Most shops are just landfill waiting to happen.

[SummerDaytoNight]

I mean, all are to a point, but I’m talking about the non essential ones.

Our society is engineering its own collapse. We only need food, health, house basics and clothing. And I suppose, technology.

Fast fashion could go. Housing should just be the essentials.

My friend took me into a shop called sostrene grene. It was lovely, but nothing was essential. Most shops are like that.

The horse has bolted, but I wish we could limit the unnecessarily stuff and just have the basics. Im not talking Amish level, but there’s no need for all this waste. It would be so much better if only the essentials were produced.

At the point of production, it’s already basically landfill.

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 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?

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 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.

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

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

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 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?’

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.

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. 😕

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.

There are always threads on here complaining about Vinted.

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.

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.

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

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.

I agree.

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.

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?

Charity shops can’t sell all the tat and crap they get dumped on them. It goes to landfill or is dumped in developing countries.

Yes

We went to Home Bargains the other day and there were these spinning LED lights on plastic stalks that we had once bought - I know,I know - at the local Gala Day for inflated prices only to have them stop functioning within about a month. Kids started wailing and asking me to buy them. I just had to say no. i feel that’s what OP was trying to get at.

A new shop has opened in my town - Miniso, "a design led lifestyle store for all the family". Full of Hello Kitty and Disney themed tat. Sadly my adult daughter has special needs and loves this stuff. It is already piling up in her bedroom.

you are absolutly correct as a man.I tend to see the dynamic between shops and dump as someone reversed the suction and filled up the shops. as a thought
really what we think we need as against what we really need is really at odds