Yesterday I walked to the Salvation Army Thrift Store to kill some time, while my mom was having a meeting for her birthday party. While I was looking around the store, I noticed things aren't too thrifty. For instance they had an obsolete Zenith floor model TV for $19.99. Yes an old fullscreen CRT TV that would give you a hernia when you would pick it up. $19.99 for an obsolete TV set is ridiculous. I mean who in their right mind would pay $19.99 for a obsolete piece of junk? I guess someone who really needs a TV set would pay that.
Also I took a look at the used furniture and almost had a heart attack when I saw the prices. There I saw an old couch for $164. Really $164 for a used couch? You ought to be kidding me. That's too much for a piece of used furniture. If I was on a fixed income and I needed a used couch, I could never afford $164 for a lousy pre-owned couch.
This leads me to the next part of my rant, the used hats. Now I love hats. I have way too many hats. I took a good look at the 3 used hats and I can tell you that the $3.99 price tag for a scummy beat up baseball hat is way too much for a used hat. I shop at another thrift store to buy my vintage trucker hats that are new or are in like new condition and I pay $0.98 for them each. That's a big difference in price at a savings of $3.01.
Now comes the toy rant. I also collect old action figures, and I usually look at the toys in any thrift store. The Salvation Army had 3 Hasbro Batmobiles and they were all broken in some way. One was missing a wheel, another one was missing a roof. and another was missing something that skipped my mind. Now why would a thrift store take broken toys? It baffles me. It's like that they want the kids who have to buy the broken one to suffer because they can only afford a broken used one. Another thing is I saw a 12 inch GI Joe with half of his arm missing. I was beginning to think why would they take a broken toy. I guess it comes down to you get what you pay for.
The next part of my rant is the VHS Tapes. Now VHS has been obsolete ever since the DVD came out. The Salvation Army wants $3.99 for a dead format VHS Tape. Seriously $3.99 for an obsolete media format? This is insanity. Why would they even charge somebody $3.99 for a VHS tape? I rarely use my VCR anymore, although I do have an old Panasonic Omnimovie full size VHS Camcorder. I don't think anyone still uses VHS anymore, its all DVD and Blu-Ray nowadays.
Finally the Salvation Army thrift store is more of a heft store if you ask me. I say this because none of their prices are thrifty at all in my opinion. So go support an independent thrift store instead.
I donate my good used items to the local food banks,they still do what the Salvation Army USED to do. When I walked into a local SALV. Army store here and saw the better donated items in a glass cabinet display which you then had to bid on,and then wait 30 days to see if you had won it (sounds a lot like ebay to me). I was also informed that one of the smaller thrift stores here in my town has a woman hired in the back just for running an ebay store for them. Value Villages are another major culprit of greedy prices. In a town 30 miles north from me,the 3 salvation army stores are all making a public cry right now to get more donations,1 large store has downsized and moved to a new location. You can't ask for free merchandise from the public,and then sell it back to them at the greedy,marked up prices these stores are now asking. Not to mention the employees keeping certain items for themselves. (WHO'S WATCHING?) I don't even go to the Salvation Army anymore.
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