"To go thrifting" or " To thrift" (verb, a new-in-use trending English verb) in French? Related words: thrifter, thrift store

Question

"Thrifting" or "To Thrift" is a verb used often in the US now, and the act of thrifting is trending among Gen Y and Gen Z youth. Its meaning: to find very good condition used items at a store that specializes in such items, clothing or other unique items, and it can sometimes mean the act of giving an item away to such a store for their profitable gain. Usually the items are not "consignment" where an original owner is looking to realize some money back too. Often the act of thrifting takes place at stores benefiting a particular charity, where donations are given for others to purchase.

It is still rare or absent as a dictionary entry, but I suspect it will enter officially soon. How do we convey this action in French? (My daughter is learning French also, and this would be a subject she would be interested to use for practice, as likely would her class at school.)

Also, how do we convey the related terms:

• "thrifter" (this noun is used at both wholesale and retail levels for: one who gathers nice secondhand objects/ clothing for their personal use, and for: one who makes money by finding items to thrift to others)

  and "thrift store" (both countable nouns)

Answer 1

There is a term that has been used as far back as the mid 19th century, but then it was rather applicable to people whose business consisted in buying used wares and objects so as to sell them with profit.

(TLFi) −chiner Brocanter, chercher des occasions
♦ En ce moment, Rémonencq, réconcilié avec son ancien bourgeois Monistrol, en affaires avec de gros marchands, allait chiner (...) dans la banlieue de Paris, qui, vous le savez, comporte un rayon de quarante lieues. Balzac, Le Cousin Pons,1847, p. 109.

Apparently, this is a word that has taken some recent importance and that would be applied now to the consumer.

(Wiktionnaire) chiner \ʃi.ne\ transitif ou intransitif 1er groupe (voir la conjugaison)
(Intransitif, ou parfois transitif) Chercher des occasions (chiffonniers, brocanteurs).
♦ Quitte parfois le bureau en milieu d’après-midi pour aller s’occuper de sa trentaine de ruches ou chiner des poteries antiques. — (Site www.lepoint.fr)
♦ Il aimait chiner dans les brocantes pour retaper sa maison et la décorer dans un style traditionnel et ancien. — (Jacques Bellanger, Le Puzzle de Dan Alaric, 2010)
♦ Tout dans la salle, la vaisselle comme l’ameublement, avait été chiné chez des antiquaires et formait un mélange coquet et disparate de meubles copiés du dix-huitième siècle français, de bibelots Art Nouveau, de vaisselle et de porcelaine anglaises. — (Michel Houellebecq, La carte et le territoire, 2010, J’ai lu, page 64)

Of course, you can say "aller chiner" as a translation of "to go thrifting".

Here is a confirmation of the shift in the usage of the verb.

(internaute) chineur , >nom Féminin chineuse. Sens 1 Familier Personne qui aime chiner, c'est-à-dire découvrir des objets originaux dans les brocantes.
Le "chineur" était à l'origine un professionnel, antiquaire ou brocanteur, qui savait dénicher la perle rare.

One word that would render "thrift store", at least often enough, would be "brocanteur"; "marché aux puces" is another one.

(TLFi) brocanteur Personne faisant commerce d'objets d'occasion, généralement de peu de valeur. Synon. revendeur, euse (cf. antiquaire, bouquiniste, fripier).Des livres d'occasion, (...) ramassés chez les brocanteurs, ou à la foire aux puces (Romains, Les Hommes de bonne volonté,Le 6 octobre, 1932, p. 94):

A colloquial expression : faire les brocanteurs