Give-away shop
Encyclopedia
Charity shop
A charity shop, thrift shop, thrift store, hospice shop , resale shop or op shop is a retail establishment run by a charitable organization to raise money.Charity shops are a type of social enterprise...
s, with mostly second-hand items — only everything is available at no cost. Whether it is a book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
, a piece of furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
, a garment or a household
Household
The household is "the basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out"; [the household] "may or may not be synonymous with family"....
item, it is all freely given away, although some operate a one-in, one-out–type policy (swap shops).
Concept
The free store is a form of constructive direct actionDirect action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
that provides a shopping alternative to the capitalist framework, allowing people to exchange goods and services outside of a money-based economy. The roots of the "free store" lie in the anarchist movement
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
. Today the idea is kept alive by the new generations of environmentalists who view the idea as an intriguing way to raise awareness about consumer culture and to promote the reuse
Reuse
To reuse is to use an item more than once. This includes conventional reuse where the item is used again for the same function, and new-life reuse where it is used for a different function. In contrast, recycling is the breaking down of the used item into raw materials which are used to make new...
of commodities. Although free stores have not been uncommon in the United States since the 1960s, the freegan movement has inspired the establishment of more free stores.
Culturally, some people feel that accepting free goods carries a stigma
Social stigma
Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...
, so many people who use these shops are those who are led to them either by need (financially poor, such as student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
s, single parent
Single parent
Single parent is a term that is mostly used to suggest that one parent has most of the day to day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children, which would categorize them as the dominant caregiver...
s and the elderly) or by conviction (anti-capitalists and environmentalists). Swap
Swap
- Finance :* Swap , a derivative in which two parties agree to exchange one stream of cash flows against another* Barter- Technology :* Swap space, related to a computer's virtual memory subsystem...
shops, where you are asked to bring something in order to take something, are one way in which stigma issues are addressed.
Economics
Free stores and similar economic phenomena serve as market intermediaries where the transaction costTransaction cost
In economics and related disciplines, a transaction cost is a cost incurred in making an economic exchange . For example, most people, when buying or selling a stock, must pay a commission to their broker; that commission is a transaction cost of doing the stock deal...
of monetizing the marginal value of the good outweighs the said marginal value. Under such circumstances, giving the good away for free serves to maximize aggregate social wealth by bringing a disused product into active economic use and thereby displacing the use of scarce resources that would be necessary to either create that good a second time, or its substitute, to create the same level of utility.
Similar phenomena
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, really really free market
Really Really Free Market
The Really, Really Free Market movement is a non-hierarchical collective of individuals who form a temporary market based on an alternative gift economy. The RRFM movement aims to counteract capitalism in a non-reactionary way. It holds as a major goal to build a community based on sharing...
groups organize periodic "market days" in city parks. Participants are encouraged to share unneeded items, food, skills and talents (entertainment, haircutting, etc.), to clean up after themselves and to take home any of their own items they were unable to give away during the event. In other cases, used goods are picked up from the donors' homes, thus eliminating overhead costs. Donors are often not motivated by financial need or strictly anti-capitalist conviction, but by a desire to get rid of what would otherwise be garbage
Waste
Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
without adding it to landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
s.
Another recent development in the give-away shop movement is the creation of the Freecycle Network. It was started in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
for the purpose of connecting people who had extra belongings to get rid of with people who needed something, organized as discussion/distribution lists, and usually hosted on one of the free websites.
See also
- Diggers (theater)Diggers (theater)The Diggers were a radical community-action group of activists and Improv actors operating from 1966–68, based in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Their politics were such that they have sometimes been categorized as "left-wing." More accurately, they were "community anarchists"...
a group of early adopters of the free-store concept - Regiving
- Gift economyGift economyIn the social sciences, a gift economy is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards . Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community...
- Drive (charity)Drive (charity)In charitable organizations, a drive is a collection of items for people who need them, such as clothing, used items, books, canned food, cars, etc. Some drives are that people go through their inventory, bag the items up, and put them in a giveaway bin, or charitable organizations such as Big...
- Really Really Free MarketReally Really Free MarketThe Really, Really Free Market movement is a non-hierarchical collective of individuals who form a temporary market based on an alternative gift economy. The RRFM movement aims to counteract capitalism in a non-reactionary way. It holds as a major goal to build a community based on sharing...
- The Freecycle NetworkThe Freecycle NetworkThe Freecycle Network is a non-profit organization registered in the state of Arizona, USA, and separately registered as a UK charity, that organizes a worldwide network of "gifting" groups, aiming to divert reusable goods from landfills...