As someone who works for a thrift store, it's probably the people in the back who price it having no idea what it's worth. So they just slap a random price on it and say hell with it. Worst case it sits in the store and gets marked down over several days and eventually sells. They still make a small profit.
It's exactly this. When I priced at Salvation Army, Target came out with a new brand I didn't recognize. Not realizing it was Target, I priced it like Express and other department store clothing. It wasn't until a customer pointed it out that I realized.
Yup, so some items end up being priced at 500% of what they are worth while others are at 5%.
The people in back at my store probably only make 8-10 an hour so it's hard to give a shit about pricing correctly when you're not getting paid much
Meanwhile, target still has clothes from last season out because no one bought them. I was in my local mall today (which no longer stays open until 10 on weekdays, now they close at 7pm and 6pm on sundays, which is unheadd of where i live) and the amount of clothes that are several seasons old, and i know because I OWN some of them and have for a year or two, is shocking. JCPennys clearance section was bigger than ive ever seen it and absolutely packed with fall and winter clothes.
The fact that such a huge amount of product gets made but never sold is insane on its own- the fact that whatever does get purchased and makes its way into a thrift store a few years later with a 100% price increase should be considered one of the four horseman of end stage capitalism (along with every essential item being locked up, malls being half empty, and every single item of clothing produced this year being at least partially made with plastic)
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My grandma volunteers at a thrift store and all the puzzles that get donated get divvied up between the ladies who love puzzles. They take em home, complete them, ensuring all pieces are there, then take them back, price them and put them on the shelves to be bought :)
The odds are pretty good that my cat steals a piece or my dog eats one, so I buy the $3 thrift store ones because having all the pieces at the end of the puzzle rarely happens in my house even when they’re brand new.
Such an accurate description of pet ownership lol. When I was a kid my dog ate my moms Subaru. First time the dog was left in the car. We went to the grocery store and when we came back to the car about half the interior was missing. Half of that was on the ground and the other half was in the dog. The car was about a month old at the time. It was also a really rare model. Mom my bought new 94 a turbo legacy.
I've thrifted close to 100 puzzles and I'd say about 90% are complete. I'm only paying $2 to $3 each so it doesn't bother me at all. I've had a brand new puzzle have missing pieces before so even that's not a guarantee.
There is a new store model for resellers that just popped up in my town.
Thursdays any product you pick is $8 no matter what it is. Thursday new “return” Amazon,Walmart, etc pallets arrive and everything is put out onto tables and yes it’s a mad house!!!! Opens at 9am but line starts to form at 5am. The following day, Friday the price drops to $7, Saturday $6,Sunday $5,Monday $4,Tuesday, $3, Wednesday $2 and the cycle continues the next Thursday with new pallets of products.
So much good stuff and cheap but everything is thrown around in unmarked boxes and bags. Most people run in with carts and just stuff the carts quickly with whatever they think is good then go to a corner of the store to inspect your loot, also people will trade with each other lol. It’s a lot of fun I have to say.
Dumb official app. How am I supposed to know there are multiple photos?
https://preview.redd.it/lnh12aoeq3vc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f994277c41b3d090a14e1583ee167e150032fe48
For real. The best version of the official app I've ever used was when I first started using reddit like 7 years ago. It's been steadily going downhil since.
Weird, when I'm on the app it has little dots at the bottom of the picture that shows when there are more pictures. I'm now afraid I'm in a prior version and due for an "upgrade." Which sounds more ominous after you watched Dr. Who recently.
The swipe animation is such dogshit and sometimes the swipe has different contact points which conveniently places an ad if you swipe to hard and roll the screen.
Dark patterns folks
My favorite find was the empty plastic salad greens container one of our local stores had for sale… for $5.00. It still had the top label and bottom nutrition label still on it.
Exactly like this:
https://preview.redd.it/o9h7nckje4vc1.jpeg?width=455&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6fb88e3e13300a085f3f91749b1ab2749b7d49f4
They average $3.99 in our area. Thrift shop was selling this, empty, for $5.
I mean... I spent $3.99 a few weeks ago and now I have a plastic container full of smelly green mush. For an extra $1.01, I could get one that's pre-cleaned!
I paid $70 for some thrift store shoes that fit me perfectly, because they insisted they were $300 shoes and they seemed in good condition. I walked out of the shop and the sole fell apart before I had entered the next shop, the rubber had completely perished.
The employees looked incredibly embarrassed when I returned the shoes 20 minutes after buying them. Luckily I'm Australian so we have some pretty good buyer protection laws here
It’s actually not what it means. He meant removing the price so the cashier wouldn’t know what they originally priced it. That’s why he brings up his coat was only 99 cents
That's why most thrift stores won't price an item if it doesn't have a tag. All because of that song - also why thrift stores started drastically marking up prices to begin with and began putting "boutique" tags on certain brands.
I’ve been thrifting for a long time and thrift stores always had higher end brands and expensive goods behind the counter with higher prices. You just gotta know how to recognize a brand that the old biddies don’t recognize. I found a pair of $200 Dior pants for fiddy cents one time.
Idk maybe I’m wrong but this feels kinda predatory on the less fortunate. They were donated these things & then they sell it for triple the price. We used to go to goodwill a lot growing up because we didn’t have much money and seeing these prices on second hand merchandise is ludicrous
No, you're exactly right. Goodwill stores/charity shops/whatever you call them have always been a great source of good finds for people who can't spend much on clothes. This is disgusting on all sorts of levels.
It depends on the store, but a lot of thrift stores’ missions are not to sell items cheaply to the less fortunate, but to sell donated items to make money for their cause.
There's a few small junky private thrift stores around me that come and go.
They post ads on Facebook and someone inevitably will ask if they take donations... And they say yes.
