The second-hand economy is booming in Alberta, and that is both good and bad.
For the Cerebral Palsy Association, it’s bad because their donation bins are being broken- into more and more often.
“We would normally have maybe a break in every four or five months. We're getting weekly now,” said Ian Traquair, who said the bins are often damaged in the break-ins. “It might not seem like big money to the person breaking in, they think they're just damaging the bin but if were spending $400 a week over 52 weeks that's a significant amount of money.”
The association started using better locks, but it didn’t help. Thieves started using grinders to force their way into the bins in order to get at the clothing they could then sell on the red-hot second-hand market.
The Cerebral Palsy Association sells its donations to Value Village to fund 60 per cent of its programs, so Traquair understands why many private citizens are doing the same.
“Some are selling it because it's the smart thing to do for them, and some are selling because they need to make grocery money,” he said.
A study commissioned by Kijiji shows Alberta leads all provinces in used goods bought, sold or traded at 91 transactions per person on average in 2016. The study showed that job losses are fueling the interest in selling items second-hand. The second-hand economy is estimated to be worth $29 billion, more than agriculture, fishing and forestry combined.
On the bright side, the authors of the study say the underground economy is a positive thing, showing that people are finding ways to get through tough times, with sellers averaging $1,000 in extra income and buyers saving 840 dollars compared to buying new.
