One of our more popular stories this past year has been “Secondhand in Style When Food Inflation is Hot.” Well, secondhand has not been in style over the past few months. Last week's Anchor report discussed the slowdown that impacted retailers from late September through October across the spectrum, with lower-income consumers being particularly soft (which also impacted dollar stores). Well, that’s certainly the secondhand customer as well (below).
It also seems to be that secondhand also has higher exposure to student loan consumers who are curtailing discretionary purchases and more frequently shopping on Temu. Lastly, all year we have discussed how consumers are shopping closer to need (and not for entertainment). The industry doesn’t do a disproportionate amount of business during November-December; only about 17.5% of revenue for the year is generated during these months versus general retail at 20.5% (based on Census’ monthly retail report). As such, shopping thrift stores for discretionary items isn’t a priority in these months.
