What about the students?

After continually spurting out my opinions to the world, I decided to see how integral thrift stores may be to a college population. So I talked to a few members of the OU student body to find out just how important they may be.

For the most part, there are three groups of college-aged thrifters: people who have never been thrifting, Halloweeners, light thrifters and heavy thrifters.

People who have never been thrifting are just that; they have never been to a thrift store. Maybe they never had the want or the need to stumble into a thrift store. Whatever the reason, this type of college student makes up the minority of the population.

Halloweeners are more of an Athens oddity. As you know, Halloween is kind of a big deal and thrift stores are often spread thin during that time of year. Sometimes, Halloweeners are shown the thrift store light and become light and heavy thrifters.

Light thrifters are people who only go to thrift stores when their friends do. A couple of my friends are light thrifters. Light thrifters are ambivalent towards thrift stores. They neither love or hate them, but go to them for something to do. Kyle Teders, one of my light thrifter friends commented on his general indifference, "They're okay. It depends on the thrift store."

Heavy thrifters are actually pretty common. Maybe half the people I spoke to were heavy thrifters, or people who go to thrift stores maybe once or twice a month. "They always have great deals. I mean it's obviously not the smell." said Johnothon Tenwalde, a junior. "It's an adventure"

Heavy thrifters realize the good that thrift stores do. "It's kind of genius," Sallie Christian, a senior, commented. Christian tends to visit once a month and look at the random stuff and the vintage clothing at local thrift stores. "I dig 'em." She prefers Re-Use Thrift Store.

David Miklos, a senior, often forgoes the local scene and checks out the larger thrift stores in Dayton. Miklos also brought up the guilt he sometimes thinks about as he checks out his thrifting oddities and clothes. "These clothes are meant for poor people."

Sallie Christian commented, "I'm guilty of giving clothes to thrift stores and then shopping there." I think Johnothon Tenwalde put it best. "I would feel like an absolute dick if I would buy a Christmas tree." He doesn't feel guilty about buying useless oddities but does when it means buying something that will light up a child's holiday."

I personally would qualify as a super-heavy thrifter considering I go about once a week. I'm the only one I know, which probably just means that I'm crazy. Considering I took the interview notes down with a foot-long pen I found at a thrift store, I'm sure my sources would agree.

These people I talked to brought up some good points that I may comment on in future posts.