The secondhand clothing pop-up Charity Super.Mkt is set to head to Edinburgh, Leeds, Sheffield and the heart of London’s Canary Wharf financial district as it opens a dozen more stores next year catering to a rise in interest in shopping for preloved items.
The initiative, which has brought together 55 local and national charities in the UK, including Age UK, Oxfam, Barnardo’s, Traid and RSPCA, in about 16 stores since it launched in a former Topshop in London’s Brent Cross shopping centre in January 2023, said it has booked £3m of sales. Sites have included a takeover of the former Fenwick store on London’s Bond Street.
The latest outpost opened in London’s Spitalfields this weekend, catering to a growing trend for secondhand Christmas shopping.
About 10% of all gift sales are expected to be preloved this year, equating to £2.05bn being spent on secondhand presents, according to a recent report from analysts at Retail Economics.
Young people are driving the trend, led by sites such as Vinted and Depop, with one in five Britons having bought presents for friends or family from secondhand online marketplaces in the past. A further 14% are planning to do so for the first time this year, with saving money coming out as the top reason for buying preloved, according to research for the delivery company Yodel.
People are buying secondhand gifts to save money but also amid concerns about the environmental costs of a festive splurge.
Charity Super.Mkt said that so far its pop-up stores, which often step into closed fast fashion outlets for a one- to three-month period, had prevented 105,109kg of textile waste from reaching landfill.
Wayne Hemingway, the former Red or Dead designer who has helped bring the project together, said Charity Super.Mkt’s large stores in prominent locations were vital to fly the flag for secondhand amid heavy competition from fast fashion.
“It is almost like a battle for hearts and minds. It is very convenient to be able to go to the high street and they are going to fix [the latest fashion] for you … to break that habit and say there’s another option is vital.”
He said that while sales of secondhand fashion were growing quickly, with the Spitalfields site struggling to keep up with demand on the opening day, retailers such as the online fast-fashion site Shein and the cut-price fashion chain Primark were continuing to grow apace.
However, Hemingway said that secondhand shoppers tended not to be interested in fast fashion, looking for quality brands or vintage items that held their value and had longevity.
Maria Chenoweth, a co-founder of Charity Super.Mkt, said: “Our mission remains pushing charity retail into the spaces and places it would otherwise not access, raising funds for their vital work both here in the UK and globally.”
