THE OP-SHOP ECONOMY

Most non-consumable items that I buy are second hand. In fact the 
concept of buying many of them new has become a bit foreign to me, 
I'm so much in the habit of just making do until I stumble upon 
them used. Disregarding Ebay and friends due to postage costs 
(hardly anything is ever close enough to me to be picked up with 
reasonable expenditure of fuel and effort) and competition, the key 
resource for such cheap individuals as myself in Australia are 
Opportunity Shops, more often referred to as Op Shops. This term 
may translate to "charity shop" or "goodwill" in other countries, 
though I really haven't a clue about that. Over here though, these 
stores are run by some form of charity, from local groups to 
well-known global organisations. Their stock is donated, and sold 
on very cheaply.

Now I do this just because I'm cheap. Even when I can easily afford 
to buy something new I prefer to get a cheaper second-hand one, 
because why not? Also the second-hand item might be a better brand 
than I would buy new or simply better made than anything available 
today. But while thinking about the whole system of how Op Shops 
work, I realised another, possibly more dignified, reason why 
someone might choose to shop at them.

This person would have some objection, probably ethical, to the 
support of an entire industry. An easy example would be the 
clothing industry, where almost all western manufacturers are gone 
and apparantly replaced by sweatshop labour. This happened because 
consumers ignored the ethical issues and bought the cheapest, 
shaping the direction of the whole industry so that now it's 
difficult to purchase a desired type of item without in turn 
supporting the unethical operators. The concerned shopper might buy 
second-hand clothes from Ebay or a commercial second-hand clothes 
store (I only know that these exist because I saw it in a 
documentary a while back). But as the original purchaser likely 
sold the clothes to them for some money, it's possible that they 
considered this at the time of originally purchasing the clothes, 
and it could have contributed to their decision to purchase them in 
the first place. They might even consider the ease of later resale 
as an incentive to buy from that brand again. Therefore by buying 
the item second-hand you could still in some way be supporting the 
original manufacturer.

If the clothes were donated though, then the original purchaser 
has, shall I say 'worn', the full cost of the item. Economically 
the clothes are back at square one, their value now channelled 
wholely towards the charity running the Op Shop where they are 
resold.

The same can be said for anything that might be bought from an Op 
Shop - from books, to furniture, to kitchen appliances.

Going further than just picky consumers, any genuine 
capitalism-haters who haven't been put off by the failures of most 
alternative "isms" through the previous century, should find Op 
Shops a convenient way to avoid contributing to the capitalist 
society. The businesses that make the goods never see any benefit 
from your purchase, and the organisation that does get your money 
distributes it for the public good. It's sort of half the loop of 
communism really. In fact if you're on the dole in Australia I 
think some people can stay on it if they do charity work. So if you 
work at the Op Shop, the government gives you a standard amount of 
money for it, and you spend your money on goods at the Op Shop, 
then you're getting pretty close to communism. If lots of people 
chose to do that then there wouldn't be enough donations to meet 
demand, but with all of the free workers the charity might be able 
to manufacture their own goods. Eventually I suppose the government 
would go broke from not getting enough tax income to pay for so 
many people being on the dole, and their money all being spent with 
a tax-exempt organisation. The government collapses, and the 
charity takes over. The Op Shop revolution!

OK maybe I'm getting a bit carried away. I don't really see the old 
ladies that run the country town Op Shop nearest to me waving a red 
flag in Canberra. The point is though that you hear a lot of people 
complaining about the companies that make things they buy, and 
here's a genuine way to avoid the problem. Also I seriously doubt 
that many of the people making these complaints, or beleiving in 
the far left, actually shop at Op Shops. I don't know for sure, but 
somehow I just don't think they would.

Tip shops are much the same thing, if your lucky enough to have one 
at your local tip / transfer station. Here it's generally not so 
clear where the profits of the store go, but like Op Shops the 
financial connection to the manufacturer is well and truely gone by 
the time goods are plucked from a skip full of rubbish. They're 
much less common than Op Shops here in rural Victoria, but I know 
they sometimes get some really good stuff through, it's a shame 
that the nearest one to me is just too far out of my way.

To finish up, some Op Shop hunting tips:

*Some are reluctant to sell electronics. Generally the smaller 
 ones running out of some tumble-down building down a back street 
 will sell you whatever they get (at least the ones in the country 
 towns), but the more organised ones from the bigger charities are 
 often too scared of being sued if someone gets electrocuted from a 
 faulty device. The latter ones might still have electrical goods 
 out the back, so it can be worth asking especially if you're after 
 something specific like a vintage computer or video game console.

*If you're after something specific, it can be worth asking about 
 anything out the back. There's often a mountain of stuff waiting 
 out there to be sorted or priced.

*Those tumble-down ones in the back streets usually don't follow 
 anything like normal business hours. Don't travel too far assuming 
 that they'll be open if you don't know their exact hours (or for 
 that matter, if you don't know for sure they they follow them). 
 Also if you drive by in the middle of the day and see they're open 
 don't assume that they still will be when you come back a little 
 while later, some only go for a few hours a week.

*Don't try to bargain with the price - it's a charity you 
 heartless monster! Just roll your eyes at the nick-nack that you'd 
 quite like but wouldn't have been worth new the $10 price tag that 
 some unknowledgeable volunteer put on it. You might find something 
 else that you'd expect to pay $20 for but only costs $5, in which 
 case overall you've still won.

*Bring cash. Again at least with the little country ones it's 
 unlikely that they'll accept cards. More likely sales records are 
 written down in pencil, and change stored in old tins. I always use 
 cash anyway so this isn't a problem for me.

*It probably helps for motivation to have something you expect to 
 find and buy. So that it doesn't feel a waste of time going into a 
 few and not finding anything, or being tempted to by things mainly 
 just to justify the visit. I have my VHS tape collection, which has 
 the added benefit from VHS tapes often being about the cheapest 
 items that they sell. Sometimes they're even free.

- The Free Thinker