Thrift Shop Rant

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dalangdon

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Over the weekend, I decided to do a little bit of purging, and decided two tabletop rotisserie ovens (a GE and a Kenmore) could go to the thrifts, along with a classic metal hassock fan.

Imagine my surprise when the thrift shop (Value Village) wouldn't take these fully functional and clean-as-a-whistle appliances because they were "too old"!

This, after perusing their housewares department, which revealed the usual assortment of plastic crap that has made me take them off my list of places to stop at.

I specifically chose to donate them because I thought it might be fun for an aspiring thrifter to find something fabulous, but if the thrift shops are getting so "selective", what options are there other than Craigslist or eBay?

Somehow, all of the fun seems to be going out of thrifting.
 
Or,

maybe that GE (is that the "Jetsons"-ish one?) might find a new home with someone here.

Or, there could be a consignment shop in the area which might be happy to take your more interesting items.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
I've had no problem donating all sorts of stuff to Goodwill in Oakland. I take it directly to their donation center off 29th ave. They will not take microwaves, however. I gather no charity will take them these days.
 
I agree with Lawrence. I know personally I have a collection of five or six different rotisseries. Perhaps if you post a picture or two, they may wind up in the hands of an applianceville member. Who knows, they may even find their way to Rhode Island???

Ron
 
We only have one organization at the moment, Mustard Seed, one in Port St. Lucie, one in Fort Pierce. The Ft. Pierce store has a reputation for letting everything in. At the moment, it's pretty dry. And I bought my microwave in Goodwill this July.
 
Dan

I attempted to take a monitor and printer to Goodwill. They would not accept it.....stated it was too old, although I saw several similar monitors(and printers) in the store.
 
I've had problems with Goodwill stores, they refused a table I had a while back because there was a small chip in the wood along the edge. The lady said they would take the other stuff I had, but not the table. I told her it was all or nothing and drove it all to Salvation Army down the street and they cheerfully took everything without trouble.
 
As with everything, it's a question of supply and demand. If the charity or thrift can't sell a donated good, it costs them money to dispose of it other ways, doesn't it? And they only have so much room to store things.
 
You're right, supply and demand dictates what they can accept. Given that one man's trash is another man's treasure, I'm still astounded by some of the "trash" I see in these stores - perhaps things are just being made more cheaply meant to be tossed rather than recycled into a new life... It makes you wonder about all the imported goods that you see comments, reviews and rants about being of such poor quality that they barely last through the warranty period. A discussion here a while back about dehumidifiers was a good example. Pure junk that is shipped into this country, used up in a short time and then we have to store it forever in our landfills. It makes you wonder if one day we'll be "smothered in plastic-tub GE dishwashers and Hoover C-type dustbags"!
 
C-Type dustbags

Don't know what type my Hoover uses - just that I can't seem
to find them anymore so I had to make an adapter to use a
different bag. But my question is: Is there something special
about C-Type dustbags? I would think they should be reasonably
bio-degradeable (except for any plastic, etc, that was vacuumed
into them.)
 
It seems as if the policy is different from store to store or trailer to trailer. I NEVER see major appliances at Goodwill anymore. Salvation Army has a few fridges, stoves, washers or dryers at any given time, and I'm talking about the main store, not the smaller ones. Of course SA receives literally tons of large appliances but they end up having an auction one day a week out at the loading dock instead of using up so much space putting them on the sales floor. Still, they seem to be the only thrift anymore that carries large appliances. Only St. Vincent De Paul seems to accept pretty much anything you are willing to donate. It seems a lot of these thrifts have decided to use parking lot space to sell donated cars rather than use valuable space inside the store to sell appliances.

Dan, you tried to do a good deed for fellow thrifters and I'll bet if you had donated to Salvation Army those nice clean rotisseries would have gone straight to the "boutique" section with a high price slapped on them. Either way, your targeted thrifters lose.

Craig's List free items seems to be the way to go these days if you have stuff to unload.
 
I suppose you are right Ralph, but what's the fun of Craigslist? I don't mean to totally trash it, but it can't compare with the thrill of wandering into a St. Vinnies or a Salvation Army and finding something Simply Marvelous.

Speaking of Simply Marvelous, I stopped by the the St. Vinnie's the other day and ran smack into a Broyhill "Brazillia" dining room set, complete with the leaves in the original box! Unfortunately, I need a dining room set like I need a hole in the head, so I had to pass, but I hope that gave someone a real thrill.
 
I know what you mean..

the thrill of walking into a store in anticipation of finding a treasure.
Now that same anticipation can be found on Ebay and Craigs and other sites. ...And on AW.org. "tuning" in each day at any given time to find out if there are new links from people who come accross something. Or, someone who has something they no longer need and want to give away. I recently gave away a CD-rom and Sactoteddy-Steve was happy to receive and even pay for postage. I didn't want to just discard it and I'm sure a thrift shop wouldn't know what it was or care.
Were lucky to have a receptive audience for appliance related items, right here.
 
I walked into a new and used furniture store one day and found this. I almost fell off my heels. I can't show it off enough. GE Custom Decorator.

8-29-2007-04-37-41--63getelevision.jpg
 
I was wondering why larger aparment buildngs don't have a "transfer station" type of room for cast-offs that are still fabulous.

Friends in neigboring buildings could play "I'll show you mne if you show me yours"

Put a "received" date on the goods and ship 'em out to the aforementioned thrifts as time passes without a taker, and the need for space dictates same.
 
Free

A friend was telling me that in his condo complex, the mailroom has become the drop-off for unwanted items(many NIB).
A good way to pass on an unwanted item rather than re-gifting.
 
I suspect in 10 years thrift shops will be a thing of the past. Every year I see more and more of the closing down. Why buy a $5 used plastic coffee maker from China when one can buy a new plastic coffee maker China for $9 at Target.
 
Donations

I'm surprized Ron didn't hop on this right away: the pricing at the thrifts! Some are good and put reasonable prices on things. Others, however, mark antique show prices on things, only to gather them up and toss them at the end of the month when they don't sell. If they had priced them reasonably to begin with, perhaps they would have sold them. Better take less for something rather than throw it out! After all, it was FREE!!!

Chuck
 
I agree, thrift store pricing has become ridiculous at many locations. To continue with what Robert has posted above, why pay a "new" price for something that's used? It has gotten to the point where the only thrifts that are worth cruising are the independents run by crews of little old lady volunteers. The big chains appear to be more interested in selling junk than anything as nice as Dan tried to donate. So whatever happened to Goodwill's slogan, "Help us help the handicapped"??? They don't accept anything that might need some fixing, so just exactly what are they doing to help the handicapped these days?
 
Goodwill stores here have tended to go upscale as well perhaps in light of how well Value Village does but there are still some old time type thrifts around like St.Vinnies and our local BFM (Bibles for Missions). The Habitat for Humanity Restore is also pretty good and they have a bunch of knowledgable fix it guys working in the back cleaning up and refurbishing the appliances. I daren't say how many center dial Maytags and KA superbas I've seen them sell LOL Currenly they have my same GE filter flo in there, just sold for $40, all tested and working.
 

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