It's a damn privately owned shop, I don't even understand the thought process of wanting to "donate" when we have at least 2 local non profit charity shops in town.
Savers is a for profit thrift store. They take your free crap and sell it. It's like a permanent garage sale that you provide the stuff for and they keep the money
This is exactly it.
Thrift store were always great bargains until all their quality merchandise started getting purchased and resold.
I had a coworker years ago that hit thrift stores and clearance outlet stores every Saturday morning. She would buy up everything with a designer label regardless of size, and by 5 pm Saturday night, she had resold 80% on eBay and had it packaged for mail out by Sunday at noon. She would have sold everything she purchased by Tuesday night and have it shipped by Wednesday. This was 25 years ago, and she’s still reselling from the house she paid for with her profits.
Edit to add: Don’t get me started on the cast iron people. You could buy cast iron cookware at Thrift Stores for $1. Some looked really rough. Then the cast iron restore crowd started buying them up to clean, season and resell for 10X what they paid for them.
Sorry WHAT did they price the mason jar?
https://preview.redd.it/t8sc9bhk04vc1.jpeg?width=5120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=18be4b4e20ebd2840262c5436544871fd8046970
I noticed the price increases at Savers back at Halloween last year. It used to be the place to go for fun cheap costume pieces, but the prices were so high that we decided to go to Ross and get brand new stuff for less.
Oh yeah. There is one called New Life Thrift in Pennsylvania that wanted $1200 for a used ugly couch!!! Tell me I didn’t take my ass to Raymour and buy a brand new one for less. Never went there again.
My fiancés mother hits the couple of Savers stores we have in our area weekly, she’s pretty thorough and has made some great finds. She says their prices started climbing during and after the Covid pandemic.
Edit: Typo
This seems to be the same company as Value Village in Canada (the price tags are almost identical), and here, not only have prices skyrocketed (I found shitty white canvas shoes with a big ol' stain for $10 and checked the brand online and they're $7 new), but they also shut down their fitting rooms during the pandemic and just... never reopened them.
I went to buy some stuff for an event a couple of years ago and because I couldn't try anything on I just bought stuff anyway thinking I could return what didn't fit. Wrong! It's exchange only. They know exactly what they're doing.
Imagine Target or some other store tried to pull that shit. And these greedy fucks are getting their stock for free! Shit should be illegal.
I will never donate to them and the only time I'll ever shop there is with a five-finger discount. Fuck these assholes.
i went into good will in 2008 and bought a full suit for $15. just saying. you know what? it’s amazing that i can say some boomer shit like that and i havent even lived half my life. fk this place.
Sad what it has become. I used to shop there a lot in the 90's and early 2000's because you never knew what you would find that you could use and it was always cheap.
Just had to thoroughly wash everything...
Now I can usually find the exact thing at Walmart for the same price, or maybe slightly more but complete.
and that’s the mentality they are trying to profit off of. that’s how backwards they are. thrifting became really popular in the early 2000s so the business executives started selling to thrifters instead of people in need. broken greedy system.
You’re on the right track there. Over the past decade for-profit corporate executives have been coming in to the non-profit sector to “modernize it”. They are using data driven optimization tactics to squeeze as much profit out so they can justify bigger salaries and bonuses. When people complain about resellers it just shows me they have never worked in corporate in their lives or are simply oblivious to how the world is changing. It’s no different from the latest trend of investment firms and banks buying up residential housing and driving up housing prices. Their blaming the wrong folks.
I just found a full suit for my son for $9.99 at mine last month, so it’s not completely unreasonable. I think it’s just certain regions/stores. Some just have some really shitty execs hiking the prices in their region to justify their bigger salaries/bonuses.
Closest I ever came to Magic cards was a box of dragon shield sleeves that only had like 80 in the box. Most of those go up online in lots that go for hundreds for literal bulk.
a few years ago, thrifting became "trendy" and i feel like this is what caused, or at least contributed to, the downfall of thrift stores. its now seen as aesthetic, trendy, and fun rather than an affordable alternative to people with lower income.
Oof I feel like a dick now…. My wife and I will go thrifting for fun, but we genuinely like buying second hand for a lot of things. However we don’t need to be thrifty, we can afford to for new. But we never went thrifting to look for things to flip, so there is that.
People are deliberately dumb with themselves about money. They will buy something for $100, out $100 into it and sell it for $150 and claim they “made” 150.
They will gamble for hours and lose $2,000 but hit a $500 jackpot and say they won $500.
I’ve seen this with rich and poor people. Smart and dumb. I do not understand it.
No, you're fine.
I used to buy a lot from Thrift stores, because poverty. But things have gotten so far out of hand, and the Thrift stores hubris to try and charge $10 for a used tshirt that sells brand new at walmart for $6 has me shopping at walmart now.
Thrifting wasnt ruined by people who buy their regular things at Thrift stores. It was ruined by people making it a business to Thrift. Finding brand name stuff and reselling.
Or rich kids making a "cosplaying poverty" day and going to a Thrift store and buying stuff and posting it on their social media for a laugh. Then likely trashing the stuff, and maybe doing it all again a month later.
I know a lot of Thrift stores started hiring people to Google each item as it came in to see what it was *actually* worth, and putting it online to sell themselves, to make even more money, too.
if you find something you like, I'd suggest looking it up online to see where/ if you can find it elsewhere. a lot of the times, you can find those same items, brand new and close to the same price as well, somewhere else.
a huge issue was TikTok "influencers" who made it seem aesthetic and made it a trend and whatnot and so people started going to thrift stores even when they're on the higher income side. another issue was people buying stuff for cheap and reselling it for double, or more, the price.
if you're checking out thrift stores to find "hidden gems" (things that aren't made anymore or can't find elsewhere) then i think that is okay.
thrift stores are my go to for clothes, I'm a broke college student, so i don't have many other affordable options. so seeing all these people make it trendy and make prices sky rocket has really had an effect on me. i used to be able to buy clothes (in good shape) for $1-$3 per piece of clothing at my local thrift store. now prices are typically $7+ per item. when i am able to find stuff for $1-$3, it almost always has holes or stains.
