Salvation army rant

[walkonby]

DianneS quote ( oops forgot to quote it here when I posted )

Salvation Army thrift stores were sold to a private company a few years ago. SA gets part of the proceeds but the store is not what people think it is anymore....

Oh no. I did not know this. Like OP, got some good deals a few years ago, but not so much recently.

Explains why everything now seems much more pricey.

Geesh, count me red faced! I was wondering why the few times I had gone to their stores the prices were whacky, now I know why. DH has this paranoia about bed bugs, so I am limited to what ( if anything ) I can bring home.

[tjthemanto]

DianneS quote ( oops forgot to quote it here when I posted )

Salvation Army thrift stores were sold to a private company a few years ago. SA gets part of the proceeds but the store is not what people think it is anymore...

Geesh, count me red faced! I was wondering why the few times I had gone to their stores the prices were whacky, now I know why. DH has this paranoia about bed bugs, so I am limited to what ( if anything ) I can bring home.

Yup ..that's a huge issue when buying used goods. Especially stuff like furniture etc

[mcon]

also if you live near Newton b.c, theres the firefighters thrift store, they have crazy prices like $2 for pants, $1 for shirts or something i think , but its very small, and sort of out the of the way for me

then of course if you want to go out to Whiterock, theres the superfluity, world vision(?), the living room thrift store (?) then that small one behind Black bond books, not sure if i got the names right....

.....i like thrift stores...

[anisa]

I have to laugh sometimes at the auction items. Mine stopped doing auctions and has now just displayed items they think are nicer with overblown prices at the front of the store.

if i see another overpriced blue mountain ceramic piece i won't be held responsible haha. serisously, they aren't as coveted as my SA seems to think they are.

items will sit for weeks in the special area, because they are not worth half of what the staff thinks they are.

about a year ago i swooped up a couple of ceramic wall plaques, worth $500-600 for less than 12 bucks. they were thrown in with all the cheap framed prints. i had a good laugh that day

[mcon]

the problem with thrift stores now are the young(er) people volunteering there.
and when i say young, i mean usually its a bunch of old ladies, and then youll have a 40-50 year old woman who thinks shes hip, and with the times of what stuff is worth

ie. elvis put out a ton of different records, and this woman thinks they are worth $20 each, and then they never get sold.

[couponclippercaitie]

I agree, SA isn`t what it used to be and quality isn`t the best. If you still want to use your old clothes to help out charity, your best bet is to bring your clothes to a good local consignment shop and use the money you make from that to donate to a charity

[Minou]

Do they wash or clean clothes ..once peope donate them ?..ofcourse you are supposed to wash them once you buy them , but just wondering do they do any of these things ?

A co-worker of mine ,her father passed away. They just cleaned up his apartment , after the funeral.

They basically just went and donated all his used clothings and belongings to the SA store.

Now imagine someone wearing these clothes , jackets etc ..I guess it would be weird to wear a dead person's ( stranger ) clothes.

I'm not sure that thought bothers me -- I figure that the deceased couldn't have been wearing or using all of his or her belongings at the time of his or her death!

As a young man, my father almost bought a beautiful and very cheaply-priced car that someone had died in. Of course, he was dissuaded by the fact that the body had been found in the car several days later -- in summer.

Eight years ago, when my nephew was born to his 20-year-old mother, I picked up a lot of baby stuff for them from garage sales. My husband got upset, thinking that people at the garage sales I went to were selling the baby stuff because their baby had died. He felt that buying the baby stuff from garage sales was therefore unlucky. Apparently, he hadn't quite grasped the fact that babies grow up.

No, thrift stores don't wash items before selling them. I'd be more concerned about bedbugs. I've bought lots of used books for my classroom lately, and have been inspecting them closely and putting them in Ziploc bags to cook on the dash of my car for a few hours. The air temperature in my car gets past 50 degrees celsius, but the books get so hot that I can barely handle them.

[Minou]

Loved the sale at Goodwill on Friday/Saturday. Softcover books were $0.25 each and hardcovers were $0.50. Got some amazing deals, and some of the titles are still featured books on store book displays.

Clothing and shoes were $1.00 for adult items and $0.50 for children's, but I was after books.

[Shelley17]

I work with many people receiving Ontario Works. With such a limited income, they cannot always afford to pay full price for many items, so shopping second hand is one way to stretch their budget. Many second hand shops lose sight of who their client base is made up of, often people with a tight income. When they put unreasonable prices on their items, they lose these clients who often stop looking at these stores and take their money elsewhere.
The people responsible for pricing need to remember they are in the business of used items, not antique items!
There is a store in my area run by a local animal rescue organization. They are RIGHT NEXT DOOR to an Ontario Works office, yet they continually price their items out of range for this built-in clientele that otherwise would be coming right to their shop on a regular basis.

I have noticed that the older people who donate to this store usually are the same ones who are shopping at this store. We share a parking lot so I see who makes the donations as they do not have a drop box, all donations are brought into the store. They could save themselves the hassle of bringing stuff back and forth and just hold one giant yard swap where they trade what they don't want for what they do want and get it over with. Then let the store sell quality used items at an affordable price that is well below the price of the same stuff new at Walmart!!
Thanks OP for posting this rant topic!!!