Worn Again Thrift’s 2024 Fall Drop yields massive crowd

Drop Day

Worn Again Thrift in downtown Bellingham held its annual Fall Drop event on Saturday, Oct. 5. A crowd mostly of people in their late teens and early twenties – overwhelmingly Western Washington University students – were stationed in a line outside the store, stretching a full block down Champion Street before Worn Again opened their doors at 11 a.m.  

Every fall and spring, Worn Again Thrift hosts a Black Friday-esque event where they unveil their new inventory. Year after year, Worn Again’s Fall Drop has attracted so much traffic that some people arrive as early as 6 a.m. to get their first pick of the fall haul. 

The long, long line

Tiffany Fitzgerald and Elleanna Dorsey thought they would beat the crowd by arriving right at opening time, but they ended up at the back of a triple-digit line. 

“Tiff was curious, so she just asked somebody at the front, ‘When did you get here?’ and they said, ‘Since seven.’ Crazy – I didn’t realize it was that serious. I feel like this is the equivalent of a concert line,” Dorsey said.

Natalie Mote, Worn Again’s store manager of two years, said the people at the very front of the line arrived before the employees do.

“Last Fall Drop, the second people in line had a sign that said ‘Been here since 6 a.m. just to get a Patagonia Synchilla,’” Mote said. “The person who had that sign bought like three Patagonia Synchillas and was super stoked about them. I asked him, ‘Was it worth it?’ and he said, ‘Hell yeah.’”

Mote said they’ve never seen anyone who waited in the line leave without buying anything. 

Sales and students

Gray Johnston, an employee at Y’s Buys Thrift Boutique in downtown Bellingham, went to Fall Drop a couple of years ago and was intimidated by the crowd. 

“It was really scary to be thrifting next to so many people. It was competitive,” Johnston said. “They put out all the best stuff and everybody’s hungry for a good deal.” 

Y’s Buys is more of a traditional thrift store compared to Worn Again, which is curated vintage. Johnston said when Y’s Buys does sales, like their $10 fill-a-bag sale and their 75% off sale, they get big crowds but nothing like Worn Again. While Y’s Buys typically sees an increase in business at the start of the school year, they had an almost record-breaking day of sales due to the shoppers around who had come for Worn Again’s Fall Drop.  

Mote said Worn Again gets a lot of customers who are Western students, so much so that they intentionally time Fall Drop to come after move-in weekend. 

Bellingham likes to thrift

Bellingham’s robust thrifting culture is behind the incredible turnout for Fall Drop; many people in line were already seasoned thrifters. 

Though this was their first time at the event, Elle Crooks and Corrine Van Warden have shopped at Worn Again before, as well as other thrift stores in the area like Value Village and estate sales. Van Warden said her wardrobe is about 95% thrifted, and Crooks said theirs is 100%. 

Grace Manthei, Brenna Lovgren and Amelia Rishea heard about Fall Drop from fliers at the Thunderpussy concert on the WWU campus on Sept. 28. All three came to Fall Drop with a $50 budget. They agree that the Bellingham thrift scene is big and comes with a lot of options, but prices are a little high. 

Trying and buying

To speed things along, Worn Again turns one of its fitting rooms into an express fitting room for customers with a handful of items. 

Mason Carter, a customer at Worn Again bought a few items including a Halloween t-shirt, a long-sleeved graphic tee with a dog on it, some pattern-stitched pants and a novelty pin that reads “I stood in line at the ‘24 Worn Again Fall Drop and all I got was this stupid pin.” He decided to forgo the fitting room because he didn’t want to spend more time in the store.

“I’m gonna wing it and hope everything works,” Carter said. 

Before and after

This year, Worn Again closed the day before Fall Drop, allowing employees to work straight through the day preparing for the sale, including driving clothing up from their storage unit and hanging all 2,000 to 3,000 items on hangers. Mote said the storage unit is so massive it’s hard to put a number to the amount of clothing in there. 

Worn Again’s storage unit is full of clothing waiting to be put on the racks. The amount they brought out for Fall Drop alone is significant enough that plenty of items remain when the last person in line comes in on drop day. 

“There’s so much stuff that there will still be things for people to shop on Sunday; there will still be items for people to shop when we re-open on Tuesday; there will still be items weeks from now,” said Mote.

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