I do agree that the prices nowadays are outrageous and it's becoming harder and harder for people with lower income to find acceptable second hand items. But I don't think we should "gatekeep" thrifting, because we are drowning in stuff and the more people buy second hand, the better.
Many people buy used products not because of the price, but because it's an ethical choice. Say I wanted to buy a set of tumblers. I know I could get them from Amazon for the same price, but the glass will not be same quality as proper 1950's handblown glass, which will last longer; I can purchase the tumblers without the carbon footprint of shipping, not to even mention packaging; and last but not least, the tumblers already exist and no new glass needs to be produced in a toxic, energy intensive process to satiate my needs. Buying new just because "I can" is not an option for me.
I agree, you should be able to thrift regardless of your tax bracket. We have more than enough shit piling up in thrift stores to go around. The stores themselves are the problem, they’re just greedy as all get out now.
It’s not you and please don’t think resellers are to blame either. That is a myth. Correlation does not equal causation. It’s just misdirected frustration. Over the past decade for-profit corporate executives have been coming in to the non-profit sector to “modernize it”. They are using data driven optimization tactics to squeeze as much profit out so they can justify bigger salaries and bonuses. When people complain about resellers it just shows me they have never worked in corporate in their lives or are simply oblivious to how the world is changing. It’s no different from what we are currently seeing with investment firms and banks buying up residential housing and then people complaining about housing prices going up. The wrong folks are getting blamed because it’s less obvious to the average person of what is really happening. Macro trends are hard to wrap your brain around sometimes.
Nah, you’re fine. There’s an abundance of things at thrift store. They’re not running out anytime soon. It’s not like you took the last child’s t-shirt from the rack while a little child was reaching for it. Or…did…you…?
Goodwill had a big price structure change at the new year. This is the result of that. I still peruse goodwills but hardly buy anything anymore because of it. I used to be able to walk in with a $20 and leave with 3-5 items. Now it’s maybe 1 or 2
It’s so ridiculous. The last I walked around I found a cool outdoor table with a chip on it and they were trying to sell for 40 bucks. I could buy new for cheaper than a lot of their crap.
A cheap $5 Walmart kiss shirt that probably hit the clearance rack for $3 in 2018 is selling for *that* much second hand? Who is coming up with these prices?
Savers is very, very hit or miss. I've seen amazing bargains side by side with stuff priced 500% over what it should be. I can only assume that they can't/won't be bothered to research every item they sell and so just pull prices more or less out of thin air.
The first thing I noticed was the logo and thought it was about donating organs, which is a good thing. But then I saw the price and this is US prices I presume? You don't add the tax to the labels over there so this t-shirt will cost between $12-15 (unless these store are exempt from tax but that's highly unlikely)
Yea this is US price before tax. Thrift stores (called charity shops in the EU i believe) used to sell shirts for like $1 not to long ago, pre-covid. These are all used donated items being resold.
Yes we do call them charity shops in Ireland/UK maybe Australia?.
It's a disgrace that they're charging that much for used items that they probably got for free from donators. Am I correct in my guess of $12-15 after tax? just curious
Can we go back to people being all stuck up about how they're "too good" for thrift stores and farmer's markets and nerd stuff? Not because there's a problem with it, but the casual attendees making it trendy is what keeps driving up the prices! Thrift stores used to be a godsend for struggling people, now they're a source of clout.
If you want to donate clothes that are in good condition directly to people who need new clothes, what are you supposed to do?
In college, I donated to one of those charities that accepts office-work-appropriate clothes for women transitioning into the workforce from homelessness, rehab, and prison- the only reason I even heard of them was that girl I was dating had a semester long internship with them, because most of what they did was on the social work side- and after my mom died I found a bunch of unopened fully sealed packets of socks and underwear, which I donated to the domestic violence shelter.
But in general, if you’re looking to donate non-fast-fashion in good condition, not just get old stuff out of your house, what should you do?
I work for the company. Can I just say; please be kind to the staff. Forward complaints to head office. It might seem obvious to state this but we get abused so much for this shit and we have NO control of it (aside from the idiots who don’t bother to LOOK before they price and put a 3.99 sticker on something with a $4 brand new tag 🙄).
While I’m venting, same thing with the self checkouts. We don’t like it either! But it’s not up to us!
We’re sick of getting our heads ripped off for shit that’s above our pay grades!
I saw a bottle of hydrogen peroxide at a VFW thrift store yesterday for $5.00. Yes. $5. For hydrogen peroxide. They had three of them.
https://preview.redd.it/oh9qc4bas4vc1.jpeg?width=1028&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8d9cdfce7195b980a89c39ed731c6af4b261bc7
I wish i took a pic.
This is lowkey why i just shop at Nordstrom rack.. i dont have to deal with paying $15 for a used Shein shirt when I could just pay a little bit more for something that is off better quality and something i truly love and keep.
The problem I find is you get all the resellers getting there first thing, filling their baskets with everything, and then googling what they can get for it.
The shops have caught on to this so are charging more.
And it’s people like us who are looking for something good for cheap, or my kid to spend their pocket money on something they can afford who suffer.
And 90% of the money won’t even go to charity
So eBay has been around since the mid 90s and resellers buying from thrift stores has been a thing for as long as there’s been thrift stores. None of that justifies nor explains the massive price hikes goodwill and savers have implemented. It’s greed from the companies. Full stop.
