to choose your local charity shops carefully, and get to know them. Some do sell shite clothes, others seem to be favoured more by more well off donators, so have better stock.

The furniture in my home is 90% second hand, either from charity shops or second hand warehouses. The quality is fantastic, even if it doesn't meet the fashion of the moment.

I will say I've needed quite some patience sometimes when I've wanted something. But then again I recently needed a sofa after my mum's hospital bed was taken away after she died, and had the amazing luck of finding one that was exceptional quality and had been looked after in the first charity shop I went into.

I have listened. Xeno (and this isn’t a value judgement) and I have spoken on a couple of threads now. She doesn’t work so has no time constraints in terms of browsing charity shops. I see no reason why she can’t buy second hand rather than filling the landfill with yet more polyester. My life is hard - I work 4 days a week, have 2 small kids and chronic illness - and buying second hand is no bother for me at all.

I feel like there are many out there who expect the world to show them a social conscience but will simply serve themselves ‘because why should I do X or Y if it doesn’t suit me?’

Maybe so. And that is a choice that some people will make. But there needs to be that choice. Life is hard enough for some people as it is. Why would you want to make their lives harder?

@XenoBitchand @Needmorelegoare explaining this to you from their personal experience. Stop pushing your agenda for a moment and listen to what they are saying.

I am on benefits too so it seems we're in the same boat.

Yes, you have the choice. I don't.

I think people can buy whatever they want want. Just don't pretend you can't make ethical choices because you don't have any money. Because you do.
And as I have written upthread I want all people no matter there income class to make more ethical choices. Those choices are easier to make if you have more money obviously.
But if I have the choice to buy less meat or more second hand so I can afford free raised chicken or a fair trade new shirt once in while that's what I choose. You obviously don't.

Vinted isn't the answer people think it is. Remember that on top of the asking price, you're paying for buyer protection and delivery. I don't know how much a new black t-shirt costs at Primark but I'd guess it's a fiver. To pay £5 all in for the same on Vinted means you'd need to find a t-shirt for about £2.50.

We can all do better, I'm sure of that. We all have different lives though and what works for one person won't work for another. Avoiding fast fashion is not the only way.

I used to shop in higher end shops. All Saints etc.

I shop in Primark now 99% due to money. It seems you think that people on fuck all money are not allowed new things? Why is that?

Since 90% of my clothes are second hand so yes I do go to charity shops.
Look it is your prerogative how you shop or budget but don't pretend it's because you have no money because that is simply not true.

I can't feel a second t-shirt on Vinted. And I do not want to shop online. It does not help me budget.
And do you even go in charity shops much? Plain clothing is far and few between. I don' do prints or patterns. But I guess I can't be choosy cos I am on UC, eh? I also do not have the energy to be looking in charity shops all the time.
Primark is cheap and new. No intimate sweat from previous owners. I keep the clothing until it dies.

I take my own shopping bags everywhere, thank you.

So if you're t shirt is 95% cotton why do you need to feel the fabric in contrast to every other cotton shirt you can buy second hand? Or if you buy only black and grey anyhow why not buy from literally the hundreds of charity stores that offer those items in all favrics and sizes? You can literally not find a simple black shirt in any charity shop or on vinted?
I now what it means to be poor being on benefits myself but that is why I am making choices which are frugal and as a byproduct also ethical.
Buying second hand = better quality for a lower price
Eating less meat= cheaper and therefore I can afford better quality when I need it
Bringing my own shopping bags= no bag charge
I could go on and on about those things. At the end of the day you make those choices not because you're poor but because they're the easiest.

Agree, so let’s not give them our cash.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/mar/07/private-investors-ability-to-sue-governments-is-a-form-of-legal-terrorism-ending-this-system-is-imperative-aoe#:~:text=Investor%2Dstate%20dispute%20settlement%20(ISDS,of%20health%20and%20environmental%20policies.

I think it's fair to give big corporations side eye when they have our governments by the short and curlies on every front, behind closed doors.

You responded to me first.

Primark do cotton items too. Just for you, I took off my T-shirt, and it says it is 95% cotton. They also sell a lot of stuff that is made from recycled materials.

Before I was on UC, I was wearing All Saints, Karen Millen etc. A lot of them are also made in "poorer" places.

I am not anti-profits, anti-big business or whatever, at all. But then you have been hounding me on another thread about my living conditions from months ago.
Respectfully, please leave me the fuck alone now. It is getting creepy.