Westfield State Student Affairs hosted a Thrift Shop event on October 10th from one to three pm in the Ely Library building’s Owl’s Nest. WSU Student Affairs used Instagram and other media platforms to advertise their Pop Up Thrift Shop, which they claimed is similar to ‘thrifting at the bins’ but exclusively for throwback Westy T-shirts and other Westfield State swag. This event took place at Westfield State’s Owl’s Nest, which has transformed from a pub in past years to a beloved event space for WSU organizations and clubs. The Owl’s Nest is a large dark blue room with a podium, projector, and pull-down screen, as well as a cabinet aligned with the floor against the wall, all of which are used for WSU projects, meetings, and fun campus activities.
The Early Arrival of the Storm 12:50 PM
Students were waiting in a line from the Owl Nest’s glass door entrance. A line that seemed to stretch all the way down the hall towards Ely’s Dunkin’ Donuts. When I arrived early at the event, a sense of tension was already in the air. The WSU students in line had very serious glares. I sensed a potential hostility that WSU students don’t mess around when it comes to free Westfield State Swag. Once it was announced we could go in, it was like a rampage. Students quietly walked as quickly as possible inside the Owl’s Nest without shoving one another. I was one of the first few people to get into the Owl’s Nest room, and there were multiple plastic foldable tables with just piles of clothes sorted by sizing signs taped to the edge of the tables. Groups of students flooded in behind me, immediately rummaging through the clothes, which were mostly old Westfield State University T-shirts. Student Affairs also had blue Nestor bucket hats and old but unused binders out for taking as well. Besides some vintage Nestor T-shirts, there were T-shirts from old Spring Weekend Concerts, Equity Clubs, Turkey Trots, and other events that took place in past years. I heard a student say that they could only take what they can carry, but many students came in with large tote bags and packed them with T-shirts.
Interview with Julie Marcus 1:00 PM
Julie Marcus was one of two people running this event. She is the Administrative Assistant for the Dean of Students Office and a part of the Student Affairs faculty team. Julie had a huge smile on her face and was very welcoming when I approached her with questions about the event. Julie said that this is Student Affairs first time putting on this event, which led me to asking why Student Affairs wanted to put on a pop-up thrift event, and Julie told me “So we are cleaning the storage, the storage unit that SAIL uses and we noticed all these T-shirts from past events that weren’t being used and didn’t really have a place cause they had dates on them like 2023, 2024. So we decided these bins would be a fun way to get back to the students for free T-shirts, and they couldn’t really be used to give out at events because they had past dates on them.”
Interview with Tyler King 1:10 PM
Tyler King is a student active on campus who was also running the event. Tyler King is a Westfield State student, Class of ‘26, and he is the official social media and engagement coordinator for Student Affairs. Tyler has a very bubbly personality and was very easy to talk to when I brought up questions about the event. When I asked for Tyler’s input on why Student Affairs wanted to put on this event he said, “The Sustainability Club used to do like a full scale thrift shop and I know it was always super popular so we’re trying to think of how we could get rid of these T-shirts; I was like we could inspire off of that and create an event, but like Julie said that the dates on them.” Tyler then mentioned in other settings he thought students would be not as happy with receiving free T-Shirt with past dates on them, in other words why would they want a free Turkey Trot T-shirt from 2023? But then he continued to say, “But when you put it in this environment, it’s a bit more of an experience and a lot more fun to do. So we took a bunch of T-shirts, there were like a ton of them, and we gave them to facilities, dining maintainers, and then we also kind of set a bunch aside and sorted them all by size and set them up here for students.” Tyler explained the T-shirts could be for students who liked the shirt but missed the WSU event, or students who just want free swag; whatever the case, it was there for them for zero charge. Tyler also claimed they found some new bucket hats and binders in the storage room and decided to put those out for students as well. “I think a fine-line tricky part is we want it to seem like or we want it to be a good event with quality stuff. We don’t want it to be like here’s stuff we were gonna throw out like tag sale-y. But these are good quality T-shirts; it’s just the dates that were the big problem. We didn’t want to kind of hand out something that was, quote on quote, old.”
Short Interviews with WSU Students 1:20 PM
I walked around the Owl’s Nest and spoke to a few students while they were browsing T-shirts about the event. I first spoke to Tiffany White, class of ‘27, who came to this event because her roommate told her about it. Tiffany said, “I was interested in this event as well because it’s free stuff, obviously.” Tiffany voiced to me that she doesn’t have a lot of Westfield State merch, and she is using this event as a way to get more. I then approached another student who happened to be Tiffany’s roommate, her name is Jordan Healy, and she is also in the class of ‘27. Jordan had a large tote bag she was stuffing with T-shirts as we began to have a conversation. Jordan told me she had been to a thrifting event like this before, but she didn’t think it was through Student Affairs. Jordan also mentioned to me that she really enjoys thrifting, and the event had a lot of “pretty good T-shirts.” Jordan and her roommate were among the people who came early to the Thrift Shop event and got first picks of all the T-shirts and extras.
Low Vintage Supply 1:40 PM
Even with the Student Affairs’ potential worries with giving out “old” swag, the thrift shop theme made it very easy for students to take old T-shirts with past dates without a complaint. At this time, it hadn’t been a full hour into the event, and the supply of T-shirts was very low. The Westfield State students who got there early had the best luck because they were the fastest and able to take as many T-shirts as they wanted. Overall, it didn’t take many Westfield State students for the T-shirts to be almost gone; roughly about thirty students collectively came in and out of the Owl’s Nest by 1:40 pm. The event posters had stated that this thrift pop-up would last from 1-3 PM, and I noticed they had cardboard boxes under the foldable tables. Therefore, I believe they had more T-shirts to put out once everything was gone. By the time I left, Student Affairs only had a Turkey Trot T-shirt left in larger sizes and a few others among the smaller sizes.