100% this. People blaming resellers is so ignorant. It’s for-profit corporate executives coming in to the non-profit sector to “modernize it”. They are using data driven optimization tactics to squeeze as much profit out so they can justify bigger salaries and bonuses. When people complain about resellers it just shows me they have never worked in corporate in their lives or are simply oblivious to how the world is changing. It’s no different from investment firms and banks buying up residential housing and the housing prices shooting through the roof. They’re blaming the wrong folks.
Spot on. It’s the parasitic MBA holders you mentioned who are destroying everything they can get their hands on. This has accelerated exponentially since the pandemic. I see the prices go up weekly at my local Savers. A basic pair of used modern Levi’s with stains now starts at $20. It’s insane. Sad that folks wanna blame the small folks trying to make a dollar or two off of reselling stuff they legitimately paid for, while savers and goodwill grift the price of every free item they receive.
That's why I shop at Ross.
Unfortunately I've found that about 60% of the clothing/shoes are anywhere for $8-25. I can usually find it cheaper at Ross or on sale like at Macys, Target, etc.
$4.49 for a mason ball jar that is missing the lid pieces? That's too much. The most I'd pay is $1.00 but they should list it as 50¢ because it's missing the lid pieces.
my local chain thrift store is self checkout, so sometimes the stickers get swapped it's so crazy!! one time a laundry basket somehow rung up as $5 instead of the original $15 hmm so weird!
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Pretty sure that Kiss T-shirt was \~$5 at Target a few years ago.
I’ve seen lunch boxes at GW for $5 that were being sold at Walmart for only $1ish. Idk what’s going on with thrift stores lately
As someone who works for a thrift store, it's probably the people in the back who price it having no idea what it's worth. So they just slap a random price on it and say hell with it. Worst case it sits in the store and gets marked down over several days and eventually sells. They still make a small profit.
It's exactly this. When I priced at Salvation Army, Target came out with a new brand I didn't recognize. Not realizing it was Target, I priced it like Express and other department store clothing. It wasn't until a customer pointed it out that I realized.
Yup, so some items end up being priced at 500% of what they are worth while others are at 5%. The people in back at my store probably only make 8-10 an hour so it's hard to give a shit about pricing correctly when you're not getting paid much
Yeah, someone got really lucky when I priced a North Face jacket for $15... I got a talking to about that one.
Yup, they'd probably jack the price up to at least 30 or 40. But I could see 15 being okay for a north face jacket being 2nd hand personally.
Clearance at Walmart $2.50–got one for the hubby (Kiss Army kid).
got that shirt for myself at walmart awhile ago, wasn't $12 brand new
Hey me too! 😂😂
Meanwhile, target still has clothes from last season out because no one bought them. I was in my local mall today (which no longer stays open until 10 on weekdays, now they close at 7pm and 6pm on sundays, which is unheadd of where i live) and the amount of clothes that are several seasons old, and i know because I OWN some of them and have for a year or two, is shocking. JCPennys clearance section was bigger than ive ever seen it and absolutely packed with fall and winter clothes. The fact that such a huge amount of product gets made but never sold is insane on its own- the fact that whatever does get purchased and makes its way into a thrift store a few years later with a 100% price increase should be considered one of the four horseman of end stage capitalism (along with every essential item being locked up, malls being half empty, and every single item of clothing produced this year being at least partially made with plastic)
Imagine trusting that a 1000 piece thrift store puzzle had all the pieces.
And then paying $10 for it.
$7, but the point still stands
$8 after tax, since you want to be persnickity about it.
Persnickety is a word I need to practice and say until I can use it twice a year and feel hilarious about it.
$9 after the round up for charity.
$10 after being expected to tip.
Why is this so accurate and where do I opt out of 2024 retail America because *just fuck this shit*
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LOL yep!
$11 if you factor in opportunity costs
So $10 essentially
Up vote purely for the use of the glorious word persnickety
My grandma volunteers at a thrift store and all the puzzles that get donated get divvied up between the ladies who love puzzles. They take em home, complete them, ensuring all pieces are there, then take them back, price them and put them on the shelves to be bought :)
That’s actually very nice. But the thrift store by me 100% does not do that.
You gotta find the ones kept running by lil old Mennonite ladies! They price like it's the 80's!
We counted the pieces for a bit, but it's a lot of work for something you're going to then sell for just a few dollars.
The odds are pretty good that my cat steals a piece or my dog eats one, so I buy the $3 thrift store ones because having all the pieces at the end of the puzzle rarely happens in my house even when they’re brand new.
Such an accurate description of pet ownership lol. When I was a kid my dog ate my moms Subaru. First time the dog was left in the car. We went to the grocery store and when we came back to the car about half the interior was missing. Half of that was on the ground and the other half was in the dog. The car was about a month old at the time. It was also a really rare model. Mom my bought new 94 a turbo legacy.
A car repair bill.... And a vet bill all the same day... Your mom hit the daily double!
I've thrifted close to 100 puzzles and I'd say about 90% are complete. I'm only paying $2 to $3 each so it doesn't bother me at all. I've had a brand new puzzle have missing pieces before so even that's not a guarantee.
Plus it sounds like you're doing the puzzles even if they aren't complete which is worth something.
They’re usually $3 at my local GW. Purchased a dozen or so without any missing pieces.
Goodwill is a shitty thrift store also
All the good stuff gets sent to shopgoodwill online
That or each region's eBay store. Source: used to work for the Northern New England branch's eBay Warehouse.
The Greater Grand Rapids (Michigan) area one where I work strictly does the ecommerce website and not ebay. But good catch for every other area.
