"Thrift Stores" and Charities

[el rojo grande]

Here is the official word from Goodwill on what they do:

http://www.goodwill.org/page/guest/about/whatwedo

This discussion is interesting. Who knew it would lead to such strong opinions.

I think we can all/mostly agree that a store that claims a charitable affiliation really should be able to document that claim. Other than that I agree with the others that
thrifting, no matter what the store, provides:

fun recreation
recycling opportunities
museums in which you can handle objects
opportunities for socializing
fun and quirky clothes and home decor
serious finds on a budget
a way to shake your fist at the clothes houses, and fashion trend setters
and of course the fun of finding  "that thing you always wanted, and never thought you would find".

Keep on thrifting!

[valleythriftshopper]

I love how I am always learning something new from shopping at thrifts.  I am a big fan of vintage Gurley novelty candles.  I picked up a large Christmas tree candle that looked like a Gurley at the food bank thrift today for 50 cents.  It had a Tavern candle label on the bottom.  After looking it up I learned that Tavern candles were made in the 30's & 40's and became Gurley in the 1950's, I never heard of Tavern before.  And it only cost me 50 cents for the history lesson!

[Lcmsa]

Well, just a question, My church thrift store gives clothing away to people in need, we also sell it to people who can afford it. (low cost to everyone) The money that is made supports our church and its activities (ie, food pantry and other things). We sell our salvage to a company who resells it to 3rd world people to support themselves.  what does everyone think about this? thanks LCMSA

[Good Buddy]

Sound like you're making the most of what you have going.
You could also sell your best items online to get the most revenue from the donation.

[valleythriftshopper]

Well, just a question, My church thrift store gives clothing away to people in need, we also sell it to people who can afford it. (low cost to everyone) The money that is made supports our church and its activities (ie, food pantry and other things). We sell our salvage to a company who resells it to 3rd world people to support themselves.  what does everyone think about this? thanks LCMSA

I would research the company you sell the salvage to, if you have not already.  There was a great documentary on PBS a few years back called T-shirt Travels http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/tshirttravels/
that explored the business of selling second clothing from the U.S. to 3rd world countries, in this case Zambia.  It can actually have a negative affect on the country and most of the profit goes to the middleman.  I am sure not all salvage companies operate this way, but I think many do.  It would be nice to have non-profit salvage companies to work with the charity thrift shops!

[Lcmsa]

Thanks valley thrift and Good buddy, as for our salvage guy we have looked at who he sell to and what he charges as far as we know he is ok. I actually saw that doc. on tv it was great. Alot of good info. We really try to have a nice shop and do the best we can. thanks LCMSA

[valleythriftshopper]

Good to know there are some reputable dealers out there. it is unbelievable to think some people would take advantage of the poorest countries to make money.  Your store sounds very nice, I mentioned in another post that I used to stop by a thrift store in my community even though I wasn't finding much there because the people were nice, it was well run, etc.  I think if you run a fair business people appreciate that and will do their best to help support it. 

[awesomevegan]

I feel that the shoppers and donators should research the stores if it bothers them if the store is for profit. Personally I don't care much either way. You are still supporting a good cause because someone in your community has a job because you shop there and you are recycling things that other people no longer want. Most of the clothing and many of the non-clothing items I own were thrifted. You can find amazing things and it is fun so it is worth doing whether the store is charity or for profit. I think that the stores should make that information easily accessible as well though

[N1]

Nice, info...

[subversivegrrl]

I thought I had previously posted in this thread (and if I have and am just not seeing it here, I apologize for the duplication.)

There's a chain of thrifts around my area that is a for-profit company, not a charity.  What I discovered a couple of years ago is that they have a deal with the local branch of a national charity, and when you donate things to that charity (which calls about once a month to see if I have anything to donate), it's this company's trucks that come around and do the pick-up, and they sell the items in their stores.  The charity gets a flat donation from the company for every pick-up, and it's just a few dollars (less than $5, if I remember right), regardless of what the company gets for the things donated.  They also apparently buy unsold things from charity thrifts when those stores need to clear their shelves for newer stock. 

I suppose that it could be said that the company is "supporting" the charities by doing this, but I don't believe that the benefit is anywhere near the degree that people would expect when making a donation of this sort.  I was grateful for the local newspaper making public this (in my opinion) somewhat shady practice.

I also really dislike that the signs at those stores say "donations accepted."  I think if they're not giving me a receipt so I can deduct it from my taxes, it's not a "donation," and they shouldn't call it that.  (I don't give my donations to them, I give them to a not-for-profit store.)

But after saying all of that ------- I still shop there.  I just get a real kick out of finding something that is worth a lot more than it's priced at and re-selling it for a significant profit.  And some of that I give to REAL not-for-profit organizations.

[rosie]

In the UK the situation seems to be somewhat different.

For one thing, we don't really have 'thrift stores' that aren't owned and run by a charity. We always call our thrift stores 'charity shops' and they are normally just referred to by the name of the charity that runs them. They have paid managers, and have to pay 20% business rates plus shop rent and utilities, otherwise all of their money goes to the charity in question. The law is pretty strict about this. Some charities such as Oxfam sort their donations centrally and run book shops, bridal boutiques, specialist vintage emporia, etc, and some of them sell high-value items via eBay, but most sell donated goods direct from the shop they were donated to. If a store sells electrical goods they must legally be PAT safety tested and have proof of this permanently attached to the item or it's plug.

