Thrifting across the US

[tunicaslot]

Just want to get ideas on what your Savers - aka America's Thrift, Goodwill's and Salvations Army's are like in different parts of the country.

Buffalo NY here. There is a weekly Tues 30% senior discount at Savers - but stopped in today to see if it was worth going out tomorrow for their 50% 4th of July sale. OMG - up to $10 for a t-shirt - Nike, Polo, Harley - $12-$16 for jeans - ect.. their prices have gone sky high where as people in Las Vegas said their Saver's is 50% off every Monday. The only things I've bought there lately are a couple of vintage blankets for $6.

Goodwill is 50% off a colored tag with that tag color being $1 on Sat

Salvation Army here has the 50% off a colored tag of the week with 50% of Weds for all but one color tag.

TG for the garage sales where I can still pick up items for 50 cents and up. I realize that the thrifts know that resellers are a good % of their customers - but really what about the people that don't have a lot and shop the thrifts - they can get NWT items as cheap or close to Thrift prices at a regular store.

And how come Saver's doesn't have a standardized schedule? They may get some business from me if they had a weekly 50% off even tho their prices are high.

[thecollegefund]

Here in the surrounding suburbs of Houston, Texas, I rarely find anything vintage and almost everything else is overpriced at any of the Goodwill stores I have been to. When I go to Goodwill stores in the midwest, I am able to find vintage items and good deals. Same with Salvation Army stores.

Here, the only good Salvation Army store we had lost its lease and never found a new place to set up shop.

As far as the other charitable thrift/re-sale shops in this area, they are run more like boutiques with pretty displays and high prices. My son volunteered at one of these thrift shops while he was in high school and he said they threw out so much good stuff it was sickening. I will never donate to that organization again!

I will not donate anything to any of the organizations that run these overpriced "thrift" shops. If I HAD to shop there on a fixed or lower income, I would be better off shopping the sales at regular retail stores.

[honestabe411]

In Phoenix Goodwill prices their LUCKY BRAND jeans from $19.99-$24.99. Huge ripoff. Stopped shopping their years ago.

[tunicaslot]

OMG - that is high - so they sit and then get purged and thrown out or sent to the BINS were they are sold by the lb. I've thought about applying at Savers and giving them a little advice on what to price things. The end game is money - price it too high and the organization is stuck with it.

[monster-deals]

I don't bother hitting big chain thrift during garage sale season.

It's pointless, they crank up the prices to make up for lack of sales every spring and summer as if they can't figure out what is going on.

[thecollegefund]

It seems to me that if a thrift shop is in a brand new building, forget it. A lot of the Goodwill stores I see now look like new construction or they are in nice strip centers, so I guess that helps explain their higher prices.

I love the older thrift shops in the run down buildings or old strip centers. It adds to the character, at least!

Garage sales are always top choice, but down here when it gets hot, the garage & yard sales tend to dry up and don't get going again until early fall.

[kathieskorner]

Haven't been in a Goodwill or Salvation Army thrift store in years - the items are picked over before they go on the shelf, prices are too high, and the stores often have an unpleasant odor. 

There are some great charity run thrifts here in Florida - only one has boutique prices - a few are poorly organized.   The two best ones I visit weekly - the rest maybe once a month.   We also have a huge weekend flea market, but the bargains are few and far between.    Garage and estate sales are good from Nov-Apr, but not much the rest of the year.  

[missjen831]

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@monster-deals wrote:

I don't bother hitting big chain thrift during garage sale season.

It's pointless, they crank up the prices to make up for lack of sales every spring and summer as if they can't figure out what is going on.

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Thats an interest theory, I bet its true. I never thought about that. I don't thrift much anymore because Savers closed and they built a big GoodWill and the selection is pretty bad, when we had the old GW in a shopping center, it was a great place to browse for vintage clothing and books. The big new old is.....big but the actual sales floor is pretty small. I guess the rest of the building is job training or something. But for such a nice building, you'd expect a big sales floor. maybe they are taking most stuff to the GW outlet we got last year.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

Michigan here--lots of old junk. They're all marking their prices up. Several watch what I buy. I mostly buy the obscure and unmarked, so they look perplexed trying to figure out what I see in it. Some know exactly what they are doing, and they know if they don't give me wiggle room I'm not buying it. 50% of the ebay value is priced too high, probably something newbies are just finding out. But nobody knows it all, (although I'm pretty close to knowing it all--just ask my mother!) so I still score big now and then. Nothing good lasts on the shelves anymore, it's snatched up in a heartbeat. Speaking of.....gotta go! 