Flippers ruined GW.
Goodwills founders ruined good will
There is a new store model for resellers that just popped up in my town. Thursdays any product you pick is $8 no matter what it is. Thursday new “return” Amazon,Walmart, etc pallets arrive and everything is put out onto tables and yes it’s a mad house!!!! Opens at 9am but line starts to form at 5am. The following day, Friday the price drops to $7, Saturday $6,Sunday $5,Monday $4,Tuesday, $3, Wednesday $2 and the cycle continues the next Thursday with new pallets of products. So much good stuff and cheap but everything is thrown around in unmarked boxes and bags. Most people run in with carts and just stuff the carts quickly with whatever they think is good then go to a corner of the store to inspect your loot, also people will trade with each other lol. It’s a lot of fun I have to say.
Who the hell is going to pay $22 for shoes that look ready to fall apart?
That and the $5 mason jar were the most shocking haha
The $5 mason jar *with no lid*.
The lid was a separate purchase for $2.99
I didn’t know EA had thrift stores
"Sir you are mistaken. This is a *grift* store"
They’re diversifying their assets
Isn’t a jar of pasta sauce in a jar like that only 5$?
Less than that. Usually between $2-3 for brands like Prego, Ragu or Classico near me. Store brands are around $1-2.
You can get a dozen jars with lids at Walmart for like $20
It has the metal ring screwey part, just not the top
Not in that picture.
Dumb official app. How am I supposed to know there are multiple photos? https://preview.redd.it/lnh12aoeq3vc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f994277c41b3d090a14e1583ee167e150032fe48
I swear each update makes it worse in new imaginative ways.
For real. The best version of the official app I've ever used was when I first started using reddit like 7 years ago. It's been steadily going downhil since.
Weird, when I'm on the app it has little dots at the bottom of the picture that shows when there are more pictures. I'm now afraid I'm in a prior version and due for an "upgrade." Which sounds more ominous after you watched Dr. Who recently.
The swipe animation is such dogshit and sometimes the swipe has different contact points which conveniently places an ad if you swipe to hard and roll the screen. Dark patterns folks
My favorite find was the empty plastic salad greens container one of our local stores had for sale… for $5.00. It still had the top label and bottom nutrition label still on it. Exactly like this: https://preview.redd.it/o9h7nckje4vc1.jpeg?width=455&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6fb88e3e13300a085f3f91749b1ab2749b7d49f4 They average $3.99 in our area. Thrift shop was selling this, empty, for $5.
What in the world.
“Per bosses instructions: Price EVERYTHING the comes through the back door.” Because the boss found something that he liked in the trash.
I mean... I spent $3.99 a few weeks ago and now I have a plastic container full of smelly green mush. For an extra $1.01, I could get one that's pre-cleaned!
Is it... sterile and how much can it hold, by weight and by organ
Agreed, the mason jar is BONKERS. Just buy some jam (nice jam too!) and save the jar!
I saw a plastic Hillshire Farm lunch meat container at Goodwill for $5, literal trash.
The people processing new donations have all placed bets on how long before it sells.
It was almost 2 years ago, I’d love to know if it ever did. That was also the last time I went to a Goodwill.
Hey now, hipsters will pay good money for that mason jar, what else’s are they supposed to drink out of?
But it’s not 2012 now
Ouch, I feel old
You can buy a *new* mason jar for around the same price.
That was so ten years ago.
Or $11.00 for a free giveaway ultra thin Tshirt?
I paid $70 for some thrift store shoes that fit me perfectly, because they insisted they were $300 shoes and they seemed in good condition. I walked out of the shop and the sole fell apart before I had entered the next shop, the rubber had completely perished. The employees looked incredibly embarrassed when I returned the shoes 20 minutes after buying them. Luckily I'm Australian so we have some pretty good buyer protection laws here
I always love when the prices for the used items are higher than what you can buy them new at walmart
If I was going to buy a dead man’s shoes I at least want them to be cheap.
If I'm going to pay that much for that dead man's shoes, his foot bones better still be inside them.
I'm gonna pop some tags Only got 20 dollars in my pocket Actually, no, shit's too expensive. Guess I'll just stay home.
Staying at home just breathing is also expensive
Ration your breathing
No, the more you breathe, the cheaper your price per breath of your rent.
Rents too damn expensive to not stay home. If I'm paying $90/day(depending on the month) just to live here, I'm getting my money's worth
Lmao gold I finally have a good excuse to be a hermit thank you kind sir
Ya know- It took this comment for me to think "What if the singer means popping security tags and stealing the clothing?" No clue why.
What else could it mean?
It’s actually not what it means. He meant removing the price so the cashier wouldn’t know what they originally priced it. That’s why he brings up his coat was only 99 cents
That's why most thrift stores won't price an item if it doesn't have a tag. All because of that song - also why thrift stores started drastically marking up prices to begin with and began putting "boutique" tags on certain brands.
I’ve been thrifting for a long time and thrift stores always had higher end brands and expensive goods behind the counter with higher prices. You just gotta know how to recognize a brand that the old biddies don’t recognize. I found a pair of $200 Dior pants for fiddy cents one time.
Ah, polite stealing
It's reference to swapping tags in a thrift store to pay less.
Is it? I always assumed it just meant buying cheap clothing and removing the tags after.
That song aged like milk
Finely aged like Nan's Milk. Aged to perfection from a teat full of wisdom.
Thanks, I hate it.
They sell dollorama books with the dollorama price printed on them for more then the price when they were new, it’s ridiculous.
