The results from our Yelp coding analysis show the proportions of consumer motivations and values for second hand shopping. We include the percentages for second hand shoppers as a whole, but also breakdown our results between consignment and thrift stores to be accountable for some differences in data, such as the top value of Consignment shoppers being “hedonic” and the top value of Thrift shoppers being “economic”. The value that has a significantly large difference between the two types of stores is “service”. 25% of values expressed in consignment reviews had to with the quality of employee service, while only 12% of Thrift reviews commented on service. We hypothesize that because shoppers are both buying and selling at consignment stores, there is more opportunity for in-depth interaction with employees, which would lead Yelp reviews to comment more on their interactions with the staff.
It’s also interesting to note which values are consistent between the two types of stores. The word clouds generated from our coded Yelp reviews for both Consignment and Thrift stores show that “prices” was one of the most frequently used words, indicating price was a central value for both types of shoppers. Clearly, economic factors are important to both of these shoppers. Hedonic values were also primary for second hand shoppers at both types of stores. Figure 4 shows words such as “cute”, “treasure”, “vintage”, “fun”, and “brands” that reflect shoppers engaging with the second hand economy for recreation. This prominence across both types of stores may reflect the increasing popularity and fashionability of thrift stores that Flatters calls discretionary thrift (2009). Also, all second hand shoppers expressed quality of clothing, social/ethical values, and ecological values the least frequently.
The orientation of reviewers towards primarily hedonic and economic values may have to do with the specific affordances of Yelp. As a platform, Yelp is known to have popularity amongst “trendsetters and lucrative demographics” and arguably has a “consumerist orientation” that limits expression of more civic or political material (Kuehn 2011). Kuehn argues that “ . . . Yelpers ultimately work to reproduce hegemonic discourses of consumption” (2011).
Working with the possibility that the second hand economy can provide a solution to issues of overproduction and waste of resources and energy, positive social change may still occur whether or not consumers are motivated for that reason or not. Although individuals, for whatever reason, did not express social or ecological motivation for shopping at secondhand stores, they are part of a larger trend that may be addressing these issues.
Scholars like Johanna Moisander and Michael Maniates problematize individualized approaches to addressing environmental issues, such as consumer-driven change (Moisander 2007; Maniates 2001). Yet our results point us in an interesting direction to reconsider individual consumerism as part of larger trends of social change. This shows the potential for capitalizing on pleasurable activities within systems that have additional and broader social benefits. However, the scale of these benefits may not be comparable to other forms of more conscious action, and negative repercussions of this sort of “ethical consumerism” must also be accounted for, as we elaborate on in further social implications within our conclusion and further studies.