The blue RSPCA op-shop sign is a beacon to bargain-hunting shoppers in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Burwood. Inside, fashionable teenagers stand alongside curious elderly citizens, rummaging through clothes racks.  

The full shelves of RSPCA OP Shop Burwood East. Photo: Piers van der Heide

The store has been here for more than 25 years, and business is better than ever.  

“The times are changing and they’re changing a lot, and we’ve just gotta keep up with it” the shop’s manager Patricia Yong says. 

According to the St Vincent De Paul 2022-2023 annual report, thrifting, the act of going to specialty shops, second-hand stores, garage sales or charity businesses to purchase used clothing or goods at a discount price, has had a resurgence within the younger generation through social media, with a 34.7 per cent increase in customers. 

“I’ve noticed that probably in the last month or so we are picking up more younger people which is a good thing,” Yong says. 

It’s an art form for those who hunt for discount or second-hand clothes, building a wardrobe, finding the best deals and helping the local community. 

“You can find some really, really nice stuff and some really, really unusual things and also some rubbish but it’s interesting,” Yong says from the back room of her store where the sound of volunteers talking to the local shoppers can be heard outside. 

Opportunity shops, second-hand stores and thrift shops have been a large part of Australia since the 1920s, with the original intent to be a shop to give low-income citizens an opportunity to buy cheaper, essential items.  

The clothes racks near the entrance of the shop are full today, with clothes from all genders, colours and sizes. 

“It has its advantages and disadvantages, it’s not like a regular shop where you’re constantly getting stock,” Yong says. 

Volunteers and local community members are the life blood of running an op shop.  

“We have all volunteers that work here, so that has its advantages, we appreciate all their efforts that they give us,” Yong says.

“We have to rely entirely on donations, so some weeks have really quiet times, so therefore our racks can get a bit scarce.” 

I scan the shop and it looks like today is a good day – the racks are full of a diverse selection of clothes. 

“I think covid did quite a bit with the lockdowns and all that, especially with Deakin (University nearby),” Yong says.

The op shop is six minutes from the busy university, with a nearby tram that can take you there. 

“We used to get a lot of students. Especially around Orientation Week we’d get a hell of a lot of people, but then I think they’ve moved on, so it’s hard to get them back again,” the manager says.

Yong has several new ways of getting that younger audience back to the store. These include using social media to promote the store and the clothes which get donated, or hanging fliers around local community areas, such as Deakin University. 

Op Shops have found a new audience through social media, as many young Australians now look toward op shops for thrifting opportunities.  

This new rise of younger people going to consume fashion content or look for vintage clothes has been noted by the ones most suited to sell it.  

“I’m trying to hone in on the younger generation at the moment. I’m not really on Instagram or TikTok but I know that’s what the younger generation is on.” Yong says. 

According to a survey of 16,621 people, conducted in June 2024 by data-gathering organisation Statistica, at least 28 per cent of people aged 18-24 have used an online second-hand shop to purchase clothes.

This can be through clothes re-selling websites such as Depop or general second-hand selling apps such as Facebook Marketplace, both having many shoppers selling their used clothes and other items. 

Social media apps such as Instagram have also had an impact on the way people thrift and buy clothes, with second-hand stores now in the palms of eager users and short-form videos allowing people to flaunt the clothes that they purchase. 

thriftersofmelbourne is an Instagram account created by Melburnian Jasper Williams, dedicated to showcasing thrift finds and the best places to thrift clothes. 

“What’s so special to me about thrifting is the thrill of the hunt. Finding something unique that no one else has,” Williams says. 

He had been posting content on this account since March 2024 and has more than 14,000 followers. He says there has been an increased interest in thrifting, and social media has played a part in the movement. 

“It has promoted it to a newer generation of people and hopefully to more people to get excited about going out and finding something special or supporting local charities”, he says. 

Thousands of influencers such as Williams will record their best thrifted outfits, or their finds while thrifting, with some even attempting to market their favourite thrift stores. 

“Overall, I still think it’s a positive that second-hand shopping and thrifting is on people’s screens and in people’s faces more often. I certainly never saw any advertisements on TV rather than social media,” he says. 

Williams says that the enjoyment of thrifting is something that isn’t found in many other hobbies. 

“Adding (thrifted clothes) to your wardrobe and you’ve got this curated wardrobe that represents you as a person.”

Despite thrifting being introduced to a new generation through social media, a new way of clothing production has emerged as the natural enemy of thrifting. 

‘Fast fashion’, as defined by financial news website Investopedia, is a term that applies to cheaply priced, yet on-fashion and nice, clothing that is designed quickly to meet current trends. Retailers and manufacturers of fast fashion clothing have been found to adopt poor working conditions for staff or environmentally damaging business practices. For example, Changing Markets Foundation reported that Shein, a popular fast fashion retailer with more than one million monthly Australian users, creates more than 5.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

According to a report by the BBC, Shein has 600,000 items available for purchase on its website, and a new item takes 25 days in total to design, a feat which would take other designers’ months of planning. 

Human rights organisation Public Eye interviewed several Shein factory workers and found that employees would work for 12 hours a day, six to seven days a week. The same study also found that, by removing overtime from its Chinese workers’ wages, they were being paid 2,400 yuan per month, the equivalent of about 500 Australian dollars. 

Deakin University education professor Carly Sawatzki says human and environmental harms are created when “business practices that minimise cost and maximise profits” are adopted. She also highlights the problematic working conditions that many fast fashion clothing stores utilise. 

“We don’t think twice about who the people are making those $4 t-shirts in those developing countries, in those sweatshops with problematic labour conditions,” Dr Sawatzki says.

One of the factors driving shoppers to buy cheap clothing is the cost-of-living crisis, according to thriftersofmelbourneh influencer Williams.

“A lot of people talk to me about the prices of things, at least 60 per cent of people who get into contact with me are looking for a cost-effective way to shop for the things they want to buy. I believe that is because of the current financial pressures,” he says. 

Dr Sawatzki also links fast fashion with household economic pressures.

“Everything has become more expensive,” she says. 

“You can either reduce your costs, or raise your income, now those two things are not easy for everyone to do.

“Fast fashion is problematic because of the way that its manufactured, often there’s environmental harm but also human harm through the supply chain process.”

Those wanting to spend less money on clothes should shop for second-hand items, rather than turn to cheap fast fashion.

“It’s a win-win in terms of it being lower cost clothing that you’re buying second hand and a way of reducing the impact on the environment from problematic landfill,” Dr Sawatzki says.

Back at Burwood East’s RSPCA Op Shop, Yong is able to add another factor to the list of thrifting benefits – the surprise and thrill that can be found in seeing the daily donations come in. 

“You just don’t know what you’re gonna get from one day to the next,” she says.