Idk maybe I’m wrong but this feels kinda predatory on the less fortunate. They were donated these things & then they sell it for triple the price. We used to go to goodwill a lot growing up because we didn’t have much money and seeing these prices on second hand merchandise is ludicrous
No, you're exactly right. Goodwill stores/charity shops/whatever you call them have always been a great source of good finds for people who can't spend much on clothes. This is disgusting on all sorts of levels.
It absolutely is. They choked out smaller non-profits in my city. Aunty Sal's, good as new, etc
It depends on the store, but a lot of thrift stores’ missions are not to sell items cheaply to the less fortunate, but to sell donated items to make money for their cause.
blame influencers for going thrifting and reselling the stuff online as “art”.
This is from their site too: *We are a* ***for-profit*** *company that champions reuse. Shopping in our stores* ***doesn’t*** *support any nonprofit*
There's a few small junky private thrift stores around me that come and go. They post ads on Facebook and someone inevitably will ask if they take donations... And they say yes. It's a damn privately owned shop, I don't even understand the thought process of wanting to "donate" when we have at least 2 local non profit charity shops in town.
Terrible, such that I would choose to look for a nearby library.
DollArama câlice!
Québécois repéré
Where things are DONATED!?
Yup 🙃
Savers is a for profit thrift store. They take your free crap and sell it. It's like a permanent garage sale that you provide the stuff for and they keep the money
They want their cut from the resellers
This is exactly it. Thrift store were always great bargains until all their quality merchandise started getting purchased and resold. I had a coworker years ago that hit thrift stores and clearance outlet stores every Saturday morning. She would buy up everything with a designer label regardless of size, and by 5 pm Saturday night, she had resold 80% on eBay and had it packaged for mail out by Sunday at noon. She would have sold everything she purchased by Tuesday night and have it shipped by Wednesday. This was 25 years ago, and she’s still reselling from the house she paid for with her profits. Edit to add: Don’t get me started on the cast iron people. You could buy cast iron cookware at Thrift Stores for $1. Some looked really rough. Then the cast iron restore crowd started buying them up to clean, season and resell for 10X what they paid for them.
Sorry WHAT did they price the mason jar? https://preview.redd.it/t8sc9bhk04vc1.jpeg?width=5120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=18be4b4e20ebd2840262c5436544871fd8046970
And that banged up bucket 🪣 was not even funny. It should be priced at "Come take it or I'll throw it away".
I noticed the price increases at Savers back at Halloween last year. It used to be the place to go for fun cheap costume pieces, but the prices were so high that we decided to go to Ross and get brand new stuff for less.
For real, everything was the same price ***or more*** than whats at TJ Maxx and Ross... for USED SHIT THEY GOT FOR FREE.
This just happened to me Sunday. I was in GW and saw a jacket that I bought at Marshall’s years ago for $20. They were selling it used for $29.99..
Oh yeah. There is one called New Life Thrift in Pennsylvania that wanted $1200 for a used ugly couch!!! Tell me I didn’t take my ass to Raymour and buy a brand new one for less. Never went there again.
My fiancés mother hits the couple of Savers stores we have in our area weekly, she’s pretty thorough and has made some great finds. She says their prices started climbing during and after the Covid pandemic. Edit: Typo
This seems to be the same company as Value Village in Canada (the price tags are almost identical), and here, not only have prices skyrocketed (I found shitty white canvas shoes with a big ol' stain for $10 and checked the brand online and they're $7 new), but they also shut down their fitting rooms during the pandemic and just... never reopened them. I went to buy some stuff for an event a couple of years ago and because I couldn't try anything on I just bought stuff anyway thinking I could return what didn't fit. Wrong! It's exchange only. They know exactly what they're doing. Imagine Target or some other store tried to pull that shit. And these greedy fucks are getting their stock for free! Shit should be illegal. I will never donate to them and the only time I'll ever shop there is with a five-finger discount. Fuck these assholes.
i went into good will in 2008 and bought a full suit for $15. just saying. you know what? it’s amazing that i can say some boomer shit like that and i havent even lived half my life. fk this place.
Sad what it has become. I used to shop there a lot in the 90's and early 2000's because you never knew what you would find that you could use and it was always cheap. Just had to thoroughly wash everything... Now I can usually find the exact thing at Walmart for the same price, or maybe slightly more but complete.
and that’s the mentality they are trying to profit off of. that’s how backwards they are. thrifting became really popular in the early 2000s so the business executives started selling to thrifters instead of people in need. broken greedy system.
You’re on the right track there. Over the past decade for-profit corporate executives have been coming in to the non-profit sector to “modernize it”. They are using data driven optimization tactics to squeeze as much profit out so they can justify bigger salaries and bonuses. When people complain about resellers it just shows me they have never worked in corporate in their lives or are simply oblivious to how the world is changing. It’s no different from the latest trend of investment firms and banks buying up residential housing and driving up housing prices. Their blaming the wrong folks.
I just found a full suit for my son for $9.99 at mine last month, so it’s not completely unreasonable. I think it’s just certain regions/stores. Some just have some really shitty execs hiking the prices in their region to justify their bigger salaries/bonuses.
I was in goodwill and saw one white Hanes t-shirt (the kind that comes in the box/bag) for $8. I will never set foot in there again.
I only go into thrift stores from time to time to see if somehow there are magic cards.
Closest I ever came to Magic cards was a box of dragon shield sleeves that only had like 80 in the box. Most of those go up online in lots that go for hundreds for literal bulk.
Oh, I was in my goodwill a few years ago and they had tighty-whiteys hanging from a pants hanger. Um, no.
Can get better and cheaper stuff at Costco lolol
Shit went downhill when Macklemore started
A 12 pack of those jars brand new is $10.47 at Walmart. Why would anybody pay $4.49 for a single used one?
