On an industrial estate in Cardiff, tucked behind a cladding and roofing supplier and a tiling centre, is a huge 12,000 sq ft unit, full of vintage clothes. This vintage superstore sells big name brands at reduced prices - starting from as low as £2.99. The Thrift has opened a permanent base on the Jubilee Trading Estate following demand from students attending their ‘kilo sales’.
The Thrift was set up by Gareth Natale, opening at the start of February. Gareth successfully set up Deadstock, an online vintage store, back in 2015 after seeing a gap in the market. Building on his hobby of visiting thrift stores and charity stops around Cardiff, as well as having aspirations for opening his own store, Gareth founded Deadstock with “less than zero money” and just a suitcase of thrifted clothes.
“I wanted to start a streetwear store, which was a style that nobody was really offering at the time,” Gareth said. “Topman and Urban Outfitters hadn’t quite cottoned onto the trend. I thought that, being a kid with no money and no experience of running a business, I wouldn’t be taken seriously by traditional wholesalers.”
Thinking of how he could get his hands on some clothes to sell to start his business, Gareth frequented local charity shops around Cardiff. “I bought a suitcase full of clothes and started my store,” he explained. “Slowly but surely, the word started to spread and eight years later, here we are.”
Just 25 at the time, Gareth launched the business online from a 12 bedroom bedsit on Fitzhamon Embankment. “I was taking all the photos in my bedroom, storing all the clothes in my bedroom, packing every order in my bedroom,” he said.
Eventually, Gareth moved into an apartment in Cardiff Bay and operated from there until three years ago, where he secured the top floor of the Jubilee Trading Estate unit. Over the summer, the business expanded to the ground floor after the former tenant moved out. Gareth had been thinking about how he could use up the extra space.
“I decided to put an event on - a kilo sale - expecting 50 people to come. Then, a whole lot more than 50 people came and I was like, ‘Ok, I think the people of Cardiff are ready for something interesting like this,” he said. The re-sale market has grown over the past few years, soaring by 109.4% between 2016 and 2021, according to a GlobalData report.
The appetite for second hand shopping is clear. Apps like Depop and Vinted have helped to popularise buying second hand and a whole host of re-sale sites have popped up online in recent years. There has also been a reported 22 per cent increase in charity shop sales since pre-pandemic trading, with some retail shops trading at more than double, according to the Salvation Army.
Students coming into the kilo sales The Thrift held last year said they’d like something more permanent Amy Hanford-Leach, who works at the thrift store, said. Through social media and word of mouth, The Thrift has started to attract around 1,000 customers a week.
“Everyone who comes in, I ask them how they found out about us,” Amy said. “They said it was either Facebook ads, or word of mouth - like a friend or someone from work has come in and then told them about it.”
Deadstock now operates from the top floor of the unit and specialises in designer streetwear, while The Thrift takes up the ground floor of the unit. You can find anything from Levi’s jeans and Tommy Hilfiger shirts, to sequined tops and cosy fleeces - and prices for some items start at £2.99.
“The audience for The Thrift, I hope, will be just regular adults who haven’t considered shopping second hand before. That’s the goal - to just reduce all of the pinpoints that I possibly can to make it as similar to shopping in a regular department store as possible,” Gareth said.
The Thrift has an expansive value section, with colour coded labels for different items that range from £2.99 to £11.99. There’s also a section full of ‘repair and save’ Levi’s jeans - you can buy a pair for £11.99, if you’re willing to take on a small project to fix them up.
The store is split into multiple sections over the huge warehouse, all with second-hand clothing. There are sections with big brand names such as Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, The North Face, Nike, where you can find designer items for a fraction of the price.
Brand new puffer jackets from The North Face are usually priced between £100-£400. At The Thrift, however, you can find them for between £60-£110. There’s also a kids section with a variety of items at a range of prices. The Thrift is open between 10am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday, on the Jubilee Trading Estate, East Tyndall Street in Cardiff.
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