Coming back for a second year, the NYU Swap Shop gives students a chance to embrace underconsumption by promoting the use of secondhand items over buying them new. The shop is run by the Green Apple Move Out initiative, through which NYU students can donate items they no longer need for other students to take for free. It may look like nothing more than a trendy pop-up, but the Swap Shop represents a growing sentiment among Gen Z towards adopting more sustainable habits. 

While utilizing the Swap Shop is a step in the right direction, students should not treat underconsumption as a one-off instance. Instead, we must continue to practice more mindful purchasing inspired by this initiative, long after its trendiness dies out. 

Underconsumption, or the idea that society must buy fewer things, has taken social media by a storm, with popular videos highlighting influencers preaching capsule wardrobes and secondhand shopping. Creators showcase themselves following Project Pan by using a makeup product until the very last drop, while others take to explaining why current viral products aren’t the necessity they have been marketed as. 

The obvious contradiction here is that underconsumption rose to popularity on the same platforms that used to propagate haul culture. With that in mind, how can we be so sure that this isn’t just another aesthetic that will come and go? 

The answer is in whether the habits this trend popularizes are able to withstand the test of time. Underconsumption becomes more than an aesthetic when its ideas start appearing in spending habits. According to the Bank of America, Gen Z now accounts for 41% of secondhand sellers in 2026, up from 37% in 2024. Similarly, a study by the Mastercard Economics Institute found that secondhand shopping growth is surpassing retail, with secondhand clothing sales increasing 28% year over year compared to 8% growth in clothing stores. 

Nuuly, a clothing rental company founded in summer of 2019, shows how the trend has led to something real. Nuuly’s entire business model, which allows users to rent six items a month, runs on the idea that people would rather pay to temporarily borrow clothes than buy them. Similarly, other apps like Depop and Vinted have grown in popularity in recent years, both functioning on a similar premise that caters to the growing demand for buying less by promoting secondhand use. 

Initiatives that promote secondhand shopping challenge the idea that every want requires a new purchase, which is exactly the kind of mentality that NYU students should be incorporating into their everyday lives. Instead of ordering something on Amazon that will collect dust in the back of your cupboard for years, services like Nuuly and the Swap Shop help keep items in circulation and reuse what already exists.

It is clear that Gen Z is experiencing a desire to stop consuming unethically. NYU’s Swap Shop is a small but meaningful example of this drive, where students are not just talking about purchasing less, but actively taking action to exchange, reuse and buy less. 

Whether it is by expanding the Swap Shop to multiple on campus locations, making platforms like Nuuly the default go-to shopping solutions, or simply pausing to think before buying a new item, students shouldn’t treat the Swap Shop as a rare occurrence, but rather an example of what they are capable of creating daily. While the novelty of the underconsumption trend may die down, the habits it created do not have to.

WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.

Contact Naysa Seth at [email protected].