The end of the semester is marked by the S.W.A.P shop’s Yellow Tag sale, where items get even more affordable. The S.W.A.P shop, officially called the Surplus With A Purpose shop, first opened its doors in Gregory Hall in early 2024. Ever since, UNE students have had easy access to a sustainable and inexpensive way of shopping for anything from clothes, to shoes, to dorm supplies.

Ordinarily, most items in the S.W.A.P shop are priced between one and five dollars. This time of year is particularly special because even more items are priced on the lower end due to the annual Yellow Tag sale, when all materials marked with a yellow tag cost only $1.

According to Alethea Cariddi, the Director of Sustainability at UNE, the purpose of the Yellow Tag sale is to get as much material out of the S.W.A.P shop and into loving homes before inventory must be moved out in early May ahead of Switch & Ditch, when departing students can leave unneeded material that the S.W.A.P shop can offer to students next year.

Liz O’Brien, 2029, employee of the S.W.A.P shop shared, “It’s really nice because it makes it easier for students to not have to bring all this stuff home that they might not need or use anymore, especially certain dorm things,” Liz O’Brien, 2029, employee of the S.W.A.P shop shared.. “It also brings more foot traffic to the S.W.A.P shop and encourages people to shop more sustainably.”

The S.W.A.P shop was started by undergraduate students with the intent of reducing our community’s impact on the environment. With the support of UNE administration, Bangor

Savings Bank, Undergraduate Student Government, and Earth’s E.C.O (a student environmental club), a group of students took the leap to establish a permanent campus thrift store following the success of many “Pop-Up Thrift Shops”.

The creation of the S.W.A.P shop was a long time in the making, as the concept was covered in UNE’s first Climate Action Plan in 2010.

Engaging with the S.W.A.P shop gives students the opportunity to reduce their personal footprint on the environment and buy items that cost lower than almost anywhere else. The Yellow Tag sale will continue through the end of April, so students are urged to take advantage of it while they still can.

“The S.W.A.P shop is important because you’re not contributing to waste, you’re buying stuff that’s already just exists in the world– you’re not contributing to the big waste piles of clothing and not giving in to fast fashion, you’re not giving money to a big company, and you can get things very affordably” said O’Brian.