Maria Jones, a 32-year-old resident of Garden Valley, California, has always had a love for thrifting that ultimately led to the creation of her successful online store, The Lemon Theory. Initially selling items from her own closet, Jones quickly expanded to selling items she found at thrift stores or ordered in bulk. Her store now features over 1,700 listings and has grossed over $300,000. Her journey into online thrifting began when her sister encouraged her to start a store on the online marketplace Poshmark.
At the University of California, Berkeley, Jones studied math but left a semester before graduating due to financial constraints. After working as an assistant and eventually a sales manager at an airplane maintenance company, she turned to Poshmark as a way to pay off her student loans. Her first sale on the platform was a personal H&M shirt that she sold for $8, earning $5. Motivated by the ease of making money through Poshmark, Jones dedicated her earnings to paying off her student loans, ultimately becoming debt-free by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
During the pandemic, Jones found her Poshmark business to be a flexible and profitable opportunity to support her family. With reduced commute time, she increased her efforts by buying and listing more inventory and eventually left her job when her daughter was born in December 2020. She continued to work on her store even while caring for her newborn, often sharing her closet while feeding her baby. Jones also expanded her business by purchasing pallets of clothing in bulk from sites like Helpsy and reselling them secondhand after washing.
Jones now spends about three to four hours per day working on her store, fitting her schedule around her daughters’ needs. She grossed approximately $45,000 from her store between April 2023 and March 2024, with her bestsellers being plus-sized bras. These are harder to find secondhand but can be bought for around $6 and sold for $20 to $30 quickly. While she hopes to explore selling high-end designer items in the future, for now, she is content with the pace and success she has achieved with her business.
Looking ahead, Jones is open to the possibility of expanding her business further. Her husband has even jokingly expressed interest in quitting his job to join her in running the online store full-time. Despite the potential for more profit from selling high-end designer items, Jones is comfortable with her current strategy and enjoys the balance she has found between running her business and caring for her family. She continues to navigate the world of online thrifting, leveraging her passion for thrift shopping into a successful entrepreneurial venture.
