We’re reading Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale By Adam Minter available at Indiebound or wherever you get books. This week, the goal was to make some headway into the book and get in up to chapter eight.
Here’s some conversation topics to get us started:
Now that you have a better sense of the industry that gets used stuff into the hands of people who want it, are you interested in changing the way you dispose of stuff?
Having seen how other countries handle their secondhand stuff, what should yours do differently?
What was the last thing you had repaired rather than disposed of?
See you in two weeks for the finale, also, we’ll be doing a new vote soon on other books to read, let me know any recommendations you have!
I completely empathize with the guy in Arizona who could spend all his money putting kids to work refinishing furniture and sorting frying pans to keep them from scrap heap but has to focus on his bigger social service mission. So many people have a tough time understanding that just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done by your organization.
And the move of drug dealers to becoming secondhand-goods dealers after a crackdown in Mexico was really interesting. Unintended consequences!
Peak Curtains! Continuing to enjoy this journey into the 2nd Hand World. Would love to spend a day or two with Shoe Guy. Also the section with Todd Wilson of Star Wipers getting all Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about the quality of wiping rags was quite interesting.
I have become obsessed with the city of Mississauga and why it became a perfect outpost of the secondhand industry. I just love that a weird cocktail of immigration, economics and climate — their summer clothes are incredibly lightly used because it’s very cold there! — conspired to give this city an incredibly odd industry
I completely empathize with the guy in Arizona who could spend all his money putting kids to work refinishing furniture and sorting frying pans to keep them from scrap heap but has to focus on his bigger social service mission. So many people have a tough time understanding that just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done by your organization.
And the move of drug dealers to becoming secondhand-goods dealers after a crackdown in Mexico was really interesting. Unintended consequences!
Peak Curtains! Continuing to enjoy this journey into the 2nd Hand World. Would love to spend a day or two with Shoe Guy. Also the section with Todd Wilson of Star Wipers getting all Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about the quality of wiping rags was quite interesting.
I have become obsessed with the city of Mississauga and why it became a perfect outpost of the secondhand industry. I just love that a weird cocktail of immigration, economics and climate — their summer clothes are incredibly lightly used because it’s very cold there! — conspired to give this city an incredibly odd industry