Buffalo Exchange- Leading the Thrift Pack 3/3

Second Hand Fashion On the Rise- Buffalo Exchange Philadelphia

One of the most popular thrift stores in Philadelphia is the Buffalo Exchange on Chestnut Street. In the midst of a commercial shopping district, Philadelphia's Buffalo Exchange has managed to thrive while other neighboring stores seem to be struggling.

Eric Lazak, 28, a happy customer at Buffalo Exchange Philadelphia.

To examine the economic affects on second hand stores as a whole, one must differentiate between the Goodwill and Salvation Army and re-sale stores such as Buffalo Exchange. The former do not discriminate as to what makes it on their racks or pay their donators. Vintage thrift stores, such as Buffalo Exchange, sell and trade the clothing at the store and hand select what is on their store hangers and shelves.  This makes the Buffalo Exchange an unique second-hand store.

"We have our own thing going on, and it works!" said Mike Schaeffer, Manager of Buffalo Exchange Philadelphia. "All the clothing and accessories you see here are bought, sold and traded locally with the customers in our store" Schaeffer explained.

Schaeffer gestures to the busy Buffalo Exchange, thriving with customers looking for an unique peice of clothing to take home. At the other end are people that bring bags in and barter for their clothes to sell to Buffalo Exchange for money or store credit.

"More and more people take the store credit option, which shows that our loyal fan base is growing", said Schaeffer, "We wouldn't have one-of-a-kind items without the donators who bring special stuff from home in search of someone else's treasures."

Buffalo Exchange has a growing amount of these so called treasures, and has been so successful within the past two years that they were able to expand the Philadelphia branch. "Its really great, our store doubled within the past two years and now we have space for all the stylized things to be going on. Spinning racks and color co-ordinated pods, more space for our shoppers too makes it nicer to have a look-around" Schaeffer said about the stores recent expansion.

Prior to the merging of buildings, the store next door was a retail shoe shop, which unfortunately went under in this economy. "It was a sad convenience honestly that they happen to be right next door and needing to sell at a time where we were in the position to buy" Schaeffer said.


The suffering economy has left people by and large in Philadelphia with less money to spend on their clothing and their financial energies go to more pertinent places. "You can get a great deal on designer label clothing here." Schaeffer said. "We have it all, and I think more and more women actually like supporting the re-sale industry to get their designer clothes. These big buys make a difference in our revenue."


With people religiously shopping thrift for all purpose clothing and accessories, Buffalo Exchange
exemplifies the rise of second-hand stores in a suffering economy. "The average price is $15" said Schaeffer; that is ten dollars less than the average retail store clothing item, according to a survey by H&M Human Resources.


Buffalo Exchange Philadelphia's expansion shows a quantifiable success in an economic decline. Perhaps Schaeffer and his team really have found a magical formula of customer involvement, revolving inventory, and a happy medium between commercial (labels) and commonly donated second-hand items.