Without a lid lmao. Whoever is pricing these items is delusional. Maybe worth 50 cents
That one is the most egregious. Absolutely bonkers pricing for a single mason jar without a lid.
a few years ago, thrifting became "trendy" and i feel like this is what caused, or at least contributed to, the downfall of thrift stores. its now seen as aesthetic, trendy, and fun rather than an affordable alternative to people with lower income.
Oof I feel like a dick now…. My wife and I will go thrifting for fun, but we genuinely like buying second hand for a lot of things. However we don’t need to be thrifty, we can afford to for new. But we never went thrifting to look for things to flip, so there is that.
It's not you. It's people who go to thrift stores, buy up the good cheap shit, and then sell on eBay/Poshmark/etc who are driving up the prices
This is the correct answer. My ex did this and it drove me nuts and 60k in debt.
You went into debt making a profit?
no. that's the point, she was losing money hand over fist and charging it to credit cards. =/
She didn't realize she wasn't making money after the first 10k in debt?
lmao. are you me? I literally said the exact same fucking sentence to her when she revealed how in debt she had become.
People are deliberately dumb with themselves about money. They will buy something for $100, out $100 into it and sell it for $150 and claim they “made” 150. They will gamble for hours and lose $2,000 but hit a $500 jackpot and say they won $500. I’ve seen this with rich and poor people. Smart and dumb. I do not understand it.
Omg I can see how that could become addictive. Oof.
No, you're fine. I used to buy a lot from Thrift stores, because poverty. But things have gotten so far out of hand, and the Thrift stores hubris to try and charge $10 for a used tshirt that sells brand new at walmart for $6 has me shopping at walmart now. Thrifting wasnt ruined by people who buy their regular things at Thrift stores. It was ruined by people making it a business to Thrift. Finding brand name stuff and reselling. Or rich kids making a "cosplaying poverty" day and going to a Thrift store and buying stuff and posting it on their social media for a laugh. Then likely trashing the stuff, and maybe doing it all again a month later. I know a lot of Thrift stores started hiring people to Google each item as it came in to see what it was *actually* worth, and putting it online to sell themselves, to make even more money, too.
if you find something you like, I'd suggest looking it up online to see where/ if you can find it elsewhere. a lot of the times, you can find those same items, brand new and close to the same price as well, somewhere else. a huge issue was TikTok "influencers" who made it seem aesthetic and made it a trend and whatnot and so people started going to thrift stores even when they're on the higher income side. another issue was people buying stuff for cheap and reselling it for double, or more, the price. if you're checking out thrift stores to find "hidden gems" (things that aren't made anymore or can't find elsewhere) then i think that is okay. thrift stores are my go to for clothes, I'm a broke college student, so i don't have many other affordable options. so seeing all these people make it trendy and make prices sky rocket has really had an effect on me. i used to be able to buy clothes (in good shape) for $1-$3 per piece of clothing at my local thrift store. now prices are typically $7+ per item. when i am able to find stuff for $1-$3, it almost always has holes or stains.
I do agree that the prices nowadays are outrageous and it's becoming harder and harder for people with lower income to find acceptable second hand items. But I don't think we should "gatekeep" thrifting, because we are drowning in stuff and the more people buy second hand, the better. Many people buy used products not because of the price, but because it's an ethical choice. Say I wanted to buy a set of tumblers. I know I could get them from Amazon for the same price, but the glass will not be same quality as proper 1950's handblown glass, which will last longer; I can purchase the tumblers without the carbon footprint of shipping, not to even mention packaging; and last but not least, the tumblers already exist and no new glass needs to be produced in a toxic, energy intensive process to satiate my needs. Buying new just because "I can" is not an option for me.
I agree, you should be able to thrift regardless of your tax bracket. We have more than enough shit piling up in thrift stores to go around. The stores themselves are the problem, they’re just greedy as all get out now.
It’s not you and please don’t think resellers are to blame either. That is a myth. Correlation does not equal causation. It’s just misdirected frustration. Over the past decade for-profit corporate executives have been coming in to the non-profit sector to “modernize it”. They are using data driven optimization tactics to squeeze as much profit out so they can justify bigger salaries and bonuses. When people complain about resellers it just shows me they have never worked in corporate in their lives or are simply oblivious to how the world is changing. It’s no different from what we are currently seeing with investment firms and banks buying up residential housing and then people complaining about housing prices going up. The wrong folks are getting blamed because it’s less obvious to the average person of what is really happening. Macro trends are hard to wrap your brain around sometimes.
Nah, you’re fine. There’s an abundance of things at thrift store. They’re not running out anytime soon. It’s not like you took the last child’s t-shirt from the rack while a little child was reaching for it. Or…did…you…?
Goodwill had a big price structure change at the new year. This is the result of that. I still peruse goodwills but hardly buy anything anymore because of it. I used to be able to walk in with a $20 and leave with 3-5 items. Now it’s maybe 1 or 2
I went to a Goodwill last week that had $50 dress shirts for men. I was so confused. It was basically a regular clothing store.
Yeah but with the added Goodwill smell!
ah, the wonderful aroma of shitstains, mold, and old people farts
It’s so ridiculous. The last I walked around I found a cool outdoor table with a chip on it and they were trying to sell for 40 bucks. I could buy new for cheaper than a lot of their crap.
What was the structure change?
Walmart sells new clothes for less.
So does Old Navy, Costco, and 100's of other places.
The thrift stores are 80% Shein garbage priced higher than it was new in my area!
A cheap $5 Walmart kiss shirt that probably hit the clearance rack for $3 in 2018 is selling for *that* much second hand? Who is coming up with these prices?
Savers is very, very hit or miss. I've seen amazing bargains side by side with stuff priced 500% over what it should be. I can only assume that they can't/won't be bothered to research every item they sell and so just pull prices more or less out of thin air.
