How Garage Sale Trails help co-production of positive environmental and social behaviours in local communities

Set within the context of current environmental and social issues in the UK, including unsustainable levels of waste sent to landfill (WRAP, 2015) and social segregation (Watts, 2008), the UK pilot sought to establish if Garage Sale Trail works as a community engagement tool that co-produces publicly desirable outcomes with participating local councils and local communities.

Specifically, Garage Sale Trail UK aims to drive social and environmental change through:

• Changing consumption patterns by dramatically increasing the number of unwanted goods that are sold locally
• Promoting reuse and reducing waste to landfill
• Enabling new neighbourly connections
• Providing a platform for fundraising
• Inspiring creativity
• Stimulating local economies

Behaviour Change Model

Garage Sale Trail incentivises pro-social and environmental behaviours. Through taking part in Garage Sale Trail, individuals and groups are encouraged to both sell and buy unwanted items instead of throwing them away. Garage Sale Trail helps to overcome practical barriers to reuse by providing a platform for the buying and selling of second-hand goods that people can engage with for free and from their convenience of their own households. Creating opportunities for reuse is key to whether or not individuals throw things away and has a long-term impact on waste management (WRAP, 2011). Holding the event on one 'big day' to create a 'trail of sales' encourages a fun and enjoyable environment for participants.  Doing so provides an opportunity to foster new community connections for participants. It also stimulates interest in holding and attending related activities after the event.

From a social capital perspective, the process of taking part in Garage Sale Trail as a buyer or a seller provides a context and incentives for people to create new connections within their neighbourhood, regardless of their background or circumstance. This is important as social isolation and weak communities are prevalent in the UK (Watts, 2008). Furthermore, it is estimated that only one in five people know their neighbours well and one in ten claim to be too shy to even say hello to the people next door. However, 95% believe knowing their neighbour could have a positive impact on their community (The Big Lunch, 2010). In addition, Garage Sale Trail participants are also encouraged to donate a portion of the takings from their sale to a local cause, raising awareness of local causes and encouraging civic mindedness amongst participants.

Co-production approach

Following the successful Australian model, Garage Sale Trail UK works in collaboration with local authorities and other organisations who have a commitment to addressing waste reduction and community development. To achieve the objectives of Garage Sale Trail UK, a pilot was launched in the City of Brighton & Hove, the London Borough of Hackney, and the town of Todmorden in West Yorkshire in 2015.

• A website for people to register and advertise sales and provide information about the event, including tips on hosting a sale was created. In some locations, this was promoted on the local authority website.
• Community outreach. Local coordinators from local community organisations were recruited and funded and tasked with engaging with local people and organisations to encourage and support their participation in the event.
• PR campaign. There were press releases in local and national media outlets to create awareness about the event.
• Marketing campaign. As well as press releases in local and national media outlets, there was also social media engagement to further promote awareness of the event and engagement with local communities, run centrally and locally.

Alongside the formal element of local authority cooperation, Garage Sale Trail UK played an enabling role to assist and encourage communities to take part in the UK's first Garage Sale Trail. As outlined above, Garage Sale Trail UK provided the marketing and promotion of the event as well as the website to register and search for sales. However, the overall success of the Garage Sale Trails relied on the co-production between local authorities, third sector partners and communities groups which mobilised local communities and residents to organise themselves to hold their own sales.

In Hackney, there was particularly strong involvement of community groups and charities taking part.  This in part was due to the involvement of Hackney Council Voluntary Services (CVS) which has strong links within the local voluntary sector.  Hackney Council also strongly encouraged community groups to take part and to use their premises for the sale rather than households.  This meant that the sale in Hackney was differed in focus from the two other pilot areas. This also encouraged ongoing engagement of local people and groups after the event. As highlighted by one of the participants:

“I met new residents, a few of whom are going to get involved in the Residents Association, which is a great outcome. Additionally, because of the interest for the event, we're going to run our own monthly jumble sale. Once people know it's happening more regularly, it'll get a lot more people and people will get to know each other. So overall, really glad we signed up. 

Impact on pro-social behaviour

“I would never of thought of selling any of this stuff, it was literally on its way to the tip. We did another sale the following weekend and we're going to use the money to help towards our holiday next year" 

• 86% of people said that after taking part in Garage Sale Trail they would likely try to sell their unwanted goods again, instead of throwing them away.
• 100% of people who took part pledged not to illegally dump.
• 59% of participants said that after their experience of taking part in Garage Sale Trail they feel more motivated to play an active role in their community.

