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The Guardian
25-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Savers is a thrift store - and we're in a cost-of-living crisis. So why is the US chain dividing Australian shoppers?
Thrifting was made for times like these. A prolonged period of high living costs and consumer pushback against the excesses of fast fashion has led to soaring interest in buying secondhand clothes and pre-owned homewares. Big business is tapping into the trend, drawing mixed reactions from thrifters accustomed to spending their money at charitable op shops. Late last year, the private equity-backed Savers, a firm listed in the US, opened a store on Oxford Street, one of Sydney's primary shopping precincts. Months earlier, it had unveiled a sprawling superstore in the city's west. In the next few months, it plans to open stores in Sydney's inner west on the bustling Parramatta Road, and in the city's outskirts in Marsden Park. The Sydney expansion builds on the outlet's long-term presence in Melbourne and Adelaide. Savers, the biggest for-profit thrift retailer in North America, has found financial favour in Australia, with quarterly sales jumping to US$30.7m in the March quarter, up almost 12% from a year earlier. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Overall, the company generated US$1.54bn in sales in 2024 through its network of more than 350 stores, mainly located in the US and Canada. Caitie Pridmore, a longtime op shopping enthusiast, says she is more inclined to shop at charity-run op shops than Savers, but any arguments against for-profit thrift stores should be nuanced. 'It comes down to … the intention as the consumer, and then the intention as the retailer of the op shop,' she says. 'With Savers, it's an interesting one. I feel less compelled to shop there.' Pridmore says while there is a charitable element to the way Savers operates, she prefers to spend her money in op shops where she knows her contributions are going to have 'more of an impact on the community'. For-profit thrift retailers tend to do well in markets where customers are conscious about their spending, but not under so much financial pressure that they stop buying altogether. This is representative of conditions in Australia, where households are grappling with cost-of-living pressures, but most people have a job, with unemployment at a low level of 4.1%. Michael Fisher, the managing director at Savers Australia, said in a statement that secondhand shopping served as a meaningful and sustainable way for consumers to stretch their dollars in the current economic climate. 'We are competitively positioned in the retail sector with a hyperlocal model, an average price per item of less than $10, and a fresh assortment that provides exceptional value to consumers,' Fisher said. The Savers model relies on donations of clothes and small household items to its charitable partners, including Red Nose, Wounds Australia and Diabetes Victoria, which are either collected by the not-for-profits or through donation centres attached to the stores. Savers then pays the charities for those goods. The Wounds Australia chief executive, Jeff Antcliff, said the organisation had been 'thrilled with the exposure' the partnership had brought and that the relationship provided revenue to support the organisation's work in advocating for those living with chronic wounds. Savers' charitable partners, including Wounds Australia, said the rates paid by Savers were confidential. In the US, Savers has faced questions over the transparency of its relationships with nonprofit partners, and the rates it pays. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The office of the Washington attorney general said in 2017 that Savers' parent company was paying one of its charitable partners as little as four pennies for every pound of clothing. Other goods, like housewares, earned the charities 2 US cents per pound. Savers did not respond to questions about the per-kilo rate it pays in Australia. Fisher said the company had paid its Australian not-for-profit partners about $20m for secondhand goods over the last five years. 'Last year alone, we found a reuse for over 9.1 million kilograms of secondhand items,' Fisher said in a statement. One of Savers' partners, Diabetes Victoria, disclosed in financial accounts that about 4.8m kgs of clothes and other products went to Savers in 2024, and that the charity had earned $2.98m from its collections business. While this would imply a rate of about 62c per kilo, the calculation could be complicated by donations of different types of goods attracting different rates. The Diabetes Victoria chief executive, Glen Noonan, said the Savers partnership had 'played a vital role in advancing our efforts to raise funds for much needed diabetes programs, advocacy and world-leading diabetes research'. The thrifting sector has changed significantly from the days of being almost exclusively run by charities. Another for-profit model, consignment stores, allows people to sell unwanted clothes for lower-than-retail prices if they don't want to give them away for free. Bec Brewin, a keen op-shopper who creates thrifting content for social media, says e-commerce platforms like Depop facilitate a more sustainable economy, even though 'you're not donating to a charity, you're donating to somebody's wallet'. 'As long as you're aware of the fact that you're shopping at a for-profit thrift shop or op shop, it's fine. You're still making a more sustainable choice,' she says. Vicky Weatherlake, who runs an online thrifting community I Love To Op Shop which includes a Facebook group with more than 122,000 members, says she supports the Savers business model. 'I'm not wasting time criticising Savers for not being not-for-profit when we have [fast fashion platforms] doing huge environmental damage,' she says, referring to mass market retailers selling ultra cheap clothing. 'Is [Savers] competitive with op shops? Yes, certainly – but from my personal point of view, it's more environmentally friendly.' 'We've got far bigger fish to fry than pulling Savers up on being a for-profit business, when it actually gets through so much goods that people are just not wanting any more,' she says.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
Driver's dodgy number plate move leads to massive find inside car: 'Jam packed'
A car spotted with a suspicious-looking number plate led authorities to uncover a car so "jammed packed full of copper piping' that the passengers struggled to fit inside. The white Nissan was intercepted by police on Sydney's Parramatta Road near Stanmore on the weekend after officers spotted the number plates were "folded inwards to cover up the identity of the vehicle". The car was so full one passenger was found sitting on top of the folded-down backseat while the other had copper piping poking everywhere past his head in the front seat. When questioned, the three passengers allegedly relayed inconsistent stories to police, prompting officers to seize the copper and vehicle, and hand out court notices for allegedly possessing stolen property. The driver also copped multiple fines for road breaches, including a positive roadside drug test. 👀 Truth revealed after detail on police car leaves road users puzzled 👷♂️ Tradie's $25k 'blow' after falling victim to growing problem 🛞 Cops make 'extremely dangerous' find on ute tyres The massive find comes as copper theft has increased in recent years, with police warning those responsible sell materials like cables and piping to scrap metal dealers who melt and reshape it for reuse, with it largely used for electronics. The rise in the copper theft trend means vacant homes and construction sites are targeted, as well as public infrastructure — and it's costing the Australian governments eye-watering amounts to replace the stolen metal. According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, the annual cost of metal theft is valued at well over $100 million. In South Australia, there were more than two thousand instances of scrap metal theft in a recent 12-month period, according to a state government report, with the theft of a $2,000 piece of copper cabling forcing the state's train network into safety mode and causing significant peak-hour disruptions. The crime has tripled since 2020 in Queensland and an organised crime syndicate in Victoria stole $780,000 worth of copper from telco pits, causing mass internet and power outages. It has been estimated that 90 per cent of all copper theft takes place at night or on weekends. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
