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Whether it be a consignment thrift shop or a caf* on the streets of Paris, I have always taken a keen interest in studying people. I have worked in the field of human growth for several years and this article offers some thoughts and human observations around the kind of people that visit consignment thrift shops.

It has been said in many places that one of the categories of people that go to these stores as buyers are somewhat out of the mainstream. People in celebration of a kind of human recycling of goods. They go to the consignment thrift shop to find clothing, electronics or other stuff that aid them in making a statement about their identity. Usually these means that they wish to in someway separate from the larger crowd that is directed with a sort mass consciousness to buying newly manufactured goods each new sales period.

The other group of thrifters that seem to dominate the consignment shopper crowd are the remembers. The people who in an attempt to recreate some of their past and let their memories become visualized in the shape of old and used furniture or other household items. After doing the trip through the I need all the new stuff-rush they realize that there is a retro part in them that thrives on the older stuff often found in consignment thrift stores.

So that is the buyer side of the second hand spectrum. What about the sellers? Who are they? I would say we can divide these in to two different major categories, the megahorders and the need money crowd. Off course there are variations found but I would be pretty certain that these are the two main.

Lets look first at the megahorders of the consignment thrift shop industry. They buy goods as fast as their eyes catches sight of things or maybe as far as their credit will take them into the consumption jungle. Then all of a sudden they realize that because the money has been spent on buying new stuff at various stores there is no room for a bigger home. Something has give and usually that something is the megahorder going to the nearest locations to give stuff to a charity shop or the like.

The other category, the need money crowd, is pretty obvious as for the reason they hit the road to the consignment thrift shop. Plain and simple, they need the cash.

So the next time you visit one of these shops, see if you can pick out your own categories of people doing either side of the consignment thrifting.