{"id":14871,"date":"2025-12-28T16:09:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T23:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/more-thrifting-and-fewer-returns-the-early-trends-that-defined-shopping\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:33:08","slug":"more-thrifting-and-fewer-returns-the-early-trends-that-defined-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/more-thrifting-and-fewer-returns-the-early-trends-that-defined-shopping\/","title":{"rendered":"More thrifting and fewer returns: the early trends that defined shopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Post-holiday
Post-holiday shoppers pass a Christmas tree and festive display at Calef\u2019s Country Store on Friday, Dec. 26, 2025, in Barrington, New Hampshire. (Charles Krupa\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Charles Krupa<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Americans are still spending on gifts, but increasingly that shopping is happening at thrift and discount stores, according to Placer.ai.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s likely forcing traditional retailers such as department stores to fight harder for customers, Placer.ai said.<\/p>\n

Clothing and electronics, which traditionally dominate holiday sales, surged but struggled to grow, according to Placer.ai. Both categories are dominated by imports and thus vulnerable to tariffs.<\/p>\n

For example, traffic doubled in department stores during the week before Christmas \u2013 Dec. 15 through Sunday \u2013 compared with the average shopping week this year. But traffic in the week before Christmas fell 13.2% from 2024.<\/p>\n

Traffic surged 61% at traditional sellers of only clothing in the week before the holiday compared with the rest of the year. But compared with the run-up to Christmas last year, sales slid 9%.<\/p>\n

Some of that lost traffic may have migrated to off-price stores such as TJ Maxx. That sector had a sharp seasonal traffic bump of 85.1% and a gain of 1.2% in the week before the holiday.<\/p>\n

But thrift stores were red hot, with traffic jumping nearly 11% in the week before Christmas compared with last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether hunting for a designer deal or uncovering a one-of-a-kind vintage piece, consumers increasingly favored discovery-driven experiences over the standardized assortments of traditional retail,\u201d Shira Petrack, head of content at Placer.ai, said in a blog post Friday.<\/p>\n

\"Becca
Becca Mendoza and Tammi Hines look at products as shoppers browse Kohl\u2019s department store for Black Friday deals on Nov. 28, in Woodstock, Georgia. (Megan Varner\/The Associated Press, File)<\/span>Megan Varner<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Thrift stores broaden their appeal<\/div>\n

In the past, it may have seemed gauche to gift your mother a gently used sweater or a pair of pants from a local thrift store, but seemingly not so amid economic uncertainty and rising prices, according to Placer.ai.<\/p>\n

Through the second half of 2025, thrift stores have seen at least a 10% increase in traffic compared with last year. That suggests environmental concerns as well as economic issues are luring more Americans to secondhand stores, Placer.ai said. Visits to thrift stores generally do not take off during the holidays, yet in the most recent Black Friday weekend, sales jumped 5.5%, Placer.ai reported.<\/p>\n

In November, as customer traffic in traditional apparel stores fell more than 3%, traffic in thrift stores soared 12.7%, according to Placer.ai.<\/p>\n

The thrift migration has altered the demographics of secondhand stores. The average household income of thrift customers hit $75,000 during October and November, up slightly from $74,900 last year and $74,600 in 2023, well above the average income of $74,100 in 2022, based on demographic data from STI:PopStats combined with Placer.ai data.<\/p>\n

U.S. sales at thrift chain Savers Value Village rose 10.5% in the three months ended Sept. 27, and the momentum continued through October, store executives said in late October.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh household income cohort continues to become a larger portion of our consumer mix,\u201d CEO Mark Walsh told analysts. \u201cIt\u2019s trade down for sure, and our younger cohort also continues to grow in numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Post-holiday
Post-holiday shoppers pass a seasonal candy and Christmas display at Calef\u2019s Country Store on Dec. 26 in Barrington, New Hampshire. (Charles Krupa\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Charles Krupa<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Fewer returns, so far<\/div>\n

For the first six weeks of the holiday season, return rates have dipped from the same period a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics.<\/p>\n

That suggests shoppers are doing more research before adding something to their shopping list and are more disciplined in sticking to those lists, according to Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very indicative of consumers and how conscientiously they\u2019ve purchased,\u201d Pandya said. \u201cMany of them are being very specific with how they spend their budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Nov. 1 to Dec. 12, returns fell 2.5% compared with last year, Adobe reported. In the seven days following Cyber Week \u2013 the five shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday \u2013 returns fell 0.1%.<\/p>\n

From Nov. 1 through Dec. 12, online sales rose 6% to $187.3 billion, on track to surpass its outlook for the season, Adobe reported.<\/p>\n

Between Dec. 26 and Dec. 31, returns are expected to rise by 25% to 35% compared with returns between Nov. 1 and Dec. 12, Adobe said, and it expects returns to remain elevated through the first two weeks of January, up 8% to 15%.<\/p>\n

This is the first year that Adobe has tracked returns.<\/p>\n

Still, the last week of December sees the greatest concentration of returns: one out of every eight returns in the 2024 holiday season took place between Dec. 26 and Dec. 31, a trend expected to persist this year, Adobe said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing unease over the U.S. economy has altered behavior<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-14871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14871"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19393,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14871\/revisions\/19393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14871"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=14871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}