A lot of the reason why op shop prices have increased is because of
op shop resellers. You see so many on Instagram now.
I always try to limit that by making sure I'm never taking more than I need,
which can be quite hard because people who are poor deserve high quality garments.
They deserve to have the cool branding.
When I was younger, when we were poor, it wasn't necessarily vintage
that we were looking for.
We were just looking for clothes to, you know, warm our backs, basically.
Kia ora, my name is Anissa and I run the Spice Vintage.
I gather clothes from different op shops and I take photos of them.
I curate them, to sell to people.
My average weekly income is roughly $500.
I get $380 from work and income,
and then I make roughly $120 a week from my business.
But it can fluctuate depending on so many different things.
So last week I spent about $430.
My weekly rent is $205.
Weekly Internet bill $7.50.
Power bill is $31.
Transport and petrol $22.64.
Each month, my car insurance is about $37.
So me and my partner,
we live in a beautiful two bedroom house in Linwood, Ōtautahi.
Linwood rep.
It's all about like what seasonal as well, I try and be really ruthless
with what I'm getting because
it's really important that there is enough to go around for everyone.
Op shops were massive for me growing up because my mum,
she was a single mum, a student as well.
We barely had any money.
And so op shops played a really pivotal role in giving our family
those necessary things when we couldn't afford to get it brand new.
So this is more of a spring find.
I bought this for $20.
It was actually like from a rural op shop.
It looks like it's got slight signs of wear,
but nothing that also I can't fix.
Like I do have basic sort of sewing knowledge.
I'd probably sell this for at least $60 just because of the rarity of it
and because it's a much more sort of formal gown as well,
and because it might need work done to it and also the time it takes me
to find it, modelling it.
Like I said, I went out to a rural op shop to get it.
So that sort of time, and that energy that definitely helps contribute to the cost.
I think a lot of the reason
thrift flipping is seen as controversial was because it takes away
from low income families, which I can totally empathise with.
I challenge that, however, because of the overconsumption of fashion,
we've got so much coming through and I've never gone into an op shop
and seen a shortage of clothing and a lot of it gets dumped to landfill.
I think blaming thrift
resellers for gentrification of op shops is quite unfair.
I think that a lot of the time op shops ought to be held accountable as well
because they're the ones that determine the prices.
So how do you feel about, say,
for example, someone like me coming in and reselling clothing that you guys have?
I'm never offended because I feel that everything's for sale
and if you find something and you find it at a bargain
and you can onsell it for more,
I feel that's fine because we're still getting ours
and you're still getting something as well.
So for me, it's all kei te pai.
Do you find with that said like being in a low
socio-economic area, having to cater to people
that maybe can't afford clothing and stuff?
Do you find that people who are reselling, taking away that taonga from them?
When you put it like that, yeah. Okay. Yeah.
But then we do also have lots of other things for them
to pick as well and everyone has a different eye
for what they're looking for.
Yeah. Yeah.
So I feel like sometimes there's always something that for someone.
It's really important that I uphold kaitiakitanga for Papatūānuku,
for my whānau.
The circular fashion industry I feel extends
life of vintage clothing to reduce it from going into landfill.
I think clothing is like the 30% contributor to CO2 emissions
and water waste.
And it's really important that more people
pay attention to where their clothing is going
and how they can contribute to extending clothing’s life as well.
My average weekly groceries can fluctuate.
Last week it was about $58.
We got chicken, soy milk, ingredients for stir fry
like broccoli, bok choy, carrots, packet stir fry.
Always got to have coffee.
Listerine.
Yeah, pretty basic.
We generally like to stick to a budget, especially because we split everything
down the middle.
My average weekly eating out or takeaways is $41,
which is probably a bit higher than I like it to be.
So each week I spend about $30 on subscriptions and entertainment.
It's $8 month for my prime video,
$30 month for Les Mills On Demand,
$20 a month for my editing software.
I will spend $30 at the op shop.
I set myself a $30 budget and I really am persistent with not going over it.
I decided to start my business full time around the end of March.
I had some really upsetting hospital visits which made me realise
I kind of needed my own schedule to work on.
I left my job at Mecca.
It was such a scary time just because of the uncertainty.
So in my cheque account at the moment I've got $35.
In my savings account, I've got $177.
In my KiwiSaver I've got $9,737.
That feels pretty good to me because like that's
the most amount of money that I've ever seen in my bank account.
My student loan is a big fat zero, which is awesome.
I was lucky to be part of the people who had their first year free at uni.
Wasn't really for me though.
I actually chose to study at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa instead
and all of their courses are free.
WINZ, they have what's called a flexi wage, which I don't think
many people know about.
They can help cover your living costs or business startup expenses
while you are on that sort of really uncertain financial period.
So going on the benefit was something that was so hard for me, especially
because a lot of internalised racism.
There was a narrative in my family that if you're on the benefit,
you stay on the benefit.
But that's something I really had to unlearn and something I'm
so glad I did, because if I hadn't of learnt to let go of my pride
around that financial security and support from the government,
I would never have been able to do what I do now.
I think a lot of what I struggled with
was being whakamā about starting my own business,
especially because I didn't feel like I had the right resources
or I felt like people were doing what I was doing but better
and I think that a lot of embracing my own Māori identity
was recognising that I had individuality to offer.
Wāhine Māori can be business owners.
We are powerful. We do have our mana from our ancestors and
it shows, it shows in what we do.
It shows in our creative expression.