Featured $2.00 minimum

Our local Goodwill has just placed a $1.99 minimum on everything they sell. Consequently, there's tons of glassware and ceramics piling up on the shelves. None of it is very good. There is the odd piece of depression, etched glass, and even some pattern glass. On the other hand, there are stacks of saucers, scads of modern tumblers, etc. I guess it does go to half price if you pay attention to the color on the tags and it has been there long enough. None of this is worth it and I don't have the patience or perseverance to folow that closely.

I can't see their logic here. They used to move everything when priced a dollar or less. Now they have to do something at some point with all this excess. I know they ship some stuff that doesn't sell to the home office 100 miles away where it is sold in lots for less. Otherwise, some is recycleable and there is the trash. Their disposal fees have to be sky high already.

Anyone else seeing this? Comments?

 

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I haven't noticed it yet but, to be honest, it's been a long time since I found anything decent at our local Goodwills. Occasionally I'll find a piece of Empoli but those are few and far between. I would hope that some usable pieces are forwarded to charities and the like. I work with a food bank here and we see a lot of people starting over again with virtually nothing. Dishes are not often a priority for our clients' limited income. I don't know if our Goodwills are doing this with items that fail to sell. I share your lack of patience with trying to figure out their color codes. Why don't they just move the items that are half-off to a separate shelf?!

From Goodwills' point of view I know their funding is a bit limited and the resale of donations are their main income. They do employ a lot of people and those people need to be paid. Also, they will lend (when available) items such as crutches, wheelchairs, and other similar items for free to those who need them so they lose a potential income stream there. I have also heard that if you need a bicycle to start a job they will lend these also.

Whether their new pricing strategy is a good idea or not is beyond my ability to say. I do hate to see usable glass and ceramics sent to a landfill when pricing it a little cheaper initially might have sent it to a new home. If the new pricing is offset by increased disposal costs then it does seem counter-productive. Regardless, it's not a step I would have recommended.

 

Very little charity left to Goodwill these days. The do seem to employ some people who might not otherwise find good employment. We have another thrift which provides vouchers to those with need and, yet another, with no retail that provides. Goodwill has a high profile due to their pricey locations and get a lot of donations. The best stuff gets siphoned off to their on-line auctions. Not sure why they want their shelves to be even junkier than they already were.

 

The Hoodwill near me has at least 4 full shelves of coffee cups. They USED to price stuff like that at 2 for $1 ,now they want $1 each. Theyve also gotten ridiculous on books. Ive noticed in the china and bric brac aisles,they seem to let it all sit for a while,then go through and sweep it all away at one time. I know when I worked for a Hoodwill in St. Pete back in the 80s,they had huge dumpsters parked beside the loading docks and a lot of stuff went right into them. I remember they also bundled clothes a lot and sold them to foreign countries. It used to sadden me to see how they just threw crystal and china into bins . No wonder so much you see in the stores is already damaged.Ive long said they need a much better sorting system. That being said,the one near me has made quite a few silver mistakes to my benefit so its a catch 22!

 

Even the dollar stores are changing their prices. Somebody who often shops at Dollar Tree told me that items that used to be $1 are now $1.25, or more. This is not about Goodwill... I never go there, but have certainly read a lot about them on this site!

 

I have noticed a huge rise in prices in the last couple of years at re-store. This program is to help low income families to purchase used furniture and household items for their homes. The profit from re-store goes to Habitat For Humanity. I do believe that profits should go to HFH but I don't think they should be getting this income from low income families. All of this merchandise in the Store is donated.

 

I was going to say yeh I’ve heard that a lot of what doesn’t sell just goes to the dumpster.

 

Yes, Goodwill here has dregs - we live in a smaller northern town. Prices have gone up on everything there. SalArmy also and the ladies resource center which was my go to for donations has changed venues. They only have a drop off several days a week at a different location. The "new" store is the size of a postage stamp downtown and I'm SURE they are scaling it for trendy prices and picking good stuff off the top for the new venue. Not sure who my donations will go to now... I think an out of town charity!
Leslie

 

The Goodwill around here has nothing but junk and cheap used clothing, so I never go there. Although I'm not surprised to hear there is a pricing change. The cost of Everything has gone up lately and GW likely has to pay more for rent, employees, etc. But they clearly don't know much about how to price crap glass, at $1 each. My prediction is that they will end up having to bundle glassware to get that dollar or pay to throw it away.

 

Very few Goodwill stores in my area. Used to quite a few until, by my understanding, it turned out that most of the good will being shown was from the directors to the directors.

 

I spoke with one of the employees who said that they are not allowed to bundle any more. Set of six cheap glasses, therefore, is now nearly $12.00. You can even do better than that at the dollar store.

 

We don't have a goodwill near me. One opened a few towns away and was closed in 2 years or so.
Speaking of thrifts tho, the one near me has tons of glassware that NO ONE wants.
But they keep pricing it too high. I say put a table out with a sign that says FREE.
We have many housekeepers, nannies etc who would gladly take it. The old managers of this thrift used to do just that and the merch was gone swiftly and it went to those who wanted it and needed it. But the dumb dumbs running things now have no common sense.

Also they are ALL volunteers at this place so no employee payroll to contend with.
I rarely if ever go there because it is just a repeat of junk.

