GARSON & SHAW Leading UK B2B Broker for Secondhand Clothing & Household Goods

Company overview

Garson & Shaw is a wholesale supplier of second-hand clothing headquartered at 887 West Marietta Street NW, Suite M-204, Atlanta, Georgia 30318, with nearly 30 years in the trade. It buys from thrift stores, charities and for-profit collectors, and sells worldwide.

This is a broker and trading house rather than a sorting plant, which is a different animal from most of this directory and worth understanding before you pick up the phone.

Four companies share the name

The group lists four legal entities: Garson & Shaw LLC in Atlanta, G&S (Belize) Ltd in the Toledo District of Belize, GS Europe s.r.o. in Pezinok, Slovakia, and G&S Central America Ltda. in La Sabana, Costa Rica.

Read that as a map of trade lanes rather than as a corporate diagram. Belize and Costa Rica put staff inside the Caribbean and Central American second-hand market, which is one of the largest destinations for North American goods, and Pezinok puts an office half an hour from Bratislava, in reach of the Central European buyers who take shop-grade goods for retail.

It also has a practical consequence that is easy to miss. Ask which entity will issue your invoice and hold your contract, because Garson & Shaw is four companies in four jurisdictions and only one of them is likely to be within your legal reach. That is not a criticism, it is how international trading groups are built, but the answer changes your currency, your payment route and your options if a load arrives wrong. Buyers comparing several second-hand clothing suppliers should put the contracting entity next to the price in the comparison, not below it.

The product list is a good glossary of North American supply

• Credential clothing: unsorted, untouched donations in exactly the condition in which they were donated.
• Mixed institutional rags: the byproduct of thrift stores, made up of items the stores could not sell.
• Tropical mix: presorted specifically for countries with tropical climates.
• Sorted items: lightweight summer clothing divided into specific categories by type and quality.
• Shop quality: top-grade premium collected goods, described as their highest sorted grade.
• Used shoes: original shoes straight from donations, sold as is in shoe bags or cap-sacks.
• Combined loads: a mix that may include toys, sporting goods, kitchenware, luggage and shoes.

Two of those definitions are the ones that repay attention. Credential is untouched donation, so the best pieces are still in it and so is everything else. Mixed institutional rags is what a thrift store could not sell after weeks on its own floor, which means American shoppers have already had first refusal. The price difference between them should be substantial, and if it is not, that is your question.

Combined loads solve a problem a sorting plant cannot. An importer who wants clothing and kitchenware and luggage in one box has to buy from someone who trades across categories, and that is exactly what a broker is for. The trade-off is the usual one: you gain breadth and give up the ability to walk the sorting line yourself. The grade glossary translates these American terms into the European ladder, and the description of how sorting houses split an intake explains why shop quality is always the thinnest line on any list.

The sales desk is the actual product

The company puts unusual weight on its sales team: dedicated representatives who manage a purchase from start to finish, who in most cases speak your language and know your market, plus help with logistics management and documentation.

For a first container that is not a soft benefit, it is the thing that decides whether the deal completes. Most failed first imports fail on paperwork, on a booking that slips, or on a specification that meant one thing in the buyer's head and another in the seller's. A named person who has shipped into your country before removes most of that risk.

Treat it as a claim to verify, though. Ask for your representative's name and which markets they have handled, before you commit, and ask what happens when they are away. A dedicated rep is worth a great deal while they are the same person and very little once you are being passed around a desk.

Published figures and reports

Two numbers appear on the site: that only about 15 percent of discarded clothing is reused or recycled, and that the company saves the equivalent of 600 million t-shirts from landfill each year. Take the first as market framing and note the wording of the second, since equivalent of means a converted unit rather than a count of shirts, which is a legitimate way to express tonnage as long as you read it that way.

The company also publishes industry reports on the second-hand clothing trade and attends the BIR World Recycling Convention. Free market intelligence from an active broker is genuinely useful, particularly on destination markets you do not yet sell into, and it is worth reading with the ordinary caution that the author holds a position in the market being described. For a wholesale buyer sourcing North American goods at scale, this is one of the established names to have on the list.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Garson & Shaw based?

At 887 West Marietta Street NW, Suite M-204, Atlanta, Georgia 30318, with group companies in Belize, Slovakia and Costa Rica.

Is it a sorting plant or a broker?

A wholesale supplier and broker. It buys from thrift stores, charities and for-profit collectors rather than running the sort itself, and sells worldwide.

What is the difference between credential and mixed institutional rags?

Credential is untouched donation in the condition it was given. Mixed institutional rags is what thrift stores could not sell, so the desirable pieces have already been bought.

What is a combined load?

A mixed load that may include toys, sporting goods, kitchenware, luggage and shoes, useful for importers who want more than one category in a container.

Which entity will I be contracting with?

That depends on your market, since the group operates four companies across the United States, Belize, Slovakia and Costa Rica. Ask before you order, because it determines jurisdiction and payment route.