different types of resale\/second stores<\/strong>:<\/p>\nThere are local thrift stores, benefiting local charities, staffed by volunteers, often older ladies or teens collecting service hours. \u00a0This is great \u2014 the largest portion of the sales goes to the charity the store supports. \u00a0But how many such charities can fully staff with just unpaid volunteers?<\/p>\n
There are other stores with paid staff. \u00a0Think Salvation Army and Goodwill. \u00a0The last time I walked into Goodwill there was a sign that they\u2019re now hiring, at $10.75 per hour. \u00a0Or was that the Salvation Army? \u00a0Anyway, these are chains, and they operate in less-well-off areas, and they simply don\u2019t have a cadre of retirees and housewives willing and able to spend their time there.<\/p>\n
Is one of these \u201cbetter\u201d than the other? \u00a0I wouldn\u2019t rate one type more highly than the other just for the volunteer vs. paid staff \u2014 it matters a lot more to me how well run the store is, and here Goodwill wins out over the Salvation Army stores anyday because they sort their clothing by size rather than by color, and trying to wade through a rack of women\u2019s clothing, with sizes ranging from way, way too small to way, way too big is not worth my time.<\/p>\n
What about the accusations that Goodwill pays its CEO too much? \u00a0I leave it to the reader to decide if that\u2019s a deal-breaker; there are certainly many non-profit organizations that feel that they need to operate in a businesslike fashion, and hire corporate talent at the market rate in order to thrive.<\/p>\n
Now the Huffington Post article\u2019s comments contains a number of accusations that the Goodwill employees skim the best goods off the top for themselves before they get put out on the sale floor, and an equal number of defenses that there are corporate procedures to prevent exactly that, and that if it happens, it\u2019s a violation of policy at a given store, not a systemic issue. \u00a0But any thrift store is at risk of unscrupulous volunteers or employees doing the same.<\/p>\n
And the third category: \u00a0for-profit companies. \u00a0Around here, that\u2019s Savers. \u00a0They\u2019re the ones that \u201cpartner\u201d with a charity, the Epilepsy Foudation, specifically, and send mailers out that they\u2019ll be picking up donations on a certain day and asking for you to call to schedule the truck to stop. \u00a0But the Epilepsy folks don\u2019t get the net proceeds of your donated goods \u2014 they just get a small amount of money per pickup, regardless of the value of the items in the bags you leave at the front porch. \u00a0Is it a rip-off, then? \u00a0No, not really \u2014 as long as you understand what\u2019s really going on<\/em>: \u00a0Savers is fundamentally a company that will allow you to recycle your used, but sellable, goods, in a convenient manner. \u00a0And the Savers stores \u2014 or at least the one I\u2019ve been at \u2014 are a good place to shop, with a nice selection of merchandise, well organized for shopping, and that\u2019s important. \u00a0Even someone looking for bargain prices deserves a good shopping experience, rather than being told that, at your price point, you have to suck it up and hunt through the racks for your size.<\/p>\nSecond point: \u00a0if you are a prospective donor, you should understand the nature of your donation<\/strong>.<\/p>\nThe fundamental objective of any thrift store is to resell your goods at a profit<\/strong>. \u00a0Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and your local thrift store benefiting a women\u2019s shelter, all have this objective. \u00a0They are not about providing affordable clothing for the poor, and you shouldn\u2019t be making your donation with the objective of helping to clothe the poor.<\/p>\nTo be clear: \u00a0if you want to clothe the poor, this is not how to do it.<\/p>\n
If you have clothes that are in good condition and in current style, then there may<\/strong> be ways of getting them directly to people in need. \u00a0Crisis pregnancy centers are happy to take maternity clothes and baby clothes \u2014 again, in good condition and in reasonably current styles. \u00a0Even pregnant women in need don\u2019t want stained clothes, and it\u2019s offensive to their dignity to expect otherwise. \u00a0If you have business clothes, you may be able to find a charity that accepts them for folks out on the job market.<\/p>\nBut your generic jeans, or t-shirts? \u00a0Most charities don\u2019t want these, and aren\u2019t equipped to run a clothing closet, and the poor would generally rather have a bit of cash and be able to choose from among the options at a secondhand store. \u00a0And things that are stained, or ripped, or t-shirts from that fun run you did some years ago? \u00a0Nope, don\u2019t expect that ridding your home of these is a form of charity.<\/p>\n
