Arizona's $955M secondhand market is booming
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Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
What's old is cool again — or at least affordable.
The big picture: Arizona's secondhand retail industry — which includes thrift, consignment, resale and pawnshops — has grown at a clip of about 7% annually since 2020, and accounts for a $955 million market, according to an IBISWorld industry analysis.
- That reflects a nationwide spike in secondhand shopping that is expected to grow an additional 32% by 2029, per Capital One Shopping Research.
Why it matters: At a time when consumers are skeptical about the economy, brick-and-mortar retailers are scaling back and landfills are teeming with used clothing, secondhand shopping offers a low-cost, environmentally friendly experience.
State of play: The resale sector had a banner year in Arizona:
- Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona opened six new locations and a clearance center, while a handful of other secondhand stores, including independent thrift and high-end resale, opened their doors;
- Eco-Chic Consignments, the Scottsdale company behind My Sister's Closet and other luxury resale brands, was acquired in January with the goal of expanding beyond Arizona;
- And national franchises, including Play It Again Sports and Plato's Closet opened in Phoenix suburbs.
Flashback: Tim O'Neal, CEO of Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona, told Axios the current thrift boom began around 2017 when online resale gained popularity and "brought awareness to the value."
- It was around that time that Goodwill sought to modernize with larger, more-organized spaces, mood music and frequently rotated inventory.
1 big smell: The organization also hired the company that designs the fragrances pumped into Las Vegas casinos to create a signature Goodwill scent that would mask the notorious thrift store smell, O'Neal said.
Between the lines: During COVID stay-at-home orders, many people cleaned out their closets and dropped off donations at one of these updated stores for the first time and often their reaction was, "Wow, this is a Goodwill?" O'Neal told us.
- Demand took off from there, he said.
The intrigue: While cost savings remain the top reason people buy secondhand, more consumers are looking at thrifting as a treasure-hunting hobby. And local businesses are leaning into the "fun" of the hunt:
- Thrift Stories Boutique, a new central Phoenix business, hosted a "thrift store crawl" this month, chauffeuring shoppers to eight independent thrift stores in a hot pink party bus.
- Thriftapalooza, a thrifting expo, returned to the Arizona State Fairgrounds for a second year this November, with more than 200 booths.
- Thrift to Thrive, which funds a nonprofit that works to prevent family separations, moved into a new, larger space in 2023 with a coffee shop, creating an experiential outing for shoppers, store manager Esteban Diaz said.
What we're watching: Diaz told us demand has picked up over the 2½ years the shop has been open, but the clientele is shifting.
- Initially, customers, who were often thrifting out of financial necessity, have scaled back as the economy worsened. But new shoppers, who are often thrifting for the first time, are showing up in hopes of saving money, he said.
- "We're growing, but it's different customers," he said.