Preloved celebrated the opening of its Layton location, the seventh in Utah, with a ribbon-cutting on Friday, July 17. Layton Mayor Joy Petro and members of the Davis Chamber of Commerce were on hand to celebrate with Satu Kujanpää, the founder of the Finnish-inspired thrift store.

“I just think that a business like this is so amazing because it really helps us be responsible in our fashion and the economy and the environment,” said Davis Chamber Director of Business Development, Rebekah Lowe. 

Kujanpää has always been passionate about thrifting. After moving to Houston, Texas, from Finland, Kujanpää looked but couldn't find any thrift stores that replicated the renter-booth style of thrifting she was familiar with back home.  

“I tried some other thrift stores and I felt very sad every time I left because I felt like I wasn't getting paid what my stuff was worth. So Preloved is really magical that way,” said Kujanpää. “On average, people make over $150 a week. We’ve had people make over $2,000 in a week.”

Unlike other types of thrifting where you sort through clothes in a bin, Preloved emphasizes sleek and clean with a weekly rotation.

Sellers book a weekly booth for $30 at a Preloved location. They pick up a tagging kit, take it home, and tag each item they want to sell with a price they choose. Each Saturday morning, sellers set up their booths, and the following Friday, they take back anything that didn’t sell. Sellers keep 60% of the profits.  

“We totally created this like middle ground,” said Kujanpää. “It’s not vintage, killer expensive stuff. It’s just like the normal stuff that people have in their closets.” 

Kujanpää wanted to create a place that makes it easy to clean out your closet and where sellers could keep a majority of the profits. Opposed to online selling sites like Poshmark, where you have to take photos, package, and ship your clothes, Preloved’s renter system allows for zero shipping fees, packaging and a clean space to display.

According to Kujanpää, most of the sellers are new every week, while they have a 30% return rate of previous renters.

“We have our regulars who have a booth every month. Or people start getting into it, like they do their first purge, and they realize they made so much money. Yeah, I can do that again!”

Along with its fresh form of thrifting, Preloved also promotes a sustainable but still fashionable lifestyle. Instead of throwing away clothes or buying fast fashion that takes years to decompose, Kujanpää’s goal for Preloved is to give her community a way to “shop slower, live slower, and shop secondhand.”

“It’s always fresh, always new, and … it’s high-end. It’s fashion, and it’s really important to me that we stay green. And in a world of overconsumption today, I think there’s magic in wearing each other’s clothes. I know it sounds weird, but we all have something that we can clean out of our homes and have a little more money for what we need and experiences that we can’t buy secondhand.”

It’s a lot deeper than just thrifting. Kujanpää says it makes her a better mom. Buying secondhand for herself and her family saves her more money, and Preloved gives them back time originally spent on selling online. She also has less stuff to organize in her house.  

“I just want to bring a little bit of my Finnish culture here, because in America we have so much. We’ve given so much, and that’s such a beautiful thing. But we can totally learn to share it, and help each other out.”

For more information, see  https://preloved.love/