Editor’s note: The following is part of a project originally started in Ball State University professor Adam Cuban’s classroom in the fall of 2021. Cuban continued the project this fall, challenging his students to find sustainability efforts in the Muncie area and pitch their ideas to Deanna Watson, editor of The Star Press, Journal & Courier and Pal-Item. Several such stories were published in November and December 2022.
MUNCIE, Ind. — After COVID-19 forced Attic Window Thrift Store and Donation Center to close all five of its locations for three months in early 2020, Louanna Ross, director of retail operations for Attic Window, didn’t know how profitable the business would be after reopening. opening.
The store had record years for the rest of 2020 and 2021 and had 2,100 cars drop off donations at the south Muncie location at 400 W. Memorial Drive in October 2022.
Ross has been involved with the thrift store for more than nine years and oversees its stores in Muncie, Hartford City, New Castle and Winchester. Attic Window operates under Muncie Mission Ministries and sells clothing, shoes, furniture and other items.
With 40 years of experience in retail management, Ross said she has noticed an increased concern for sustainability among her customers, staff and vendors in recent years.
“We don’t just do retail; we’re big on recycling,” Ross said. “If the shirt is 50% cotton or more, we recycle them and cut out the logos. Factories come and buy them from 8 to 11 dollars. We are still using the product [even] if it is not worth selling”.
Emily Gartner, owner of Art Threads Studio in Indianapolis, has been a working textile artist for 22 years.
Gartner worked in the New York fashion industry and was associate curator of textiles at the Allentown Art Museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Gartner said thrift stores are important because they allow items that may have ended up in landfills to be sold to customers who need them.
“I’m not going to let my little studio be a dumping ground for people’s scrap items like sewing machines, fabric and clothing,” Gartner said. “If I don’t have an immediate use for it, I’d rather donate it to a thrift store that can use it.”
Ross said Attic Window follows an organized recycling routine. In the warehouse, Ross said staff members identify button-up shirts that aren’t worth selling and cut off the buttons and recycle them. Ross said they also recycle aluminum, cardboard, cast iron, copper, metal and paper. This offers Attic Window an opportunity to upgrade, which involves taking parts of unwanted products and turning them into new material.
Over the past few years, Gartner and Ross said they’ve noticed that younger shoppers show more concern and urgency about what’s in their shopping cart.
According to a 2020 study conducted by researchers at Molloy University (New York), “The Sustainable Closet,” more than 70% of undergraduate students from a college located in the northeastern United States were aware of fashion resale platforms.
The study pointed to social networking as the biggest contributor to the enjoyment of reselling, as Gen Z are interested in posting their outfits and seeing what their friends are wearing.