Classic hits play from a silver portable CD and cassette player perched atop a shelf at the register. As shoppers sift through the racks, the rattling of coat hangers add a discordant clatter to the bustling atmosphere. A jacket draped on a wooden coat hanger catches the eye. The fancy price tag reveals a surprising amount for a second-hand garment.    

This scenario may sound familiar to those who have recently rummaged through the eclectic assortment of clothes at an op shop, with sections tailored to designer second-hand products at higher-end prices becoming more prevalent.

The Salvation Army has a Street Boutique section that was first introduced to WA at the Maylands store in 2016. Good Sammy introduced its version, the Gold Seal range, to inner-city stores over five years ago. The section was then rolled out to all 27 shop locations in the state.

Good Sammy chief executive officer Kane Blackman says the idea came from customer demand. “Our customers kept telling us that they wanted a specific section of certain brands and high-quality products. Plus, we are always trying new things to freshen the thrifting experience.” 

In a recent development, Good Sammy is trialling a Silver Seal section at select stores like Belmont. Although it appears to be a place for mid-range items, its purpose is unclear. Blackman says Good Sammy needs to “assess the results before considering a wider rollout”.

This move reflects the evolution of op shops since their inception 140 years ago. They were founded to support charities, provide affordable wares, and offer volunteer positions. The name opportunity shop, or op shop, was coined by Lady Millie Tallis to dismantle the stigma of second-hand shopping. The advent of premium sections has sparked some debate; do they elevate the way we buy and sell second-hand goods or dilute the original essence of op shops?

Blackman describes customer feedback as “overwhelmingly positive” with some people choosing to only shop from the Gold Seal range.

This isn’t the case for avid op shopper Diana Ciupe. Her “affinity for history” and upcycling is evident in almost every stitch of her outfit. She sits across the wooden slatted table wearing a cream cable knit dress that’s cinched at the waist with a baby blue belt and adorned with two hand-crafted bows to match. Her look is complemented by a handbag featuring an embellished portrait of Elvis Presley. Her manicured nails grasp her gold baroque earrings as she explains “these were on the side of a pair of sunglasses I got from an op shop, but I turned them into earrings”.

The 22-year-old law student has been op shopping since she was a child. Growing up in a low-income family, op shopping was a means of getting clothing, toys, and homewares for cheap. She still shops second-hand to save money, make more sustainable purchases, and find clothing and trinkets to suit her vintage style. With over 36,000 followers on TikTok, Ciupe started creating content as a hobby to share her op shopping ventures and crafting projects. Her platform has also been used to amplify her frustration over premium ranges and rising prices.

Over the years, Ciupe has noticed these items go up in cost to “upwards of $180” and she’s seen these sections expand to “take up almost half of the store”. Ciupe thinks premium ranges are “out of touch” because they fail to fulfil the original purpose of second-hand stores. 

“Over time they have become trendy and it’s now like an activity or a hobby and I am glad it’s widespread because it helps tackle issues like sustainability, but it seems like a lot of op shops have caught onto that. But they’re actually an organisation that’s meant to be a gateway for people who need it as a necessity.”  

This spike in popularity is seen in the findings from the 2022 Resale in Australia report by Reluv. According to the study, 73 per cent of Australians have bought pre-owned clothing with 20 per cent of those taking up second-hand shopping in the last three years. Brick-and-mortar op shops are the top choice for sourcing pre-loved items, with 87 per cent of respondents choosing to shop in-store.

Ciupe believes it’s a common experience among shoppers to find items that perhaps don’t deserve their premium tag. With brands like Zara being featured, she points to a grey area in defining what constitutes designer wear. After finding vintage clothes that were “ripped up and missing buttons” and shoes with “dry rot” she thinks product condition is sometimes overlooked.  

When it comes to the selection and pricing process, premium items are often marked as individually priced. But what does that mean?

Good Sammy Gold Seal products are selected and marked based on factors like brand, recommended retail price, item condition and whether the garment is new with tags. Blackman says “each item is assessed against set criteria” and “customer feedback” is taken into account to ensure prices are fair and consistent.

He says this section enhances the shopping experience, just like the one-dollar rack, by providing a diverse range of options to cater to different preferences. 

“The items we sell in all stores, especially Gold Seal, provides the revenue that pays the wages of our 830 staff, of which 52 per cent have a disability. We pay commercial rents in all our stores, and we recognise the importance of being sustainable to continue to provide those opportunities,” Blackman says.

The well-known stores aren’t the only second-hand shops to jump on the designer bandwagon.

