Halloween is slowly approaching and everyone is brewing up ideas for this year’s holiday. Those that dress up on Halloween, put all their time and effort into their costumes coming up with iconic looks. From kids to adults, anyone that celebrates Halloween loves to dress up and show off their costumes. Let’s be honest though, Halloween costumes are anything but cheap! A costume bought from Party City ranges from about thirty to fifty dollars only to be worn for one night. Have no fear though, there are many ways to find the perfect costume for the cheapest price! 

Local thrift stores welcome any shoppers looking for Halloween costumes with open arms! Thrift stores like Goodwill and Savers offer a vast selection of Halloween costumes and items. It helps people be more creative when looking for outfits.

Thrifting Halloween costumes help people’s wallets, but choosing to thrift a costume helps the environment and prevents fast fashion. 

“It’s a good way to recycle, to reuse. I mean, these costumes are worn once and still have a lot of life left in them, and so, you know, just to throw them into the landfill is wasteful.” Said Marion Sullivan, the original owner of Your Turn Resale Shoppe. 

Thrifting and buying from second-hand sellers has always been a great way to prevent fast fashion. People all over the world have recognized the environmental problems. 

Younger generations have started to take action by choosing to buy the majority of their clothes from local thrift stores. Many have also opened their online stores selling second-hand clothes. 

What is Fast Fashion? 

Fast fashion has been an ongoing issue for the past decades. Fast fashion is clothes that have been produced by underpaid workers in countries located in Asia. These workers go through harsh working conditions to produce clothes that we see in Forever 21, H&M, Pacsun, etc. the list goes on and on. 

Fast fashion clothes are shredded and made into new pieces. Unwanted fabrics can be discarded in landfills.

“Americans only recycle 15 percent of their clothing, and that results in 10.5 million tons of textiles needlessly going to landfills. According to a 2018 study in Vermont, 4.2% of our landfill-bound waste was cloth or leather,” says Anne Bijur, an environmental analyst with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.

Clothes left in landfills affects the pollution because of the chemicals in dyes. It’s beneficial to the environment that people start to donate their clothes more rather than throwing them away. 

Fashion Ethics

“When you donate instead of throwing it in the trash, you give it a new life here. The benefit of donating is the good feeling, helping the environment, and not adding to the landfills, and the nice thing is, you get a tax deduction for your donation,” says Christina Rentz, Goodwill store manager in Pooler. 

Luckily, thrifting is very affordable for anyone. Especially if someone is looking for a costume they might be able to find the perfect items for the cheapest prices.  

“With standard Goodwill pricing for most items, someone can put together their Halloween look for around $20 or under, which makes for a lot of possible creative fun when you are literally discovering hidden treasures.” Hillary Bradbury, Director of Marketing for Goodwill Southeast Georgia says. 

Costumes donated are usually still very brand new. . People might be able to score on some cool brand new costumes if they decide to stop by their local thrift stores instead of buying overpriced costumes.