Free to Thrift
at free to thrift We aim to act as a conduit for community members to share what’s good with each other through a revolutionary model we developed where half of everything donated flows back to the community for free.
We’re not just a thrift store - we’re a demonstration of how abundance circulates when communities choose sharing and work together to eliminate scarcity.
ABOUT
What Makes Us Different, and Makes a Difference
Every item that comes through our doors carries the accumulated time, energy, and resources of many hands across many places. Instead of letting these usable clothing and goods disappear into landfills or corporate profit margins (often under the guise of non-profit) we keep them alive and flowing through our community through sharecycling - a collective approach to sustainable resource circulation.
Operating from a starting position of abundance rather than scarcity, allowed us to discover that we can do all of the following in a way that nourishes our community, our team, and our environment.
- We aim for Half of the donations we receive to flow back to community members at no cost.
we maintain this flow with our unique pricing system where everything is priced to be discounted every 6-8 days until it is free! This allows us to keep our time and energy investment sustainable, while respecting that value is a spectrum, and that our community members can decide the value of goods and items collectively and for themselves.
- Revenue from sales supports living wages for our team, and provides long term stability across our operations without relying on monetary donations, grants, or other non-profit funding streams.
- We consistently donate a portion of our revenue to local organizations, families, and individuals bearing the weight of systemic inequality so they don't have to shoulder the burden alone.
-We recognize and welcome resellers as community partners who help bridge the gaps between collectors, and too often overlooked items.
By adamantly refusing to exploit our position by either charging market prices or dipping our hands into online reseller markets, we help support the hundreds of niche market streams that keep currency circulating through our local economy.
-We hope to not only inspire, but collaborate with those who have a vision to establish similar sharing stores in your own communities.
We envision a world where sharing stores are as prolific as dollar stores, and we’ve developed our model over years of experimentation and refinement, with an aim to share our knowledge freely.
Sharing stores do not require extensive capital–they require vision, flexibility, and wholehearted willingness to create lasting community change.
-Most importantly, we recognize that building sustainable community infrastructure requires both meeting immediate needs, and transforming how we relate to resources and each other. The atmosphere we share here reflects years of intentional culture-building focused on prioritizing genuine human connection over profit-optimization.
When you participate with us - whether donating, shopping, volunteering, or receiving free items - you’re joining a living collaboration that shows another way is possible. We’re proving that communities can build and retain value through sharing, create abundance through circulation, and strengthen social fabric through conscious resource stewardship.
Together we share what’s good. Together we build community resilience. Together we make abundance accessible to all.
FAQ
Frequently Asked questions
How Is This Sustainable?
How Can I Help?
Bring us your donations, and stop in here first before heading to a big box store! So many times we purchase items for limited use. Lets keep these items circulating through our communities!
Are You A Non-Profit?
We have made the conscious decision to not pursue non-profit status. We find that it creates imbalance in sustainable operations, often prioritizing one set of participants at the expense of others.
In addition, we recognize that the majority of Americans receive little to no benefit from donation receipts, as the standard deduction often far exceeds it.
However, we do believe in donating a significant portion of our profits to individuals, families, and organizations in our community!
What Do You Do With Excess Goods?
How Is FTT Different From Other Thrift Stores?
We are not solely operating to raise funds for charity or profit. A significant part of our mission is to keep goods and resources circulating for use within our community. We call it sharecycling or wecycling! That means that you will always find items in our store are priced to go to free!
Are There Any Items You DO NOT Accept?
We are able to accept most donations! However we cannot accept takeout containers, metal hangers, large plastic baby items eg. playpens, high chairs, strollers, etc. or furniture!
We are able to maintain sustainable operations by selling clothing and goods that are in high demand, which allows us to mark many staple clothing and houseware items for free!
Many customers stop here first to seek free items with us first before pursuing purchasing new at box stores, or discount chain stores. This means, we rarely have to throw away any donations, and rarely have excess!
We partner with Helpsy to recycle and downstream any textile items that are no longer wearable, or desirable within our local market.
The store started as an experiment to see if we could do all of the things we envisioned simultaneously, and to our delight we found out we could and that people loved it! Over time, as we learned what our community and our team needed we were able to grow and adapt into the store you know and love! Because we have the freedom to respond to conditions , we have been able to craft our store into a structure of service that is sustainable and benefits us all!
What Are Your Terms and Conditions?
We have adapted some of the methods of other popular thrift stores for our use! Each week new merchandise will be tagged with a unique color. This allows us to discount in color groups. Ex: purple is full price, blue is 25% off, green 50% off pink 75% off, and orange and green are always free. The discount for each color WILL change weekly! All color tagged clothes have base prices of $5 or $10. Rare, unique items may be white tagged between $15-$25. while household goods and accessories are priced individually.
How Does Pricing Work?
Don’t All Thrift Stores Technically Sharecycle?
Where do your profits go?
After covering our expenses and paying our staff fairly, we donate our profits directly back into the community. That means supporting local families, organizations, and charities in ways that help people feel seen, valued, and supported.
Unfortunately, the short answer is no. The majority of thrift stores operate as non-profits but within a capitalist business model where goods are viewed primarily through their monetary value and turnover rate. When conditions put limits on storage space, or there are limits of time (shopping hours) or customers , the stores have to make decisions about what to do with the excess. What people don't realize is this results in significant proportions of donations being disposed of, or shipped overseas. Many still end up in landfills.
We do not offer refunds, or accept returns. If you decide you no longer need an item, we ask that you donate it back to us or another thrift store!
There are no limits on how many free items you can receive, but we ask that you aim to share with others if there are plenty available!
