The Style Issue 2023: Secondhand Shopping Is for Everyone

Anyone could fall in love with shopping at a place like This ’n That Thrift. The Richland Park thrift store offers everything from new and used clothes to books and home goods to “bric-a-brac” — miscellaneous decorative goods otherwise called “knickknacks,” “knickknacks in your backpack” or just “tchotchkes” by store president Greer Broemel. The shop offers a perfect mixture of kitschy, unexpected goods and forgotten treasures looking for a new home.

Take a look around, though. You really could run into anyone shopping here.

A trendy high school student looking for a throwback Dale Earnhardt jacket bumps elbows with an older woman thumbing through a stack of cookbooks she hasn’t seen in ages. Over in the clothing section, a man building a professional wardrobe for his first office job stands a few feet away from a vintage clothing reseller carefully curating an armful of specific brands and styles. It’s Nashville, so of course there’s a group of chipper out-of-towners trying to choose an Opryland-branded souvenir — right next to an aggressively cool local who wouldn’t normally be caught dead in the same place as a group of tourists. 

“We have so many different personalities that come in,” says Dorothy Rogers, a longtime volunteer and former president of This ’n That. “We have people who come in who just want to shop, but this is their emotional day. Just the fact that they’re here is an emotional support system.”

It’s easy to revisit the same kinds of places and see the same kinds of faces in Nashville, a city full of specialty shops and attractions that allow folks to carve out tightly knit communities for themselves. But like a neighborhood restaurant with a delicious $10 lunch special, a great secondhand store is a place for everybody. Where else in town can you see so many different people under the same roof?

“We want all sizes,” says Tristen Gaspadarek, pop singer-songwriter and co-owner of Anaconda Vintage in East Nashville. “We don’t discriminate against one style or one era. We want everything there for everybody. We want everyone to be able to come into our shop and feel not only welcome but also like they can find something.”

Anaconda Vintage offers a more curated — and yes, usually more expensive — inventory of vintage goods when compared to a bargain-oriented thrift store like This ’n That. Despite the difference in price points, stores attract customers with a similar logic: If you can’t find anything you like, come back next week. You’ll probably find something that’s your style.

“We are constantly turning [inventory], so you can come there every week and find something that wasn’t there,” Gaspadarek says. “If you didn’t find it at our store, you could probably go down the street and find it.”

That’s a good proposition for everyone from local musicians to bachelorettes popping around for a weekend. Gaspadarek sees both kinds of people at Anaconda, and she’s proud to be part of a growing antique and vintage scene attracting shoppers to East Nashville. (For more on Nashville’s vintage scene, check out Kelsey Beyeler’s story in last year’s Style Issue.) 

“Whenever I would go on tour, I would try to find the record store, the vintage shop and the used bookstore,” Gaspadarek says. “There’s a tourist culture of people that like to thrift, and they like to go to vintage stores. They like the old stuff.”

For some shoppers, especially those on low or fixed incomes, secondhand stores are a lifeline. One of This ’n That’s beloved return customers is a woman who buys sheet sets — just $2 for sheets and $1 for a pillowcase — and ships them to families in Haiti. Other shoppers buy clothes for job interviews, dresses for nights out or fun decor they might not be able to afford otherwise. There’s dignity in being able to afford something purely fun, like a Nashville Predators license plate frame or a board game, without having a large amount of discretionary income.

“The bottom line is the money — the bargain,” Broemel says. “You can get so much for your money here. I think that’s a big thing. They love us.”

Refreshingly, none of the store owners interviewed seemed to have a “preferred” customer. The fact that TikTok teens buy bright Y2K-style items (that are, in some cases, older than they are) right alongside retirees shopping for brands they’ve loved for decades is a strength. And it’s not an accident.

“We’re rising to the occasion of saying you don’t ever have to go to a big box and buy clothes anymore,” Gaspadarek says. “I always say I’m in the recycling business, as fun as it is for me to pick things out and curate things.”

The Style Issue 2023

Checking out Nashville’s best street style, plus a look at our vintage scene and some of the city’s most stylish residents