A Letter From the Swap Shop: We Need You!
Hey Reedies! We’ve reached the halfway point of the semester already, and the Swap Shop managers want to take this opportunity to reflect on the year thus far and look forward to the weeks and months ahead. The Swap Shop, our community free store located in the lower level of the GCC, has been getting a lot of use, and it’s been great to see people so excited about their new-to-them secondhand finds, from raincoats to Halloween costumes to Blåhaj sharks. If you’ve stopped by in the last couple weeks, however, you might have noticed that the racks are looking much sparser than usual. We’d like to give a little insight as to why this is, how the Swap Shop works behind the scenes, and what you can do to help this incredible campus resource thrive throughout the year.
The Swap Shop was founded in 2022 with the support of a grant from Reed’s Office for Institutional Diversity (OID) as a sustainable social justice initiative to support low-SES and first generation students by providing access to free, quality dorm essentials and clothing. Over the years, the Swap Shop has become a beloved spot on campus for all Reedies. Since its origin, nothing new has been purchased for the Swap Shop—all materials are secondhand donations from within the Reed community, dually embodying the slogan “Reedies help Reedies” and our institutional commitment to sustainability by reducing waste on campus and limiting the consumption of new goods.
In its ideal form, the Swap Shop functions as a circular economy. A sweater that might have otherwise remained sitting in the back of someone’s closet, languishing on a pile at the Goodwill bins, and eventually ending up in the landfill, is instead placed in one of the donation bins under the Swap Shop mural. The sweater gets placed on a hanger and taken in by another student who wears it with joy, saving them the personal economic cost and the wider environmental cost of a new garment. When the sweater no longer serves them, they can bring it back to the Swap Shop, continuing a cycle of reuse that prolongs the life cycle of the garment and keeps students cozy and stylin’ for years to come.
Most of the Swap Shop’s current stock comes from dorm room move-out at the end of each school year. In the final weeks before summer, student Sustainability Interns and groups of volunteers sort through overflowing donation bins in every dorm as part of Reed’s Give+Go Waste Reduction Program. The majority of these donations go to local partner organizations, including Rahab’s Sisters, Janus Youth, Community Warehouse, and Rose Haven, to support the needs of our larger Portland community. Our storage capacity at the Swap Shop is limited compared to past years, so this summer we were only able to save a small closet-worth of items for the 2025-2026 school year. While we initially hoped that this limitation would be offset by donations throughout the year, the racks are clearing out quickly, and our supplies are dwindling as we seek to meet the demand.
We’re asking for your help to keep the Swap Shop stocked through the year! In the next week or so, give your dorm room a look-over: Is there a pile of jeans you’ve been meaning to get rid of? A t-shirt from a band you no longer like? A teddy bear from your ex? Bring them down to the bins outside the Swap Shop mural in the GCC lower level! We accept donations of clothing, household items, and books in good condition any time of the year. In addition, we’re hosting a donation drive on Friday, November 7, from 11:30-1:30pm, complete with music and cookies. We’ll be restocking as donations come in, so come on by to drop things off and check out what other people have brought. Please contact smgoemans@reed.edu with any questions!
More than just a free thrift store, the Swap Shop is part of the larger mission of the Office of Sustainability to engage students in conversations regarding consumption patterns, environmental justice, and climate change on campus and in the wider world. We’re hosting a Conscious Consumption Week from November 17 to 21 to share skills, identify action steps, and spark reflection regarding our environmental and economic impact as consumers on the individual and collective level. Follow us at @sustainablereed on Instagram to stay updated!