Charity Super.Mkt to open more pop-ups amid rising demand for secondhand clothes | Retail industry
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Pop Up Secondhand Clothes Charitable Super.Mkt is about to target Edinburgh, Leeds, Sheffield and the heart of London’s financial district, Canary Wharf, as it opens a dozen more stores over the next year, catering to increasing interest in shopping for favorite items.
The initiative, which has brought together 55 local and national UK charities, including Age UK, Oxfam, Barnardo’s, Traid and the RSPCA, in around 16 stores since it launched in the former Topshop in London’s Brent Cross shopping center in January 2023, said has sales of £3 million. Sites include a takeover of the former Fenwick store on London’s Bond Street.
The latest outpost opened in London’s Spitalfields this weekend, catering to the growing second-hand trend Christmas shopping.
Around 10% of all gift sales are expected to be preloved this year, equating to £2.05bn spent on second hand presents, according to a recent report by analysts at Retail Economics.
Young people are driving the trend, led by sites such as Vinted and Depop, with one in five Britons buying gifts for friends or family from online second-hand markets in the past. Another 14% plan to do so for the first time this year, with saving money the most important reason for buying Preloved, according to a survey by delivery company Yodel.
People buy second-hand gifts to save money, but also because of concerns about the environmental costs of holiday splurging.
Charity Super.Mkt said that so far its pop-up shops, which often go into closed fast fashion stores for a period of one to three months, have prevented 105,109kg of textile waste from reaching landfill.
Wayne Hemingway, the former Red or Dead designer who helped pull the project together, said Charity Super.Mkt’s big stores in prominent locations were vital to flying the second-hand flag amid stiff competition from fast fashion.
“It’s almost like a battle for hearts and minds. Very convenient to be able to go to the high street and they will fix it [the latest fashion] for you… to break that habit and say there is another option is vital.”
He said that while second-hand fashion sales were growing rapidly, with the Spitalfields site struggling to cope with opening day demand, retailers such as online fast fashion site Shein and discount fashion chain Primark continued to grow rapidly.
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However, Hemingway said second-hand buyers are generally not interested in fast fashion, looking for quality brands or vintage items that retain their value and have a long life.
Maria Chenoweth, co-founder of Charity Super.Mkt, said: “Our mission remains to push charity retail into the spaces and places it would otherwise not be able to access, raising funds for their vital work both here in the UK and globally scale.’
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