US secondhand/thrift store market

Major League Baseball ticket prices have climbed as the American thrift store market has grown, which sketches the unmistakable picture of a country that can no longer afford the bleachers. The seats got pricier. The wardrobe got cheaper.

Two opposing trends with the same root cause: cost-of-living pressure on the middle class. MLB ticket prices have risen faster than general inflation as teams chased premium fans, while thrift store sales have grown sharply as younger consumers turned to secondhand for both budget and sustainability reasons. Two halves of the same shrinking household budget.

So the correlation is one ticket pricing out the fan and one rack rescuing them. The stadium got expensive. The closet, for once, did not.