I've been doing quite a bit of research on this, so love the thread. Savers, Unique Thrift, Thrift Town, EcoThrift - they are all "for profit" thrift stores. They partner with charities (like Vietnam Vets, Lupus Foundation, etc.) and the charities issue tax receipts to donors for donation items. Then those thrift stores pay "per pound" to these charities for the goods. It isn't sorted or pre-qualified in any way. They simply weigh and pay. That is how they benefit charities. And from what I can tell, they work with extremely large charities and get tons (as in weight) of merchandise.
Perhaps they additionally "support" charities after profits are made, but that is optional and the same as any for profit corporation might do.
I went shopping at Eco-Thrift recently and they had a huge sign on the door saying "We are a for-profit thrift store" or something similar. I was wondering if we in Calif. had some new regulation or such.
Also, what you REALLY need to be wary of is the donation drop boxes that are starting to pop up everywhere! They aren't associated with the big TS and take only clothes and shoes. Usually the companies are touting their "green recycle-reuse" mentality and how they can benefit schools, etc. in their fundraising efforts. I am trying to find out more about this, but their websites are definitely vague and focus on the "feel good" aspect of recycling. But it looks like they pretty much take the donations and either sell to thrift stores or material recyclers or third world resellers.
It is interesting. I have been researching all of this because I myself want to open a for-profit thrift store. Try not to flame me too much please!
It started when I was trying to find a way to benefit my LOCAL public schools (hurting bad here in Calif) and to benefit my family. My sister is living near poverty level and we want a good family business. We are both into thrift. Plus we want to do something good for our community on the local level. So we're trying to find a way to do the per pound payment to schools AND give a large % of profits back to schools after sales. We'll see how that ends up working.
