Last Friday, Oct. 6, the on-campus thrift store associated with the Center for Sustainability hosted a pop-up event where they sold books and shoes for the low prices of $3 and $5.
Employees were very satisfied with the outcome of the sale. They sold nearly 100 books, around 20 pairs of shoes and reached a wider audience of students who may not have been to the thrift store yet.
“I wasn’t expecting so many people to come out, especially considering it was so overcast and chilly, but there were times when the basketball court was full of people looking around,” said second-year student Lizzy Hoffman, an intern at the thrift store.
The event took place on the basketball court outside of the store’s permanent location on the first floor of Centennial Halls, on the far North side of campus. The distance of the thrift store is a big challenge the team faces, because “[the store] is far away from a lot of our student housing and isn’t near any other central buildings, so a lot of students don’t have a reason to be on that side of campus,” said Hoffman.
The thrift store combats this struggle by being active on social media, posting on Crimson Connect, putting up posters and using word-of-mouth to encourage students to attend. They hope to reach a wider audience of staff, graduate students and faculty; currently most of their attention comes from first and second-year students living in Halls and Towers.
This event was the thrift store’s first sale of the year, apart from the annual move-in sale, but employees emphasized there is a lot more to come this quarter and for the rest of the academic year.
“We are working on planning a lot more pop-up events and collabing with other clubs to promote sustainable consumption and provide affordable access of the items we have,” said Hoffman.
The thrift store already has two events on the calendar for the rest of this quarter. They’ll be hosting an upcycling workshop with the Fashion and Sewing Club on Oct. 20 from 3 to 6 p.m. in CCOM 1100 and ‘Sustain-a-ween’ will be Oct. 26 from 4 to 7 p.m. on the Campus Green.
Hoffman also revealed they are considering making the book and shoe sale a quarterly occurrence due to the surplus of both books and shoes.
The thrift store is open every Tuesday through Thursday from 2 to 6 p.m. Stay tuned via their Instagram @duthriftstore, and while you’re at it, sign up for the Center for Sustainability’s weekly newsletter.
