A haven on campus for the crossover between fashion and sustainability, the UConn Thrift Den in Storrs serves as a completely free thrift store open for all students.
Photo courtesy of @uconnthriftden on Instagram.
The Thrift Den functions as part of the Office of Sustainability, aiding the work towards the University of Connecticut’s zero waste goals. Students are allowed to take one item for free each week from the store.
“The popularization of thrifting is really important,” said Caroline Keary, a graduate student and co-founder of Thrift Den and Zero Waste Coordinator of the Office of Sustainability. “Our generation wanting to use what is already in existence is vital to avoid sending textile waste elsewhere.”
The Thrift Den was co-founded by Keary, Tina Ngo, Lian Dunn, Hannah Le, Clara Minor, Suhitha Sreedhar and Nina Wang. Keary and Ngo took lead initiatives on the original process. All seven team members currently work at and run the Thrift Den.
“[The team] is amazing. They are dedicated; they’re super creative and awesome,” Keary said.
A plethora of clothing items and accessories can be found in the racks of the store. However, their inventory is currently reliant on student donations and stock from UConn’s previous thrift store, UConn Swap Shop, which the Thrift Den replaced.
To combat inventory issues and ensure quality items, Thrift Den has recently put in place a plan to acquire partnerships with larger brands, such as TJX and Patagonia, with the goal of also helping such brands limit their waste production.
This is not the only initiative being launched to increase inventory, however. Thrift Den interns explained that donation bins will begin to be placed in the laundry rooms of almost every residence hall on campus, beginning in November.
“Inventory is a concern that is constantly revolving around our minds,” Ngo said. “Having a few extra bins around campus, so that students don’t have to hike all the way to the Family Studies Building will be good.”
Although the Thrift Den opened last January primarily as a thrift store, the group launched sewing workshops this semester. Keary teaches the workshops with the help of interns, like Ngo, Wang and Minor. There have been three workshops with 48 attendees so far.
Interns like Ngo and Sreedhar were inspired by their home countries to practice sustainability. Ngo was raised in Vietnam, where “there wasn’t much environmental literacy at all” and was inspired to learn about eco-conscious efforts since moving to the United States in her later childhood.
“Every time I would go from my house to my grandparents’ house [in India], there were these huge landfills everywhere, and there was so much dumping of textiles and clothes,” Sreedhar said. “Once I joined Thrift Den, I realized more and more how much of a benefit it is to have something like this on campus.”
This semester alone, 623 students have gotten an item from the Thrift Den, and 1075 in the spring. An estimated total of 3027 items have been sold, which equals about one ton of clothing, accessories and household items, according to Ngo’s calculations.
Many interns took part in founding the Thrift Den because of their personal interests and goals.
“It doesn’t feel like a job,” Sreedhar said. “It just feels like my passion project that I am working on.”
The interns have become a collaborative family, almost always coming to agreements on major decisions.
“My favorite thing about the Thrift Den is being a part of something bigger,” Wang said. “I love working with my fellow interns and working towards our overall goal of sustainable fashion has been very fun and fulfilling.”
Their teamwork skills and welcoming attitudes are evident to anyone who steps foot in the store.
“I think [the Thrift Den] is a huge success for UConn,” Keary said. “I think it really builds off an already existing sustainability mindset, but it pushes us into a circular economy university.”
A circular economy is one based on the reuse and regeneration of materials.
Keary is a master’s student and many interns are seniors who will be graduating in the spring, passing the torch onto juniors like Sreedhar and Dunn.
“We hope to be half as good as Caroline and Tina are in managing everything,” Sreedhar said.
Ngo explained that she would like to create a “blueprint” for future interns before she leaves “in order to pass on our operations to the next leaders of the Thrift Den.”
“We are trying to use the success of the Thrift Den as a pioneer for helping the university further develop its circular economy in a variety of different areas,” Keary said.
The Thrift Den is located at the Family Studies Building in Room 001. It is open every Wednesday through Friday, from 4 to 6 p.m.