Buffalo Exchange is a 35-year-old consignment franchise that's packed with cool designer finds and one-of-a-kind vintage pieces at bargain prices. My friends and I head there every chance we get (we go to school out on the West Coast, where many of the shops are).
Here's why it's so cool: You can trade for clothing or accessories—no cash needed. Really. They're all about reusing and recycling—they call it guilt-free fashion. You go in with a shirt you're not wearing anymore, say, and you can trade it (or sell it) for someone else's former favorite. Simple!
Not only that, the company has a good conscience. Michelle Livingston, marketing director, says Buffalo Exchange donates to local nonprofit agencies in the community through its Tokens for Bags program, which has generated nearly $320,000 for hundreds of nonprofits since 1994, saving 6.4 million bags.
Buffalo Exchange raised over $25,000 to Save the Whales at its Earth Day Dollar Sale in April. Proceeds went to the Save Whales-Not Whaling program of The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International.
The company has also raised more than $274,000 since 1997 for environmental causes through Dollar Day Sales on Earth Day.
Buffalo Exchange is not just on the West Coast anymore, either. Stores are open in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston, Dallas, and more. New stores are opening in Ventura, Calif., in August and Boston later this fall.
So clean out your closet and go recycling!
