Editor’s Note: The following is part of a class project originally initiated in the classroom of Ball State University professor Adam Kuban in fall 2021. Kuban continued the project this past fall, challenging his students to find sustainability efforts in the Muncie area and pitch their ideas to Deanna Watson, editor of The Star Press, Journal & Courier and Pal-Item. Several such stories were featured in November and December 2022.
MUNCIE, Ind. — After COVID-19 forced Attic Window Thrift Store and Donation Center to close all five of its locations for three months in early 2020, Louanna Ross, director of Retail Operations of Attic Window, didn’t know how profitable the business would be upon reopening.
The store produced record-setting years in the rest of 2020 and 2021 and had 2100 cars drop off donations at its south Muncie location at 400 W. Memorial Drive in October 2022.
Ross has been involved with the thrift store for over nine years and oversees its stores across Muncie, Hartford City, New Castle and Winchester. Attic Window operates under Muncie Mission Ministries and sells clothes, shoes, furniture and other items.
With 40 years of experience in retail management, Ross said she’s seen increased care from her customers, staff and vendors toward sustainability in recent years.
“We don’t just do retail; we are huge on recycling,” Ross said. “If a T-shirt is 50% cotton or more, we’re recycling those and cutting out the logos. Factories come in and buy them anywhere from $8 to $11. We’re still using the product [even] if it’s not worthy to sell.”
Emily Gartner, owner of Art Threads Studios in Indianapolis, has been a full-time textile artist for the last 22 years.
Gartner has worked in New York City’s fashion industry and served as assistant curator of textiles for the Allentown Art Museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Gartner said thrift stores are important because they allow items that might’ve ended up in landfills to be sold to customers who need them.
“I won’t allow my small studio to be a dumping ground for people’s off-cast items of sewing machines, fabric and clothing,” Gartner said. “If I don’t have an immediate use for it, I’d rather they donate to a thrift store who can use it.”
Ross said Attic Window follows an organized routine of recycling. In the warehouse area, Ross said staff members identify button-down T-shirts that aren’t worthy of selling and cut the buttons off and recycle them. Ross said they also recycle aluminum, cardboard, cast iron, copper, metal and paper. This offers Attic Window the chance to upcycle, which involves taking parts of unwanted products and turning them into new material.
During recent years, Gartner and Ross said they’ve noticed younger customers showing more care and urgency toward what’s in their shopping cart.
According to a 2020 study by researchers at Molloy University (New York), “The Sustainable Closet,” more than 70% of undergraduate students from a college located in the northeast United States were aware of resale fashion platforms.
The study highlighted social networking as the largest contributing part of enjoyment from resale because Generation Z is interested in posting their clothes and viewing what their friends are wearing.
