Alicia Robinson
For some store owners, each day at work is literally old hat. And old
pants, and old dresses and old shoes.
Clothing resale stores are showing that recycling can be
profitable. They've been doing big business with the younger set, and
people older than 30 are also scouring the racks for designer labels
at more manageable prices.
"Pretty much 95% of our business is all local kids," said Cameron
Saliari, store manger of Galaxy Exchange, a Costa Mesa store that
sells used name-brand clothes. "They go to places like South Coast
[Plaza] and Fashion Island and they see that they can come here and
get it for a fraction of the price."
Galaxy Exchange has been on Harbor Boulevard for four years and is
doing well selling high-quality used designer clothes, Saliari said.
But the store is now facing some competition from Buffalo Exchange,
which opened last month at the Lab Anti-Mall in Costa Mesa.
A shopper at Buffalo Exchange might find a shiny black vinyl shirt
next to a plaid button-up -- the kind often favored by grandpas.
"We have a very wide range," store manager Jeanette Kimball said.
"We have current popular styles and we definitely have vintage. We
try to cater to a lot of different tastes."
For people getting rid of clothes from grandma's attic or their
own castoffs, resale stores offer cash or trade. The stores look for
quality -- clean clothes with no holes or stains -- when they buy
clothes from customers.
Buffalo Exchange prices clothes at about a third of what they
would cost new, with many items priced between $8 and $15 and
designer clothes up to about $80.
At Galaxy Exchange, the focus is more on high-end labels and
trendy clothes, with prices less than half the new retail price.
The older-style clothes and bargains on newer designer items both
attract customers.
"I didn't even think about coming in here until I saw it said 'new
and recycled,'" said Gabby Gaborno of Orange, who was browsing men's
shirts at Buffalo Exchange recently. "I usually just hit thrift
stores."
He prefers checked and plaid shirts that are a little broken in,
and even though companies are making new clothes in vintage styles,
they don't hold a candle to the originals, he said.
"The attempts they make are pretty feeble," he said.
Brenda Hymas said she goes to Buffalo Exchange because it's
convenient, since she works at the nearby Gypsy Den Cafe. She's
dressed the same way for years, so she looks to resale stores for
something other than whatever fleeting style is popular, she said.