If you have high-quality clothing and don\u2019t like\u00a0the idea of a middle-class person finding this at the Goodwill, let alone reselling it online, then take it to a consignment store, or sell it on e-bay yourself. \u00a0There are even consignment-type options online, where you send a bag of clothes in and they tell you how much it\u2019s worth. \u00a0Do the same thing with your furniture, or your gently-used electronics \u2014 or recognize that if you don\u2019t want to, then the organization that you give them to is doing you a favor by taking your unwanted items.<\/p>\n
And for G_d\u2019s sake, don\u2019t give your good stuff to the Epilepsy pickup under the illusion that top-notch goods will help those poor epileptic children more.<\/p>\n
Oh, and as a side note: \u00a0thrift stores can\u2019t sell things that are out-of-season. \u00a0Sure, they\u2019ll accept them, but they won\u2019t show up on the shelves, and instead will end up being sold wholesale somewhere else. \u00a0But if you need to get rid of a box of kids\u2019 shorts in January, don\u2019t sweat it; it\u2019s also important to keep a clean house.<\/p>\n
In fact, in Germany, the secondhand store run by a charity doesn\u2019t really exist. \u00a0There are organizations that collect your castoffs, but they are much more open about it being a means of recycling your unwanted goods.<\/p>\n
And what about your rags and stained items, and the things that aren\u2019t worth much of anything?<\/p>\n
To be honest, I\u2019m of two minds here. \u00a0As the Huffington Post article describes, some items end up as rags or filler. \u00a0And some end up being shipped off to Africa instead. \u00a0Is it unethical to participate in the process of selling items to Africa, which is accused of destroying their local textile industry? \u00a0I don\u2019t know; it\u2019s your call, reader. \u00a0I go back and forth on whether I donate or discard t-shirts, for instance \u2014 and I do try to convert these into rags for cleaning at home, but at some point, you\u2019ve got enough rags. \u00a0There is one category that I will not donate, though, and those are articles of clothing that have shrunk, or have stretched out, so that the size on the label isn\u2019t right any longer, since it just doesn\u2019t seem right to contribute to\u00a0a situation in which a customer buys something that, upon trying it on at home, is clearly the wrong size.<\/p>\n
And, incidentally: \u00a0all those t-shirts that you and your kids accumulate over the years? \u00a0The best thing to do is not accumulate them in the first place. \u00a0Certainly it\u2019s no great charitable deed for some kid in Africa to end up with your son\u2019s summer daycamp shirt.<\/p>\n
One more thing: \u00a0the fact that thrift stores are in business to earn money (whether as for-profit or non-profit enterprises) also means that they set the prices on their clothing based on what the market will bear, just like any other business. \u00a0When a store is more expensive than you think they should be, or than other secondhand stores: \u00a0they\u2019ve concluded that\u2019s the right price point for their market, or they think their merchandise is worth more because the goods they receive are higher quality, or they think their customer base is willing to pay more, knowing that it is a donation to the cause. \u00a0They\u2019re \u00a0not gouging their customers, nor to they have an obligation to price things as cheaply as possible for the sake of poor customers.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s it from me. \u00a0What knowledge and experience with thrift stores can you share in the comments?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ACommunityClosetThriftStoreItems.jpg; By Sparklingdawg (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0) or GFDL (http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Longtime readers will know that, while I\u2019m not overweight in the conventional sense, I still struggle with shedding the weight I gained once\u00a0the trifecta of starting telecommuting, having my youngest start school (and no longer being as active with him), and reaching 40. \u00a0(Whether the post-40 weight gain is real or mythical is an exercise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":4570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[481],"class_list":["post-5566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-thrift-stores"],"yoast_head":"\n
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