Secondhand and vintage consumption in the US is shedding its old "cheap alternative" label. According to a report released by online consignment and thrift store ThredUp, the US secondhand market doubled in size from 2020 to 2025 and is now estimated at $56 billion.

At the Randolph Street Market Festival in Chicago's West Loop, this trend is on full display. Vendor Roxie Lemond scoured finds for her booth, including ornate, unusual ram-shaped tables and genre-blending paintings. She describes thrifting as "a treasure hunt, but an exciting one": first you find something in the search, and then you see a customer say "I just can't not buy this," and in that moment she feels something hard to put into words.

Lemond is just one of the market's many vendors. The market features booths both indoors and outdoors and draws a large number of sellers.

Candi Gomez, who has worked with the Randolph Street Market for ten years, has witnessed the market's expansion firsthand. She says the market is now "bigger than ever," with customers coming from all over the world—people make special trips to collect the pieces they love and take them back to Spain, Italy, France and beyond.

According to event organizers, the indoor Randolph Street Holiday Market will return in November.

From a $56 billion market size to the flow of cross-border thrift hunters, secondhand trading is already a force to be reckoned with in US retail, and it provides sustained demand support for the curation and cross-border circulation of vintage and secondhand apparel.

Source: Weekend Break: Randolph Street Market Festival · Originally published 2026-09-27