Sustainability

Mount poses at her booth during the October edition of Rosemont’s Mega Pop-Up Vintage and Self-Care event. Photo Chloe Siohan

Chloe Siohan,
Local Journalism Initiative

High shipping fees and a suffering economy offset sellers’ sustainability goals

When Barbara Mount moved to Montreal from Ottawa last year, she could not find a job. 

Being unable to speak French only made her job search more difficult. In need of an income, she decided to create her own job and turned to selling used clothes on Facebook Marketplace. Her boyfriend’s mother helped by donating old clothes and asking her friends to do the same. 

What Mount didn’t expect was how quickly her last-resort business venture would take off, which now dons the name Barb’s Finds. 

Selling secondhand clothing is Mount’s passion, as it is the “perfect match between sustainability and fashion.”

Launching Barb’s Finds allowed Mount to pursue her love for fashion through a sustainability lens. Now, Mount sources the clothing she sells from Facebook Marketplace, thrift stores and a secret store that she vows to “never tell anybody about.” 

A month after launching Barb’s Finds, Mount, wearing a turquoise blazer and an effervescent smile, opened a booth with her boyfriend at Rosemont’s Mega Pop-Up Vintage and Self-Care event. The event, recently re-branded as Turquoise’s Treasures’ Pop-Ups, is held monthly at St. Jean Berchmans Catholic Church. It features a barrage of eclectic vendors and small businesses. 

Despite the harsh, shiny linoleum floors and hospital-style lighting in the church, shoppers frequent the event, looking for that must-have, one-of-a-kind vintage piece. 

Sellers like Mount are tangible evidence of younger generations’ tendency toward sustainability in the wake of the increasingly precarious climate crisis. According to trend forecasting company WGSN, the secondhand clothing market is projected to grow dramatically, with Gen Z being the driving force behind the movement. 

However, the reality of secondhand selling in Montreal is a contrast to the success stories seen on social media, especially from American secondhand sellers. Canadian sellers struggle with high shipping rates and a limited customer base amidst an economy where “the threat of wide-ranging tariffs by the new US administration has increased uncertainty,” according to the Bank of Canada. Even sustainability as an essential component of the secondhand market is called into question by disillusioned sellers. 

In her last year at McGill University, and wanting to make money before she graduates, Chloe Chan Lam thought she could start casually selling the clothes she’s accumulated through the years. Her friends were using the reselling platform Depop to clean out their closets, making it the obvious choice for Chan Lam to list her items. She started her Depop shop almost a year ago, selling items like a cream Canada Goose coat and a Liz Lisa black and white-trimmed skort.

Even though Chan Lam made the occasional sale, she would “probably lose money” if she ran the shop long-term. 

For example, a lightweight T-shirt, which would fit into an extra-small Canada Post flat rate box, costs $18 to ship. Flat rate shipping goes up to $32.99 for an extra-large box, and can only weigh up to 5 kg to be shipped. Given that consumers can order items from retailers like Amazon without paying for shipping, Canada Post shipping fees are a crushing reality for online secondhand businesses in Canada. 

Camelia Gonzalez, another secondhand clothing seller based in Montreal, initially found success through selling big-ticket items. As a teenager, her parents would take her to New York City, where she would scour secondhand shops to find designer pieces at more affordable prices. 

After amassing unique designer pieces over the years, Gonzalez combined her passions for business and fashion to make extra money, opening a Depop shop. Her very first sale on the platform was a pair of limited edition Nike shoes that she made $200 from. However, Gonzalez has recently noticed that “people have less money to spend,” which has been impacting her business.

Two years ago, Gonzalez bought a highly sought-after Dior bag for $4,000 and sold it for $7,000 within one week of listing it. However, she listed the same bag for the same price this year, and it took months to sell. Before she eventually sold it on Depop, she took it to a vintage luxury consignment store in Montreal as a last-ditch effort to try to get rid of the bag. They offered her about half of what she paid for it. 

Gonzalez said the owner told her, “‘It’s the Montreal market. People will not pay that much for a bag.’” 

According to Statistics Canada, retail sales have increased since 2020. However, the consumer price index, which can be interpreted as a measure of inflation, has also gone up since 2020, an indication that consumers are choosing how and where they spend their money more carefully. 

Depop, however, allows Gonzalez to reach a wider audience, which she uses to her advantage, as many of her buyers are international. While she does sell small-ticket items to Quebecers and Canadians, her big-ticket items are generally purchased by international buyers. 

The issue of sustainable business practices, a driver behind many secondhand clothing businesses, is thrown into question when shipping comes into play. 

While Canada Post touts carbon-neutral shipping, it’s not because they are producing less carbon dioxide emissions than before. Rather, according to the Canada Post website, they are “https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/corporate-news/news-release/2023-04-27-canada-post-introduces-carbon-neutral-shipping removing one tonne from the atmosphere through the purchase of high-quality, accredited carbon offsets.”

“It’s easy to portray that [as a] really sustainable option,” Gonzalez said. “It’s still gonna pollute.” 

Additionally, due to packaging waste, Gonzalez found it difficult to run her Depop shop sustainably. Chan Lam came to a similar realization regarding her secondhand business on Depop. 

Mount, however, believes “the mall is evil,” and wants more people to shop secondhand rather than at retail destinations like Royalmount, the first luxury mall in Montreal.

Sustainability is also important to secondhand clothing businesses like Gabrielle Mountenay’s, another seller at Turquoise’s Treasures’ Pop-Up event in Rosemont. 

During the pandemic, Mountenay started playing around with her wardrobe and taking photographs. What was born from her COVID-19 shenanigans was Duchess Thrifts, a collection of curated vintage pieces that reflected her personal style. 

Unlike other secondhand sellers, Mountenay focuses on selling in person to “keep things in the community.” For her, this also means sourcing high-quality goods made in Canada.

Though sticking to an in-person business model can limit audience reach, it helps Mountenay avoid the environmental harm that is associated with shipping. 

“Shipping sometimes doesn’t really make sense to me,” she said.

While some Montreal secondhand clothing sellers have found a way to make things work, the odds of finding success for online sellers are difficult to overcome for many. Still, sellers like Mount urge consumers to move toward secondhand consumption. 

“There are so many clothes on this Earth already. Don’t go buy new ones. People have much cooler stuff just waiting for you at their houses, at pop-ups or on Facebook Marketplace,” Mount said.

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 9, published February 11, 2025.