I agree with part of this. I don’t feel any shame about it (your enumerated reasons for thrifting make perfect sense to me, plus the other rationale in my paragraph below). But yes, it is very rare that I see anyone in my demo thrifting (guessing from casual appearance, clothing etc.). Most are either immigrant families or (again, just a guess from appearance) lower middle class folks. But hey, I grew up somewhere between dirt poor and lower middle class.
The rare one I do see who appears to be in a similar demo is the mom with young adult daughter in tow, trying to outfit a college apartment. Which is kind of why your other thread inspired me to start going, as I have 4 kids in 4 apartments. But most of your enumerated reasons apply here, too. They don’t know yet what kinds of things they’ll enjoy using, don’t have to worry about scratching a “new” item, etc.
So I mostly kitchen thrift. I started skimming the male shirt row, though, when a daughter pulled for me what appeared to be a completely new Tommy Bahama short sleeve, button down shirt. Since then I’ve found a second new Tommy Bahama shirt. Two new TB shirts for $10.