 

I used to supplement my income $5000-$10000 a year by reselling stuff from the goodwill. 10 to 15 years ago it was not unusual to flip a painting for $500 or a guitar or some coin silver. I was going twice a day sometimes just to catch stuff as it came in. Now I don’t find doody, everything is bar coded and overpriced. They do pull the good stuff and auction it. They have a regional center that evaluates and distributes out the “dregs” of the rest of the stuff. I have much better luck at church based thrifts, they don’t do the research. There are days when I wonder why I bother going… just hooked I guess.

 

I echo what everybody has said here. In the Pacific Northwest USA, they changed their price structure a couple of years ago, before Covid, and what used to be an affordable thrift with an occasional find became just another place to waste 30 minutes. Too bad. But maybe their logic makes more money. Not for for me, though!

 

Our Dollarama stores.....have now upped their top price to $5 ..... leaves me to believe that every other price in their stores has been bumped up as well.....

 

I can still find stuff for resale at the Goodwill closest to me. I spent $37.50 just this past Tuesday and got a total of 24 items. I am fairly confident that I will make my money back on 1 of the items so the rest will be gravy.

Most of the items are glassware & dishes but that has always been my bread & butter on eBay.

We did see prices go up a couple of years back but I think it all depends on who is marking the items.

Included in the things I bought were 7 Western Stoneware restaurant-style coffee mugs that I will likely sell separately because they aren't a pattern exactly. Five of them were marked 95 cents each & 2 were marked $1.95 each.

I didn't notice until I got home that the cashier rang them all up at 71 cents with my 25% senior discount.

As soon as I get the mugs photographed I am going to have to post them for help because I literally can find zero like them online.

The real find of the day was the clear glass soup bowls that seem to be really popular. There were 2 sets of 7 bowls that I got for $4.46 each with my discount. I will sell them in sets of 2 & the going price is around $35.00 with shipping for the 2 bowls. I know packing glassware & dishes can be a real PITA but I am so used to it I can pack up a set of bowls or tumblers in just a few minutes.

 

Moving from Arizona to Michigan was thrift store "culture shock" for me! The prices in Michigan on some items are outrageous! ANY shoes that are Nike or Adidas are $28.95 and the price goes up from there. Most named-brand shoes are around $24.95 and higher. Clothing is hit or miss. Most name-brand shirts are $11.99 or higher while others are $5.99, $6.99 or $7.99 each.

The Salvation Army has the highest prices, followed by Goodwill. St Vincent De Paul has the best prices (but they are few and far between). The smaller independent thrift stores overall have good prices.

On the other hand, I have found some seriously high prices items (hundreds of $$) mixed in with the junk. It's hit or miss on any given day.

Most thrift stores have a good idea what their items are worth. Goodwill, of course, run on-line auctions for the good stuff.

I no longer go to a thrift stores looking to find good items but I now consider finding something worth keeping/selling a MISTAKE on their part.

I am now hunter for thrift store MISTAKES! When you find something worthwhile, it just means someone has not discovered what that item is or how much it's worth. Or, they just priced it incorrectly. Hence, someone made a mistake.

I still find plenty of items worth grabbing. I have a 10x12 foot shed with 40 plastic totes FILLED with stuff I need to sell that I purchased THIS year. Probably 75% of the items I sell come from thrift stores and the remainder come from local auctions.

While I can complain about the prices, quality, etc., I really don't have anything to complain about. LOL

 

Hit or miss is about the size of it, but more miss than hit here. Walked in after church, because they restock on Sunday mornings and sometimes you can score. Scored a waste of time and gasoline. Another picker did grab two signed and numbered prints I'd already passed by. Kibbitzed a bit and wished him luck. Scored well at a charity tag sale on the way home though!

Dunno, but that's what they're doing. Coffee mugs that were $1 each are now $2 and up. Starbucks mugs, even the ones no one bothers with, are at least 5 unless they screw up. I've been calling them Ill Will for a while now and swear they're looking for a good excuse to close the retail outlets and just use them to get merch for the online sales.

Around here they just jack up the pretties, but sell the furniture and hardware for decent prices. I still donate stuff there, usually my no-hopers that aren't junk. One that cheesed me off was them sending a big donation of office art from Otis Elevator to local auction. Getting the best for your charity to help the most people is one thing, but c'mon already. Otis had some nice but not crazy nice pieces. OTOH they get tons of artwork, more than they can really handle.

 

Haven't heard about the GW $1.99 rule, maybe hasn't arrived here yet. I can tell you that they get things like 8oz jelly jars without lids, and I could see them slapping $1.99 per jar on those (when a dozen with brand new unused lids retails for around $12.) Apparently seemed to someone that this was a good idea.... "Let's not bother with anything less than $1.99...." but actually means that low end products will sit and sit unsold, taking up room on the shelves, back room filling up. Must have been some kind of stupid corporate decision.

Our GW used to have policy that when a color tag had been out for a month, the that color went to 99 cents no matter what the original price was. The GW sold SO much during the 99 cent week, and what a great way to get rid of stagnant stuff! They canned that policy about 3 years ago at my local store. Now they have to use precious staff time, people go around and pull the month old color tag, and then all of it gets packed and shipped off--or maybe dumped, but if you are going to dump it, why not try to get at least 99 cents first? Impossible to believe that some of these decisions are cost effective.