That is the only thing we get for free

[CaptainThrifty]

I work for a major thrift store. Our main source of product is donations from the community. For some reason people seem to think this means that we should be offering them for near nothing prices.

Yes, sir you are correct that the items are free. Do you know what is not free? The building mortgage/rent. Electricity. City water/sewer. Trash pick-up. Racks and shelves to display the products. Registers. Heating gas in the winter. The forklift and pallet jacks to move heavy things around the back. Hand trucks for the same thing only on the floor as well. Shopping carts and baskets for your convenience. Light bulbs so you can see to shop. Cleaning and safety supplies required by law. The trucks and trailers used to move things from one store to the other, the administration building where all the behind the scenes things that are required for running a non profit organization happen and the associated thing above for that building. Oh and let us not forget the pay and insurance for all the workers and employees. Then after that we still need to make enough money to run those programs that help people out as per our claim as to what we do.

No one gives us that stuff, so we have to charge accordingly in order to actually keep ourselves out of the red. And we do need to try to make as much as we can. For one thing th programs are always expanding. Then there are time when a few stores might do good, but overall the company doesn't. One year my store's year to date over budget amount at the end of the year was higher than the overall company's over budget. That year our store alone kept us out of the red.

[EricKei]

It scares the hell out of me that people will whine about prices at thrift stores, though it doesn't exactly surprise me -- In my experience, your prices already ARE "near nothing" for the vast majority of items anyway x.x Jeez.

[RealUnimportant]

It's getting that every time I go to a charity store, some asshole's trying to haggle. I've started going up & looking over the items they're showing interest in, and offering to pay the full amount if they don't buy it. Out of a couple dozen exchanges, so far none of them have called my bluff...

[CaptainThrifty]

It scares the hell out of me that people will whine about prices at thrift stores, though it doesn't exactly surprise me -- In my experience, your prices already ARE "near nothing" for the vast majority of items anyway x.x Jeez.

Well I will say our store's prices are higher than they should be. Most of our stores are in a metro area and we are more rural. However, since we are the number one store in sales overall, there isn't any evidence to say we need to lower prices.

[Sapphire Silk]

Anyone who complains about thrift store prices is a moron.

Last Fall I needed some new tops for work (I do have to look semi professional in a college setting).

I found about a dozen shirts, blouses and sweaters my size in good condition (not new but nearly new) for about $50.

ONE similar top bought brand new would have cost about $80.

I'm a college professor. We really don't get paid that much. I'll take 12 for $50 over 1 for $80 any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

[Becks]

Here in NE Wisconsin, the prices at Goodwill are starting to get absurd.
A lot of the clothing is priced nearly as high as it would be new.
I'm not going to pay $10 for a pair of work pants from Goodwill if I can get a brand new pair elsewhere for $12, sorry.

[Kiwi]

The big chain thift store charges more than walmart for most clothing items but the direct to charity run stores around here are where the value is at. Most of them are attached to their church or building (hospice etc) so their costs are lower.

I still go to the big chain one but only on the 50% off days. Even then they were asking $30 for a pair of levi jeans. Nope.

I have seen people haggling at the counter though LOL crazy!

[WishfulSpirit]

Here in NE Wisconsin, the prices at Goodwill are starting to get absurd.
A lot of the clothing is priced nearly as high as it would be new.
I'm not going to pay $10 for a pair of work pants from Goodwill if I can get a brand new pair elsewhere for $12, sorry.

I agree. Sometimes thrift store prices are too high, especially if they are "close to new" pricing. But we aren't SCs, so we don't go whine at some poor till jocky who has nothing to do with setting the prices. We either speak to the store manager (who may have authority to do something about it), contact whatever version of "Corporate" they have, or just shop elsewhere.

[notalwaysright]

Huh. I haven't noticed the Goodwill here being overly expensive. The one in my home town I did think was a little high, but the town was considerably wealthier as a whole. My last pair of work jeans I got at Goodwill. There was a tag sale, all tags of whatever color were $1.79. I got a pair of nearly new Gap jeans. Their website has jeans for around $70. I would have paid the full price which was $8 I think. And they are 100% cotton very heavy with no stretch so they will last a long time. Even jeans with 1% spandex wear out much faster for me.

There are certainly things which are not good deals, but part of thrift shopping is the satisfaction of searching until you find that good deal. Maybe this store does have particularly good prices, which is why I often feel like I should sharpen my elbows and wear steel toed shoes in preparation for shopping there. Possibly its all in my head, since I don't go to the MalWart in town, so I don't know their prices.

[MamaMootz]

My daughter and I volunteer at the regional food pantry - it's the hub and distributes food across 4 counties. They have a thrift store attached to the pantry - it's stuff they receive for donation that they cannot distribute to the other pantries. They get a lot of donations from CVS that contain cosmetics, personal care items, etc. They also get some clothing and household good donations from the general public, and they sell all of this stuff at incredibly low prices.

All of the monies raised go back to maintaining the site, and for buying meat and other items that normally aren't donated.

My daughter and I love going to the thrift store because the makeup is great (she cosplays) and who doesn't love brand new nail polish at 4/$1.00? Although we did observe a couple of beauties last time we were there:

The woman who was buying a bunch of stuff and wanted to get a massive discount because she was buying in bulk. Without any discount, I think all of her stuff would have added up to a grand total of $20. Discount was refused but at least she still paid up and took the items.

Then there was the woman who was yelling at the clerk *who is an elderly lady who runs the thrift shop on her own and is also a volunteer * that she had to supply her with batteries, and fix the arm on the donated clock she was buying (the clock was missing the minute arm, but it still had the short and long hand). She got very angry when the thrift shop lady told her that wouldn't be possible and stomped off, yelling FINE! I'll shop somewhere else then.

Elderly lady was like: thanks, you do that. Enjoy the rest of your day.

I don't get it - I just don't get it. It's a thrift store. It's not Neiman-Marcus. smh

[sdg31000]

I work in a UK charity shop and we get the same things happening every single day, including the people who moan that we are a charity shop and should be showing some i.e giving them things for nothing. I have learnt to smile nicely and say that they seem to have the wrong idea and that the charity should flow from them to us, not the other way around.
We go around and count the empty hangers at the end of the day due to the shoplifting and deal with some pretty argumentative customers day in day out.

[Mr Hero]

Anyone who complains about thrift store prices is a moron.

I only mostly agree with this. There was a thrift store in the town of my old college. While clothing and furniture were reasonably priced, they were a bit clueless with video games. NES games were all priced the same. This evened out, but you were generally paying too much for Mario/Duck Hunt.

[Seshat]

Also, if you are in need of charity, the organisations which run the charity stores will often take you to a store (or the warehouse store) and let you select what you need.

But you don't get that by going to the store, you go to the charity arm of the organisation.

[notalwaysright]

The GW here expanded relatively recently to have classes. I looked it up and they give free classes for GED prep, ESOL (English for speakers of another language), basic computer classes, some open lab times and a whole bunch of workshops. Ones that some people could use, lol. Social etiquette for youth, resume essentials and succeeding on the job. Sorry, can't help but think of the ever popular "How to Get Fired 101" thread.

[MoonCat]

I go to the Amvets near me all the time. Their prices are great. I bought a Lands End down coat there for under $10 once (then a cleaners ruined it, but that's another story). I buy my jeans there, tee-shirts, nicer tops for work, etc. There are days when my whole outfit except for undies and shoes came from there

And I like to poke through their housewares section. I've found plates there in a pattern that my grandma had, which are very collectible but would cost more on eBay or elsewhere.

It would never occur to me to try to haggle the price down even more! They're already dirt cheap!