Tell us about Thrift for Good?
Thrift for Good is Dubai’s charity thrift shop. We rehome preloved items to reduce waste and help children around the world by donating 100% of our profits to the local non-profit Gulf for Good. We have an online shop under www.thriftforgood.org and our first retail location in the Golden Mile Galleria Building 8 on the Palm Jumeirah. There, we sell perfect quality fashion, accessories, bags and books, starting as low as AED5.
A little bit about the founder and the story of how you started out?
Jennifer Sault is the Founder and Chief Cheerleader of Thrift for Good as well as the Grassroots Projects Director on the Board of Gulf for Good. Jen has a rich background in fundraising for children’s charities and was formerly the Operations Manager of Gulf for Good. She and some friends started holding flea market sales as a way to raise money for Gulf for Good’s charity projects. Given the generosity of Gulf for Good supporters with their clothing and time volunteering, this initiative kept growing until we finally opened an online store with the onset of the pandemic and opened our first retail location November 10th 2021.
Why thrift?
Thrift is the future. From an environmental perspective, we are able to offer an accessible alternative to fast fashion. The resources (water, energy and pesticides) that go into producing a single garment combined with the rate at which clothing is now made and thrown into landfill makes the clothing industry the third biggest polluter on our planet. By buying second hand, you are extending the life of the clothing and preventing it from being thrown prematurely in the landfill.
In addition, when you shop with Thrift for Good, we donate 100% of our profits (currently 50% of our revenues) to children’s charity projects around the world! It’s feel good fashion. You can enjoy looking good and doing something meaningful too.
What sets ‘Thrift for Good’ apart?
Thrift for Good is zero waste. We sell the perfect quality items in store and online but work hard to sell imperfect items at flea markets, donate on usable clothing and upcycle end of life materials, so none end up in landfill. We only use biodegradable environmentally friendly packaging and we offset our carbon emissions by planting trees.
Thrift for Good is community. We are only able to do what we do thanks to the thousands of donors clearing out their closets, the thousands of customers and the hundreds of volunteers that have donated their time. At risk of being overly cheesy, Thrift for Good is a truly special place where you can feel the passion and care of all that enter to do something good.
Tell us about your growth story?
Thrift for Good was born in small flea markets 4-5 years ago, relying on the storage of various friends until the amount of clothing was so large that The Box Storage decided to sponsor storage facilities on an ongoing basis. Thrift for Good was registered officially in February 2020 and the team were at markets and pop ups every weekend to raise needed funds. With the onset of COVID, Thrift for Good’s webshop and social media presence were born. This opened up an incredible amount of support from the community in terms of skilled volunteers, interested customers and numerous closet clearouts for good. As this success picked up, we opened our first store in November 2021. We are now looking to open our second location by the end of this year, with plans for more on the horizon…