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Paper short abstract:

Historically opposed perceptions of the second-hand shops with clothing during socialism and nowadays will be tested in the presentation. Is there really a duality between second-hand retail which during socialism was supposedly a necessity while nowadays it is an ecologically aware choice?

Paper long abstract:

Contemporary consumerist societies are often seen as in opposition to socialist societies. Their economies of shortages are considered to be one of their main characteristics, marking everyday lives of people living under socialism on almost every level and resulting in another so called characteristics of socialist societies, dirty togetherness or tacit knowledges of outsmarting the system by using social nets. Both is commonly seen as totally in contrast with the contemporary capitalist way of living. Various types of an alternative consumption, among them second-hand shops with clothing, are also its part. They are presented as contributing to an ecological awareness, sustainable development and individuality. In Slovenia, where there are only a few second-hand shops in the country, such retail is nevertheless still often marked as pre-modern, as related to one's poverty, which is supposedly a notion deriving from the 60's and 70's of the previous century when socialist shortages started to decrease. As a sign of distancing from socialist, nowadays unwanted past, when second-hand shops were supposedly a sign of necessity, perceptions of second-hand retail as contemporary, non-marked with prejudices and a sign of a conscious choice are presented in Slovene public discourses. Such historically opposed perceptions of second-hand shops with clothing during socialism and nowadays will be tested in the presentation, especially through the case-study of commission shops which during various decades of the socialist period changed their role drastically.