Earthwise is nestled within a pink heritage-listed building in Subiaco. Coordinator Jen Karob describes it as “more than just an op shop” but a “community”. She joined Earthwise in 2003 bringing with her a background in youth work. After serving as chairperson until 2016 she transitioned to her current role. When asked what her job entails, she laughs and answers “anything and everything” while hand-drying a stack of donated crockery. Karob is the only paid member of staff. Owned by the Uniting Church, Earthwise leases the space on the condition of maintaining its upkeep. She says the help of forty-eight volunteers means the op shop can continue to offer preloved goods at a low price.  

In 2022 Karob dropped the price of all garments, so nothing is over $2. She did this to help ease the cost-of-living pressures. A month later, a designer rack was added after volunteers suggested it could be a good way to showcase the higher-end donations and raise more money to look after the shop. Karob was hesitant. She thinks premium sections contradict her mission to make all products accessible to everyone. But she values the opinions of her volunteers, so the team agreed to trial a designer section under two conditions; it’s kept to one rack and it’s “still a bargain”.

Like Good Sammy, garments are selected based on how trendy they are, if they’re a high-end label and the condition the piece is in. The volunteers on shift are tasked with pricing these items with oversight from Karob. This method has resulted in most items on the designer rack priced from around $5 to $15. Karob says the designer rack will stay as long as it’s a hit with customers. “I certainly see customers who go straight to the designer section and then come in and check out the rest of the store, so people seem to like it.”

Dr Madeline Taylor is a lecturer in fashion design at Queensland University of Technology. She leveraged her expertise and affection for second-hand shopping to co-author a study to find out what influences purchasing behaviour when it comes to op shopping. A group of Australian women aged between 18 and 25 were surveyed. The findings revealed various factors influence second-hand purchases. Some participants appreciated the designer section because it eliminates the need for extensive trawling while others were not a fan because it takes away the “thrill of the hunt”.  

Taylor thinks these sections are important because they challenge common beliefs. “It’s helpful to have as a way of educating people that the value of an object doesn’t necessarily come from the fact that it’s new but because of how it’s made or how it’s designed.”

She thinks the usual set-up, where premium sections are implemented into the regular op shop system, “quite often falls a bit flat”. Taylor wonders if having standalone high-end second-hand stores could offer a sustainable option to people with higher disposable income and busy schedules. “If you have a more curated store with nicer dressing rooms like a more traditional retail experience people might also start to think about those clothes differently.”

Masonic Charity Outlet took that approach in 2021 with the opening of its second store, a boutique in Mount Lawley. Donated designer-label clothing and higher-end jewellery and bric-a-brac are sent here to be sold. It offers an alternative range to the flagship location in Cannington that follows a traditional op shop model, with most clothes going for around $5 apiece. Both stores are primarily run by volunteers, except for a few paid staff members.

Area Manager of Masonic Charity Outlet Gilli Hayes says the Mount Lawley Boutique was opened to offer a more streamlined shopping experience to the demographic in the area.

“There are an awful lot of people who want to buy at an op shop because they like the notion that they’re recycling, they’re donating, and they are getting something that they really like for quite a bit less than they would normally have to pay for it, but they don’t have time to do the legwork.” 

Hayes oversees the pricing of most of the garments at the boutique store, and this is done on a case-by-case basis using an “imprecise formula”. Brand, market appeal, recommended retail price and condition all influence higher-end item selection and pricing. Most of the premium items here are around $50 with some more expensive exceptions that go up into the $100 range.

The comments Ciupe gets on her TikTok videos show there is a divide in opinions. A lot of people agree with Ciupe. Some say they donate their clothes to women’s shelters instead, so they know their used clothes are going to people in need. Others say it’s important to remember the proceeds support charities and running a store doesn’t come cheap.

This is something Hayes emphasises. “Rentals alone are horrendous and when you add electricity, wages for our paid staff or vehicles for picks-ups, and all the stuff that goes with it, it’s a lot of garments at $5 a go to recoup just your initial outlay, never mind that the objective is to raise funds for the charities that we support.”  

Ciupe would like premium sections to get the boot, but she thinks they could be improved if they stick around.

“They could at least keep these sections quite small, have clear-cut regulations for what is put in there, do quality control checks on all the clothing and shoes, and make sure it doesn’t take up half of the store.”

Taylor thinks pricing regulations are not a simple solution. She says they can’t be implemented at op shops without introducing similar stipulations to retail stores that produce and sell new products. She also thinks second-hand goods might eventually find their way onto online resale platforms like Depop anyway, which she likened to “the Wild West” in terms of pricing. Instead, Taylor would love to see more education provided to sellers and buyers to help them better understand the value of textiles.

“The cost of the materials and the time to make things isn’t reflected in the price that we pay, so realistically we all need to start to understand we should be paying a lot more than we currently are. I think there is potential value in training people to view clothes differently.”