Mint Thrift opened in near Shaw and Marty avenues in Fresno in 2022. Photo by Frank Lopez

In the last several years, thrift stores have gone from the clichéd musty smelling stores where those with less disposable income could go for clothes or random housewares to a multi-billion-dollar industry.

According to a 2020 annual report from online consignment company ThredUp, the secondhand apparel market for that year was valued at about $28 billion, expected to reach $64 billion by 2025.

The report said that Gen Z, the generation born between 1997 and 2012, shop the most at thrift stores, making up more than 40% of global consumers.

Despite temporary closures of second-hand and thrift stores because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the local thrift industry is still growing strong, making the old new again.

Neighborhood Industries, a nonprofit in Fresno that operates Neighborhood Thrift in the Tower District, recently received $1.5 million in state funding for its job creation and training programs.

Ricky Bravo, development director at Neighborhood Industries, said the money will be primarily used to fund their campaign to purchase the Neighborhood Thrift building. About $1 million will go towards the building purchase, with $500,000 going to support its workforce development programs.

Highlights of the estimated $700,000 renovation phase include a new parking lot, offices for the case management team, new floors, roof repairs, tutoring spaces, larger meeting areas and a larger space to be able to set up and receive people for their programs. 

“We average about 50,000 equitable transactions a year, so we want to improve the shopping experience for our customers as part of the reconstruction highlight,” Bravo said.

The purchase for the building is in escrow, Bravo said. Bravo said that the vision is to expand to more stores throughout Fresno and the Central Valley in the next three to five years.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, with more people stuck at home and cleaning out their closets, Bravo said there was an increase in donations.

Along with more people donating their items, the economic instability wrought by Covid-19 is influencing more people to save their money and find shopping deals.

Bravo said that younger generations are seeing thrifting clothes as more fashionable, and that they are more conscious in extending the use of goods as well as the positive environmental impact they can make by thrift.

“The state of the economy has changed, and a lot of people are shopping out of necessity — maybe people who weren’t necessarily buying second hand out of necessity to begin with,” Bravo said.

In north Fresno, an area of town with less thrift shops than Downtown Fresno or Southeast Fresno, Mint Thrift opened in April near Shaw and Marty avenues.

The store is part of the ACTS Foundation, a local nonprofit providing, food, supplies and education to underserved individuals.

Missy Von Berg, store manager at Mint Thrift, said store proceeds go to a grocery giveaway at the store’s warehouse space on the second and fourth Saturday of each month.

Von Berg said the price point for clothes is $2 to $6 dollars, with specialty items costing a bit more.

“For those who are struggling, we want to be able to be an option for them and give people dignity,” Von Berg said. “When you’re struggling, it doesn’t feel good that you can’t shop at a cute store.  There is fun music, fun volunteers – you can feel good shopping here, and not break the bank.”

Von Berg said that there is a mix of demographics shopping at the store, but that there is a lot of younger shoppers that return because of the low prices. The store also gets what Von Berg called the “mom crowd” that come in for home décor.

She said that business has been going well since the store opened, but since it’s newer, not many people know about it yet.

Von Berg, who is a thrifting enthusiast herself, says north Fresno has had a need for more thrift stores for a while.

The Valley is a new men’s clothing store that sells new and vintage items, along with items from major street brands, and the brands of local clothing designers.

Located on Tulare Street near Chukchansi Park, The Valley had its grand opening during the first Art Hop of September.

Co-owner of The Valley, Roberto Cobian, 32, has been operating his own clothing brand, Culture Cloth, since 2014, partnering with men’s boutique Fly Shack, which owns a purely vintage shop called Retro Park Vintage near Blackstone and Shaw avenues.

Part of Cobian’s job was buying and pricing the inventory for the other shops he works with.

Cobian began to consider opening his own shop a few years ago, and around March, he and co-owner Hak Ketsoyan started looking for a location.

Cobian said that since the Covid-19 pandemic, more people are trying to find ways to make money, whether it’s buying and selling vintage items or trying to save money by thrifting themselves.

The trend was picking up even before the pandemic, Cobian said, but more people were collecting, as opposed to now, where more people are reselling.

Online platforms such as Instagram and OfferUp have also made buying and reselling vintage items easier.

Cobian compares the Fresno thrift market to that of bigger areas such as Pasadena, saying that while it is strong locally, resellers often get more money in bigger cities.

“At the thrift stores alone, you see so many more people out there thrifting, and looking for cheaper items so they could make profit. During ArtHop, there is easily 20 to 30 vintage vendors spread around downtown,” Cobian said.