Reality of the thrift stores

In less than an hour - filled

I thought I would answer some questions about thrift stores or at least ones I'm involved in. 

1) There is no shortage of donations. There's enough for everyone. 

2) Big and little thrift stores can only handle so much. Weeding out the trash will only added to the bottom line of expenses. The bigger the store the bigger the bills. 

3) All thrift stores are profit based because bills have to be paid (even an all volunteer group) and the goal is to make money for whatever charity it's supporting. The mission isn't to provide low income families with things, but to support those non- profits services that do. 

4) Resellers do not affect the pricing at any thrift store. Pricing is based how experienced the person is in pricing. If they understand what "sell through" rate means and the organization supports that, then things are priced to sell fast. 

5) No, the volunteers don't get to cherry pick out the good stuff. What happens is the volunteers are just at the store more often so they see everything first. They do have to purchase everything like everyone else. It's more being there at the right time type of thing. 

I had nice chat with a former employee from Savers. He said they have a trash compactor come in about every two days at the cost of $3,000 per visit. Only about 30% of the items donated make it out to the floor. I'm sure GoodWill is the same %.

At the Happy Dragon we fill three large bins (6'x5'x6') that has to be picked up at least twice a week. One bin goes to the rag company to be recycled and the others go to Hope. We only take donations in for a total of 6 hours a week. I would say about 90% gets out on to the floor on a good day.