[jason_incognito]

Portland Oregon.

The salvation Army is a wsted trip. Always a ton of nothing. All the good stuff gets skimmed off before it hits the floor.  I have always felt like they just straight up let a few come and pick what they want before it goes out.

Goodwill.... hit or miss. Good stuff if you check in alot. I've bought quite a bit for resale there. glassware is $1.99 or $2.99 each. They bundle dishes so you cannot buy single plates, sometimes 4.6 or 8 in a bundle. Clothing they seem to know what they have and the cheapest shirt might be $5.99 and more for brands. Books, forget it, they run every UPC

[mikeystoyz]

Savers, fake dooney purse, 80 bucks.  Enough said.

[monster-deals]

There are three cavernous ones that are single entities around here that slow down at the same time but don't crank thier prices up.

There are 2 others that watch me and start up-charging what I buy but then I just switch to different merch...and then their over priced stuff just sits. They would have made more money by just keeping the prices as is instead of trying to squeeze me and end up sale pricing the stuff at 75% off.

Makes me laugh. They could just pay me a retainer, let me have first crack and they would still make more money.

[tunicaslot]

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@thecollegefund wrote:

It seems to me that if a thrift shop is in a brand new building, forget it. A lot of the Goodwill stores I see now look like new construction or they are in nice strip centers, so I guess that helps explain their higher prices.

I love the older thrift shops in the run down buildings or old strip centers. It adds to the character, at least!

Garage sales are always top choice, but down here when it gets hot, the garage & yard sales tend to dry up and don't get going again until early fall.

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college - I'm assuming you live down south?

kethy - TY - we hopefully will be retirin to Alabama in a few years and I often look for garage sales befor we go down to my son's in Montgomery and there is zilch so we end up hitting the thrifts and their indoor flea market booths. I thought maybe people in the south don't do garage sale - but am happy to hear that Im just going at the wrong time of the year. 

I may find a few things down there at the thrifts  - but not too much.

Many of the vloggers are from Vegas and Florida and the things they find are unbelieveable. I don't live in a poor area but people in Vegas and Florida must have money where these people live.

[femmefan1946]

Keep in mind that the purpose of the charity thrifts is to make money for the charity's other missions.

• Value Village supports Juvenile Diabetes research and trains the unemployed
• Salvation Army has many charities including homeless shelters and support for unwed mothers. Plus again training the unemployed,w hich  may overlap the first two.
• Women In Need, a local charity on Vancouver Island, well, the name says it.

And so on.

They are NOT in business to provide bargains for us to resell.

That being said, I find Sally Ann useless for books which are my primary product, with paperbacks at $1.99Cdn.  Value Village prices as a percentage of original cost.

The local charities are better both in pricing, most have paperbacks at 75c to $1.00, and in quantity and quality.

My other product is sewing patterns which are getting harder and harder to find, but are priced anywhere from a quarter to $1.95 depending on the shop.

DD buys clothing every time she comes to the city and really enjoys Salvation Army, which she believes has the best stuff for her needs, but then she is buying to wear, not to resell.

I noticed a sign at Sally Ann today that customers could get free mattresses although that shop did not have them on display. I guess this is part of their outreach for the homeless (or under-housed).  Free and very cheap new mattresses seem to be available through all the Canadian Salvation Army stores.  They will also provide 'interview' clothing free to job seekers, and I know a couple of people who have taken advantage of that program.

Also- about new built stores.  I know of at least one Salvation Army that left one location in Ottawa Canada for a new one in the suburbs, because the landlord was raising their rent. The new landlord gave them two years free rent , possibly a tax deduction for them. At the time, about six years ago there was a glut of newbuild strip malls in Ottawa.

[thecollegefund]

I have been to garage and yard sales in the Houston and Dallas suburbs. Many of the nicer neighborhoods don't allow garage sales or even estate sales.

However, some of the neighborhoods that don't allow these sales will allow an annual neighborhood sale---tons of fun if you can navigate all of the traffic. The church rummage sales in these areas are usually LOADED with stuff and some won't accept clothing donations because they don't have the room for all of it!