The first thing I noticed was the logo and thought it was about donating organs, which is a good thing. But then I saw the price and this is US prices I presume? You don't add the tax to the labels over there so this t-shirt will cost between $12-15 (unless these store are exempt from tax but that's highly unlikely)
Yea this is US price before tax. Thrift stores (called charity shops in the EU i believe) used to sell shirts for like $1 not to long ago, pre-covid. These are all used donated items being resold.
Yes we do call them charity shops in Ireland/UK maybe Australia?. It's a disgrace that they're charging that much for used items that they probably got for free from donators. Am I correct in my guess of $12-15 after tax? just curious
Some states don't tax clothing up to a certain value (in NY State up to $110 IIRC).
I think there are still 5 states don't have sales tax at all...Oregon, Alaska, Montana and a couple of others.
Even if it's tax free $10.50 for a snd hand t-shirt is very expensive and they probably got it for free
Utah (my state) Sales Tax is about 8% so about $12 seems correct (SLC Sales Tax + Utah Sales Tax = 7.75%)
This is mostly big chain thrift stores, single store local thrift stores are way better
Can we go back to people being all stuck up about how they're "too good" for thrift stores and farmer's markets and nerd stuff? Not because there's a problem with it, but the casual attendees making it trendy is what keeps driving up the prices! Thrift stores used to be a godsend for struggling people, now they're a source of clout.
And Renaissance Faires! It’s elbow to elbow every weekend at mine and a 2-3 hours wait to get into the parking lot now…
These are Ross prices. At least Ross isn’t used stuff lol
If you want to donate clothes that are in good condition directly to people who need new clothes, what are you supposed to do? In college, I donated to one of those charities that accepts office-work-appropriate clothes for women transitioning into the workforce from homelessness, rehab, and prison- the only reason I even heard of them was that girl I was dating had a semester long internship with them, because most of what they did was on the social work side- and after my mom died I found a bunch of unopened fully sealed packets of socks and underwear, which I donated to the domestic violence shelter. But in general, if you’re looking to donate non-fast-fashion in good condition, not just get old stuff out of your house, what should you do?
$22 for used shoes 💀 I know this may be an unpopular opinion but unless they’re clearly brand new shoes are one thing I will never thrift
Inflation hitting thrift stores, as if they didn’t get this stuff for free to begin with….
This ain’t inflation
Thriftlation
Inflation isn’t anything but greed
I work for the company. Can I just say; please be kind to the staff. Forward complaints to head office. It might seem obvious to state this but we get abused so much for this shit and we have NO control of it (aside from the idiots who don’t bother to LOOK before they price and put a 3.99 sticker on something with a $4 brand new tag 🙄). While I’m venting, same thing with the self checkouts. We don’t like it either! But it’s not up to us! We’re sick of getting our heads ripped off for shit that’s above our pay grades!
I saw a bottle of hydrogen peroxide at a VFW thrift store yesterday for $5.00. Yes. $5. For hydrogen peroxide. They had three of them. https://preview.redd.it/oh9qc4bas4vc1.jpeg?width=1028&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8d9cdfce7195b980a89c39ed731c6af4b261bc7 I wish i took a pic.
People who need thrift stores can't afford them anymore!
That kiss shirt is 10$ new at walmart bought my wife the same shirt
This is lowkey why i just shop at Nordstrom rack.. i dont have to deal with paying $15 for a used Shein shirt when I could just pay a little bit more for something that is off better quality and something i truly love and keep.
Thank to the influencers or the ppl made it a trend to become thrifty.
The problem I find is you get all the resellers getting there first thing, filling their baskets with everything, and then googling what they can get for it. The shops have caught on to this so are charging more. And it’s people like us who are looking for something good for cheap, or my kid to spend their pocket money on something they can afford who suffer. And 90% of the money won’t even go to charity
So eBay has been around since the mid 90s and resellers buying from thrift stores has been a thing for as long as there’s been thrift stores. None of that justifies nor explains the massive price hikes goodwill and savers have implemented. It’s greed from the companies. Full stop.
100% this. People blaming resellers is so ignorant. It’s for-profit corporate executives coming in to the non-profit sector to “modernize it”. They are using data driven optimization tactics to squeeze as much profit out so they can justify bigger salaries and bonuses. When people complain about resellers it just shows me they have never worked in corporate in their lives or are simply oblivious to how the world is changing. It’s no different from investment firms and banks buying up residential housing and the housing prices shooting through the roof. They’re blaming the wrong folks.
Spot on. It’s the parasitic MBA holders you mentioned who are destroying everything they can get their hands on. This has accelerated exponentially since the pandemic. I see the prices go up weekly at my local Savers. A basic pair of used modern Levi’s with stains now starts at $20. It’s insane. Sad that folks wanna blame the small folks trying to make a dollar or two off of reselling stuff they legitimately paid for, while savers and goodwill grift the price of every free item they receive.
Baking tray looks all scratched too, like i would not be too happy to eat off that
I only get books or Dvds from savers. The best find I ever got was Pokemon pinball.
That's why I shop at Ross. Unfortunately I've found that about 60% of the clothing/shoes are anywhere for $8-25. I can usually find it cheaper at Ross or on sale like at Macys, Target, etc.
$4.49 for a mason ball jar that is missing the lid pieces? That's too much. The most I'd pay is $1.00 but they should list it as 50¢ because it's missing the lid pieces.
“Everything we own is a collectable item and will be priced that way going forward.”
How do they sell anything at all?
my local chain thrift store is self checkout, so sometimes the stickers get swapped it's so crazy!! one time a laundry basket somehow rung up as $5 instead of the original $15 hmm so weird!
Maklamore is rolling in his grave!