Improving community connections

“I’ve met loads of new people but more importantly it’s given us a reason to open our back gate and let the children play out on the street for the first time.”

"We came together with five other families to have a sale.  We took part because we all had a load of stuff that we wanted to get rid of.   We all had great fun on the day and managed to sell quite a few things and we met loads of new people by taking part".

• 66% of participants said that after their experience of taking part in Garage Sale Trail they feel more positive about their community
• On average, each participant made 10 new community connections.

A common theme reported by participants was that Garage Sale Trail was a fun and friendly event whereby they got to know their neighbours better. As one participant commented, "just chatting (to neighbours) was nice".

Number of sales and opportunities for reuse

• In total, 209 sales took place across the 3 locations. This included 104 household sales, 91 community groups and 14 local businesses.
• An estimated 56,632 items were available to purchase.

On reflection, three key learning points were identified in the evaluation of the UK pilot that will help guide the planning of future Garage Sale Trail events.

1. Supporting new behaviours

Perhaps the most pertinent insight identified in the pilot was that there are distinct differences in existing cultural behaviours between Australia and the UK that impact upon public engagement with Garage Sale Trail. In Australia, garage sales are a long-standing cultural norm. Holding your own or visiting other garage sales on a weekend is a common and well established activity, similar to the way the people in the UK may buy or sell at a car boot sale. Although the buying and selling of second hand items is not a new phenomenon in the UK and most of the British residents that Garage Sale Trail UK engaged with understood the concept of the garage sale, and thought it to be a good idea, the UK pilot revealed that the context of buying and selling at a garage sale from one's own household is relatively unusual. Thus, there is still some way to go to before garage sales are firmly established as a normalised behaviour in the UK. This issue was somewhat anticipated and therefore marketing materials were developed to support participants and introduce them to the concept of garage sales. Nevertheless, the learning points that follow will help to further establish Garage Sale Trails in the UK in future years.

2. Start marketing & PR campaign early

The marketing campaign for Garage Sale Trail UK started 8 weeks before the event and coincided with the British summer holiday period. The time of year combined with the short lead-up time meant that many individuals, community groups, businesses and organisations such as schools were more difficult to reach and engage with. On reflection, a longer campaign would benefit future events to give people more time to hear about and understand what the event is about, particularly given the current need to familiarise people with the idea of selling and buying at garage sales, as outlined in the first learning point. In addition, alternative dates that do not coincide with the end of the summer holiday will be considered to maximise the reach of the campaign. 

The establishment of media partnerships with the relevant local media is essential. These relationships need to be established well before the start of the campaign period. Equally important is a strong working relationship with the communications department of the various local authorities. They have a key role to play in raising public awareness in the activation areas.  Also where possible, local authorities should capitalise on existing relationships with local media and rather than managed centrally. Doing so helps to ensure that marketing is locally relevant and appropriately targeted. The third learning point further highlights the importance of this.

3. Clear, consistent messaging in communications 

It emerged that some members of the public were confused as to who can participate in the event and why they should participate. For example, in Hackney, where there was a high uptake of community groups (71 in total), but low household engagement (4 in total). Some members of the public were of the understanding that Garage Sale Trail was an event specifically for community groups. Communications for future events need to ensure that Garage Sale Trail engages with and attracts as many sellers and buyers as possible.  It is also important that future campaign communications have a clearly defined call to action that has a strong resonance with local people.  In particular, it will be important to engage local community leaders to use the word of mouth to reach communities who do not necessarily look at websites or read flyers.

Project website: https://www.garagesaletrail.com.au/

References

The Big Lunch (2010)  Millions of Brits have no idea who lives next door to them,  retrieved 8 October 2015 from www.thebiglunch.com/.../tblcommunitysurvey_national_final.doc

Watts, B (2008) What are today’s social evils? The results of a web consultation.  Joseph Rowntree Foundation,  retrieved 8 October 2015 from 
https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/what-are-today%E2%80%99s-social-evils

WRAP (2011) Valuing our Clothes. The True Cost of How we Design, Use and Dispose of Clothing in the UK , retrieved 9 September 2015 from http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/VoC%20FINAL%20online%202012%2007%2011.pdf

WRAP (2015)  Facts and Figures, retrieved 8 October 2015 from http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/facts-and-figures