Exeter Exchange
By Henry Liu, Emi Levine, Lianna Yang
The Exeter Exchange is the Academy's very own thrift store, located behind the Exeter Bookstore. Business has been booming ever since its inception 8 years ago. The Exchange is open on Sundays from 12 p.m - 2 p.m, with a current and has a limit of 5 minutes per person due to COVID-19 restrictions. “You can drop off clothing that you no longer wear or want, and/or you can browse to find new treasures to take with you. It is not necessary, but you could leave a cash donation and the money collected at the end of the term will be donated to a non-profit of the Exchange club member’s choice,” club advisor Elizabeth Reyes said.
“The Exeter Exchange runs off a cyclical system—people bring in their gently used clothing to donate, and then they shop for clothing from other students and adults on campus! Everything is a hundred percent free,” co-head Anne Chen said.
Chen explained, “All of our shirts are up on hangers, organized by utility—tank tops in one section, dresses in another, athletic gear in another, etc. Pants are folded on shelves, although we hope to change this display soon.”
Reyes detailed the purpose of the Exeter Exchange, saying that the store helps “to reuse and repurpose clothing items and keep them out of landfills. Students can’t get off campus to shop, and this is a fun way to drop off old treasures and find new ones. The store also helps students in cleaning out their dorm rooms and provides a place to donate their items.”
Co-head Lindsay Machado agreed with the environmental benefits that the Exchange provides. “Shopping and donating to the Exchange is a great way to reduce clothing waste, and to reduce the vast amounts of oil and water used to produce new, cheap clothing.”
“Especially during COVID, it helps students vent their frustrations of being stuck on campus! The shopping experience is definitely one that I miss while I'm at Exeter,” Chen said. “It also provides an easy dropoff for used clothing. I don't think anyone feels good about throwing things away.”
Reyes had very similar thoughts. “Students have no place to shop locally. This is free and open to our students. Also, students grow out of their clothing or their style choices change. This gives them options to donate and find new outfits [without] buying brand new,” she said.
Machado added, “I want to help change the campus culture of consumerism, particularly in fashion. With our generation's exposure to social media, we see trends changing nearly on a daily basis. We should challenge ourselves to resist the process of partaking in every trend, wearing the clothes once, then throwing them away.”
Students agree and deeply appreciate the store. Frequent shopper and upper Cassidy Huriabell-Trader explained her fondness of the store. “I think it is the best thing ever… I don't really like shopping all that much for a few reasons. One, because I don't like spending money on clothes, and I always have clothes that are too small and that I just don't like anymore, so I think [the Exeter Exchange] is really helpful for that. And also, the environment obviously, and, the really negative side of fast fashion…so I think this is a way for the Academy to reuse our clothing through the Exeter community,” she said.
“And besides that, it's just really fun. I really enjoy going and thinking, ‘Oh, one of my friends could have left these clothes here.’ It's just overall really fun,” she added.
Huriabell-Trader’s favorite thing about the Exeter Exchange is “sprucing up my wardrobe, but not really feeling guilty about the things that I normally feel guilty about when shopping, like spending money and kind of just not wearing old clothes anymore.”
Chen said her favorite part of manning the store was the opportunity to connect with Exonians across campus. “My favorite part of the Exchange is definitely interacting with everyone who comes in. We get such a wide range of Exonians, across all grades, and I've met so many new people. There's always Chance the Rapper or JID playing in the background somewhere. Everyone is excited and smiling.”
“I enjoy watching students excited to wear something brand new to them, and seeing the gratitude they express after we explain everything's free,” Machado added. “Overall, it brightens up those lazy Sunday afternoons on campus, and becomes a space for music, positivity and self-expression.”