Often our volunteers are of the little old lady variety, and sometimes they are so frail that I want to offer to lift and carry for them! But I do agree, if a shop didn't seem grateful for the donation I wouldn't offer it again. I once offered a few hundred books to Oxfam and the shop manager rather sniffily told me I could bring them in and he'd see if they were 'right' for his store. I told him rather sniffily back that I'd hope they were, since most of them were bought from his store in the first place!!!! I donated them elsewhere and haven't really shopped with Oxfam since.

We just don't have non-affiliated 'thrift' shops. We do have specialist vintage shops or secondhand book shops, but they are marketed very differently and are directed at a different section of the market. They are premium stores and more like antique shops than thrift shops.

What we do have, that really annoys me, is rag traders' bags shoved through our doors, at one point this was so often it could be every other day. These collect clothes, bric-a-brac and the like. They have prominently displayed charity logos, but on closer inspection only offer a small donation to the charity. A newspaper investigation found this was often as low as 40p (about 70c I think) per tonne!!!!!!!!!!! All of the goods were taken off to Eastern Europe and sold at huge profits to the rag traders. Since this was exposed far fewer of the bags are sent round, but we still get one every now and then and it makes me cross 

[Good Buddy]

Great read thanks for posting.
Yes here there are "thrift shops" that appear to be a charity driven organization and they are not. If great to hear the UK has laws about that.
It's also interesting to read that the second hand electronics are so heavily regulated. I wonder how much the inspection raises the price?
In regards to the rag traders, we have them here as well, but some are legitimate and some are not. We have donation bins in most shopping plazas and they are generally the rag traders and not a charity. There have been huge write ups in the papers here and it's become a big issue.

Thanks for posting!

[snarlingcoyote]

What about America's Thrift? They're big and friendly, let you return clothes and have extremely good prices.  They state on the front page of their website that they are a family run (aka no public disclosure) for profit business.  The rest of the website is dedicated to making you forget this by playing up all the charities they support.  The announcements (pre-recorded) that play in the store thank you for supporting whatever charity your particular America's Thrift supports.  (Right now, our loop thanks you for helping to support King's Ranch Hannah Home - which is a worthy charity, I have to admit.)

The workers at the store tend to be people who need the job and seem to be treated well; a lot of them seem to be same kind of folks who work at Goodwill - people who, for a variety of reasons, don't have job experience and are learning how to do retail work at this store.

But it does bother me that there is no way to know how much money goes to the charities they claim to support, and that they really do play up the support.  They are the people with all the bins in our metro area.

They will also give out donation forms for your taxes - I keep wondering how that one works out.  Do they print the name of the charity your store supports on the chit?

For the record, I shop there, and I shop there a LOT, but I donate to a local shop that is a non-profit, but is very upfront about the fact that they pay wages to workers, rent their space in a nice part of town, and sell unsold and unsaleable items to rag dealers; you put the number of your charity (most of the local charities use this thrift) on your boxes and X amount of money per item sold of your items goes to that charity.  If you don't put a number, it just goes to the store's overhead and keeping the store open, so in a way you're kind of donating to all the charities.  (I shop this store as well.  A lot of my stoneware came from this store, but it's very, very hit or miss.)

[Good Buddy]

For-profit thrift shops that rely on charity donations, like America's Thrift, for the most part give a reasonable rate to the charity.

When you donate to the store, you're donating to the charity. That's why you get the tax receipt. America's Thrift has a deal with the charity that says that they collect on behalf of the charity and they get to buy the goods from the charity by weight, most likely.

It's not the "fairest" in some cases to the charity, but California has a law that states if you collect for a charity then you have to give a minimum percentage of the profits, but I think it's still only 10% - 15%.

It would be nice, since all charities have federal status, if there were national mandates and requirements.

Soooooooo many thrifts out there take donations and give nothing to charity at all. Not that they claim a charity, but they are vague in the fact that they do except donations. The word donation goes hand in hand with the word charity, it's kind of the rules.

[mccoysnina]

You might do better if you seperate where you shop from where you donate, at least in your own mind.
When I am SHOPPING , I am concerned with getting the best deal I can and making my  money stretch as far as possible.  So I am less concerned with where the money goes when I buy something.  From a TS, a garage/estate sale, flea market.  Whether it goes to a charity or into private hands is less my concern.  Same as when I grocery shop or shop in some other retail outlet. 
When I DONATE however, then I want to make sure the most money is ending up in the hands of the charity that needs it.  That is true whether is an outright donation of money or a donation of goods I no longer want. 
In fact, that makes it easier to decide where to donate.  DH and I used to get phone calls from "Charities" askingfor money.  DH had a hard time turning down orphans, police and fire groups and environmental groups.  I finally told him to start asking each soliciter how much money went to the actual charity instead of to the fundraising group.  If they wouldn't answer (and most didn't) or he didn't like the answer, it was so much easier to say no thanks.
I know which groups actually benefit from thirft shops locally so I donate to them when I want to make a contribution.
Jeannie