Over the past year Roshni Vineeth has had a sale of her pre-loved garments via Instagram. The Thrissur-based content creator who has 89.1K followers announces a sale via Instagram stories, and sells 15-20 garments each time. “I have done this four times over the past year, and they have all been sold out. This saves me space and the buyer gets a garment at a much lower price,” says Roshni, who creates lifestyle content. Besides clothes, Kochi is also shopping for preloved furniture, utensils, crockery, gadgets, mattresses and more.
Entrepreneur/social worker Roopa George says the trend caught on post-2020, an impact of COVID-19 and lockdowns which gave people time to introspect on choices. She created a WhatsApp group in 2022, Pre Loved Goods, which has today grown to over 950 members (all women). Her first such group was formed in 2019, which has now preloved electronic gadgets, furniture, household items besides clothes, which are sold and bought over the platform daily. The group buzzes with activity, with items being picked up almost immediately after they have posted on it. The reason for selling has to be specified alongside.
“There was a certain degree of stigma attached to it [preloved goods], but when, instead of second-hand or used, you use the term ‘preloved’ the implication changes,” says Roopa.
