Colorful sweaters, striped cardigans, and Champion hoodies fill the racks of Kennesaw’s newest trendy resale store, Uptown Cheapskate. With 8 preceding successful Georgia locations, Kennesaw’s establishment constitutes one of 80 Uptown Cheapskate stores in America. Spanning across 24 U.S. states, each franchise embraces an identical mission statement: “Do a world of good, shop resale.” 

In the unsustainable fashion industry, Uptown Cheapskate focuses on reducing the carbon footprint of each article of clothing bought and sold through their stores. Uptown Cheapskate diligently works to combat the detrimental effects the fashion industry imposes on the planet. Largely contributing to Earth’s pollution dilemma, the fashion industry holds second place on the lengthy list of clean water pollutants. By shopping quality used clothing at Uptown Cheapskate, Kennesaw shoppers reduce their carbon footprints between sixty and seventy percent. 

Kennesaw’s location embarked on their sustainability journey on August 6th when they celebrated their grand opening. Although COVID-19 forced the store to open later than expected, Uptown Cheapskate’s staff members refused to let a pandemic dampen their spirits. Requiring masks and enforcing social distancing, Uptown Cheapskate’s successful opening weekend foretold a fruitful franchise. Despite each employee wearing required face coverings, nothing masked the excitement and gratitude the staff felt to participate in their passion for saving the planet through resale.

“I love working with all the clothes and getting to see what comes in, I get to stay updated on different styles and trends,” NC alumni and Uptown Cheapskate manager, Gina Nordmann said.

In order to provide their community with unique, stylish clothing options appropriately fitting each season, Uptown Cheapskate purchases trendy clothing and accessories from members of their community. The beloved resale chain offers cash on the spot or up to 25% more in-store credit when purchasing trending styles. Their thorough selling process searches each article of clothing brought into the store. Selling to Uptown Cheapskate not only cleans out one’s closet but reduces one’s carbon footprint allowing sea creatures to flourish surrounded by clean ocean water.

Aside from creating a sustainable environment within their community, Uptown Cheapskate partners with Kid to Kid and buildOn to raise $560,000, funding 15 schools worldwide. In order to combat the rapid spread of COVID-19, the three esteemed organizations decided to donate 100% of raised funds towards youth organizations that gift underprivileged U.S cities with masks to slow the spread of COVID-19. 

Uptown Cheapskate competes against numerous other resale stores in Cobb County. Popular competing brands such as Plato’s Closet and Ecologie lack the personalized shopping experience and overwhelming effort to make the world a better place that customers experience the second they step foot into an Uptown Cheapskate franchise. 

“We are a higher end resale store, we carry a lot of name brand items recently including Yeezy’s and Louis Vuitton. We also help our environment by partnering with buildOn and establishing ourselves as a bag free store to eliminate plastic waste in order to help with water sanitation,” Nordmann said.