10 September 2025

How can consumers overcome the temptation to buy new and buy now? Supporting people to make more ethical and sustainable consumption choices.
A display of handbags and coats in a charity shop

Contemporary consumption patterns are unsustainable

Many of us realise how wasteful our society is and that contemporary consumption patterns are unsustainable. In Scotland, 80% of our carbon emissions are estimated to come from “things we make, buy, use and ultimately throw away” (Zero Waste Scotland, 2025). One of the culprits and biggest polluters on the planet is the fashion industry. Responsible for about 10% of global emissions, 20% of global clean water pollution (European Parliament, 2021), and 92 million tons of clothing waste annually (Global Fashion Agenda, 2017), it is seriously unsustainable and in need of a transformation towards a more circular model where we can extend the lives of products and resources already in circulation. Second-hand goods offer such promise, challenging the status quo of the take-make-waste model of the linear economy. In this thought leadership piece, I discuss how consumers can overcome the temptation to buy new and buy now and be supported in making more ethical and sustainable consumption choices.

Overcoming the temptation to buy new and buy now

Buying second-hand is more circular but it is not always an easy solution. Every day, brands bombard consumers with advertising and sales, trying to entice them to buy new and buy now. Meanwhile, many consumers still find second-hand shopping problematic, whether because, historically, it has been associated with more social stigma then buying new, because second-hand clothes have been in close contact with the skin of others, or because it’s simply less convenient and reliable and more time-consuming than mainstream retail models. And yet, second-hand consumption is on the rise: the global second-hand apparel market grew 15% in 2024, and second-hand accounted for $227 billion or 9% of global apparel spend (ThredUp, 2025). So how do shoppers who want to embrace second-hand overcome the temptation to buy new and buy now?

The secret is ensuring second-hand consumers are supported to shop ethically by others. In my recent research paper, co-authored with Dr Stephanie Schreven and Dr Lucy Wishart, we asked consumers in UK charity shops what factors encouraged them to shop second-hand.

Moral struggles in ethical shopping

The moral struggles in trying to become more ethical and sustainable were evident amongst our participants. They saw shopping second-hand as the ‘right thing to do’, as something that feels good, as something that helps them ‘avoid feeding the beast of fast fashion’ and adding to the waste of the fashion industry. Participants derived pleasure from making this ethical choice, as well as from the shopping experience itself – the variety of stock and styles, the bargains, and the hunt for unique items or gems. At the same time, we also observed some consumers experiencing aversions towards second-hand shopping, particularly disgust towards the embodied contamination through not knowing where the clothes have come from or if they have been cleaned. Aristotle’s theory of virtue ethics, which explains how an individual’s moral decision-making is a process propelled by pleasure and pain, helps us understand this tension. In other words, people are attracted by what makes them feel good and avoid actions that give rise to guilt.

A positive, shared social experience encourages people to shop second-hand

However, whilst virtue ethics foregrounds the individual, our research revealed that part of this pleasure is not individual, it is a social experience. We found that consumers are influenced, and supported in their ethical decision-making, by family, friends, and wider community, and by the actions of the second-hand retail sites, such as charity shops. The consumers in our study felt that they were attracted to second-hand shopping in sites that were aesthetically pleasing and focused on creating an experience, rather than the stereotypical sites full of clutter, smells, and unwanted stuff. They enjoyed spaces that were organised and clean, light, spacious enough to walk and look through stock, and with items neatly displayed. This didn’t take away from the treasure-hunting many associate with second-hand shopping; the thrill of finding something unique was key, but many now prefer to rummage and search for the treasure in spaces more reminiscent of mainstream retail.

Importantly, consumers were not just attracted to the aesthetics of the shops, they were also converted to shopping second-hand through the influence of others and enjoying the experience together with others. Encouraged by family members and friends, who proudly shared their good finds, many learned to shop second-hand with their older family members. It is through this social experience that consumers reassessed their relationship with shopping and its impacts and changed their consumption practices, even turning it into a hobby to engage in with friends, making a day of it and exploring all the second-hand shops along the street. Charity shops also act as community hubs, supporting both second-hand consumption and their local communities, where people come in not just to shop but also ‘for a blether’ (a chat) or for local information. Highlighting not just the environmental benefit, but also the help the charity shops provide for people in the community, it is the positive and friendly environment, created by charity shop workers, as well as the community of second-hand consumers, that supports people in their choice to buy second-hand clothes.

What our Aristotelian virtue ethics approach in this study highlighted is the need to support consumers in making ethical decisions by enhancing the pleasure of shopping second-hand and simultaneously mitigating the pain associated with it. We found second-hand shopping is an enjoyable experience, suggesting that the consumption of second-hand clothes, whilst being less wasteful, does not have to be less restrained than consuming new. It is also not an individual act (of virtue) but rather one that requires the support of local communities and retailers, as proposed in the key points below.

Key points for circular economy and second-hand retailers and communities

  1. Reuse systems and infrastructures, such as charity shops, are crucial in supporting consumer choices to make more ethical and more circular choices – whether by donating, reselling, or buying used.
  2. Second-hand retailers, e.g. charity shop managers and workers, can encourage consumers to engage in second-hand consumption by leveraging the pleasure of the shopping experience via making their shops aesthetically appealing (lighter, more spacious, organised, clean) and enhancing the ‘thrill of the find’.
  3. Second-hand consumption is found to be heavily driven by social and environmental concerns and impacts of fast fashion; yet, charity retail appears slow at adopting sustainability messaging. Our research recommends that marketing of charity retail focuses on reinforcing its inherent sustainability, both social and environmental, thus highlighting the virtuousness, alongside the pleasure, of engaging in second-hand consumption.
  4. Consumers themselves play an important role in encouraging others to join the second-hand consumption community. They should spread word-of-mouth around their positive experiences and treasures found, and bring friends and family with them on charity shop days out to enjoy these experiences together and learn about second-hand consumption from each other. Second-hand retailers can further encourage this social experience in their promotional narratives.

Read the full paper

Refashioning Second-Hand Clothes Consumption Through Pleasure, Pain, Seduction and Conversion: A Virtue Ethics Perspective

Kristina Auxtova

Kristina Auxtova

Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Edinburgh Business School