1. Where does this economy exist? Be as specific as possible.

There are two local thrift store/second hand shops in my neighboring town of Damariscotta. One is called Miles Memorial and the other is named Youngin’s. (I know the names need work) Miles Memorial is a donation shop ran by volunteers 3 days a week through the local hospital and the latter is a fulltime employer and also donation based thrift store. It exists within essentially the midcoast though it’s not confined to it; however, I’d argue very few from outside Lincoln County, ME frequent as it seemingly isn’t worth it?

1. What specific value (eg, hours, credit, tokens) is exchanged in this economy?

Donations of clothing, toys, items, etc… are taken in by both shops and in return as your items amount to value or sales you receive ‘store credits’ for which you can purchase items from either place. (Again both are separate entities but function in the same way and serve as a little thrifting microcosm)

1. How many people are currently part of this economy?

I believe Miles Memorial has about 20 volunteers and as far as customers/members probably somewhere in the low hundreds. Like 150-300. Youngin’s in contrast is about 6-9 full time employees and has significantly more accounts. I would say possibly more than 1500 but for sure less than 500 active. Possibly even less. (They have been utilizing the model for longer and to greater effect so they probably have a lot of open accounts but considerably less active accounts)

1. How many total people could the economy handle before it broke down?

In the current buildings? I think a 750ish margin of active shoppers divided over 7 days is probably on the higher end of the spectrum for their maximum sales capacity. (This is about 107 customers a day) Which is pretty realistic in my opinion for the size and scale of the businesses if we’re assuming each customer is constantly interacting in the same way. Also here, the sustainability is called into question as what would increasing members contribute to more? Donations of items/clothes or the consumption of clothes/items? At a smaller sub 500 regular model with donations from realistically more so the model succeeds relatively well. Beyond the size of the buildings/staff the overall level of stability is tied to lower end consumption, which is not inherently a bad thing!

1. In your judgment, does/could the economy contribute to a healthy social fabric, and why?

I think so. It’s still got elements of traditional fiat currency markets and capital interest; however, it promotes at minimum the reuse of already produced and consumed items that could be going to waste while allowing members to build ‘credits’ for purchase of donated goods reliant on their own level of donation. The more you donate the more you can acquire without purchase. As we’ve moved into a truly globalized industrial model of planned obsolescence and cheap consumption it’s increasingly important to not just focus on recycling our waste, a energy intensive model, but also on minimizing our future waste and reusing are already produced items. So much of our waste is food, clothes, machines, tech, etc… that we consume, use, and throw away. Part of sustainability is “Catch and Store Energy” and relinquishing cars or clothing in slight disrepair to ‘trash’ neglects the energy and material used to produce the item.