• @funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1111 month ago

    this is actually A Thing according to my dedicated thrifter wife

    They realized they can make more money by pricing what professional resellers would charge, and have starting sloughing off more high end stuff to sell online, and adjusting pricing to be inline with the rest of the 2nd hand fashion reselling market.

    • @mosiacmango@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      76
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      Yeah, everyone has a phone now, including goodwill employees. They aren’t going to put a Northface coat out for $12.99 when it goes for $129 online used.

      Our local thrift stores price according to the real world too, and generally, I bet $35 is still a deal for this coat. Its just not the $3.50 that people want to see.

      • @BigDaddySlim@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        301 month ago

        I went to a Savers (local thrift store chain) about a month ago and they had a boxed Wii console in the glass case. It was used, not sealed, and they wanted $350 for it. I asked the guy if that was a mistake and he told me it was indeed the listed price. “I know for a fact this will never sell at this price because it’s been here for over a year.”

        Some of these employees are just putting crazy prices.

        • @tektite@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          18
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          Savers is the same as Value Village and it’s a for-profit company that exists in three different countries. They’re not much better than Goodwill, if at all.

        • @mosiacmango@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          12
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          100% also happening. I bet they found a boxed Wii online listed for $350 and did not check the “sold” prices.

          Then again, “vintage” gaming is having a revival right now, so it’s fully possible it sold for $350 online, but the local customers aren’t the same as the global customers.

      • @Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        121 month ago

        I found dollarama products listed for $5+ at the local goodwill. Let’s not just make the blanket assumption that exploited goodwill workers are professional appraisers and that the customer is the problem.

        • @mosiacmango@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          3
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          Well, they deal with literally any object any store has ever sold in the history of time or space, likely for minimum wage. So yeah, I expect they don’t get them all right. Having to accurately price 1930’s glokenspiels and 2017 high fashion would be challenging for anyone, anywhere.

          Still, it makes sense that they have some processes in place to get it right some of the time, and maybe even most of the time.

          • @Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            101 month ago

            This is a store where people GIVE away their stuff, out of the goodness of their hearts with the premise that it will be sold at a low price so that someone less fortunate can benefit. If goodwill has decided to sell the merchandise it gets for FREE at “fair market value” to the highest bidder in order to maximise profit then what’s the point of goodwill? Might as well use a consignment store and get a cut.

            The exchange in “Goodwill” is that you’re donating in goodwill so your things can help others. That’s what goodwill MEANS.

            • @mosiacmango@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              1
              edit-2
              1 month ago

              Okay, you misunderstand how retail charity works. These charities sell donated goods to generate revenue to fund their charity effort.

              The “charity” isn’t the cheap goods inside the store. It’s using the profit they generate to run or give to that charity. This can be running food banks, animal shelters, jobs programs, etc. The more money they make, the more they can give to their causes.

              Their social good works in 3 ways: provide that charity effort, provide inexpensive or less expensive goods to people, and act as free recycling centers for the environment. Most of what these stores receive is literal trash, flat out. They process this to the actual dump at no charge while sorting out any useful items.

              You can disagree with this model, but it is the model. If you have real issues with it, then sure, sell the goods and keep the money or donate directly to a charity of your choice.

              • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                71 month ago

                Goodwill specifically markets itself as a thrift store to help the working class while also helping homeless and disabled people get retail experience to get normal jobs.

                Instead we’ve found out they get their product donated, they pay less than minimum wage (sometimes 22 cents an hour), and they sell at market prices. So that was all a lie. That’s why people are mad. Changing what they say they do now isn’t going to work without a massive PR campaign to show people the out of store projects they do. And then we’re all going to ask where the money for that PR campaign came from. They are a shit company, and a shittier charity.

                • @mosiacmango@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  0
                  edit-2
                  1 month ago

                  Can you link some of these ads you’re talking about? I don’t really see any ads for them ever.

                  I don’t think they hide that they sell things that are donated, since they want people to donate. They also dont sell things at market prices, especially not from what I’ve seen personally. I bought a $600 snowboarding jacket there for $85 once. It wasn’t $8.50, but 80% off for a coat in pristine condition is nowhere near “market” prices. I’ve got tons of things from years of thrifting there that were wildly under “market” prices. I still go regularly and think the prices are very solid for thrift, if occasionally bonkers.

                  It sounds like you have specific issues with Goodwill, which is fine, but the above is how all retail charities work. The store prices are not the charity. The charity comes from the profits from the stores, so all retail charities are incentivized to make a profit. The fact that the prices are much less than market, and that they do some great environmental things as well via recycling is the extra positive bits of retail charity like goodwill or habitat for humanity.

                  If you don’t care to support the model that’s fine, but that’s why they price things the way they do.

              • @Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                English
                31 month ago

                Sounds like you’re the one misunderstanding goodwill. Goodwill doesn’t donate to ANY causes. Their ONLY contribution is employing disabled people and providing jobs/training. You can read it on their own website.

                Who does Goodwill help? Goodwill serves those with barriers to employment. This includes individuals with disabilities, people with limited work history, those who have experienced corporate downsizing and recipients of government support programs. Goodwill’s services are designed to meet the training and placement needs of the individual. https://www.goodwill.org/faqs/#d7

                There well known for paying their disabled employees below minimum wage while paying local store CEOs hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

                So don’t tell me about how the high prices I pay will support charities.

          • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            31 month ago

            It’s actually subminimum. Goodwill gets to decide what they pay their workers thanks to a carve out in the Fair Wage act. They’ve been caught paying as little as 22 cents.

            • @mosiacmango@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              2
              edit-2
              1 month ago

              Thats pretty fucked up. According to this article in 2013, there were 69 goodwill franchises that used it.

              It does look like they are moving away from using it:

              As of September 1, 2024, only 10 of the 149 local Goodwills in the United States are reported on DOL’s list. Many of those organizations are in the process of transitioning away from using the certificate. GII does not hold a certificate, and we support local Goodwill leaders as they collaborate with people with disabilities, local employers and other service providers to create an array of community-based employment and other opportunities.

      • @LordKitsuna@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        21 month ago

        If you go rural enough and you find the mom and pop Christian own thrift stores you can still get those kind of deals.

        Just recently I went to such a place and I got five stainless steel large (4qt) spice jars and a bunch of silverware for like $7 total.same things woulda been like $15 each at goodwill

        • @Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          31 month ago

          The nice thing about these thrift stores is they’re actual charities and if you are in a hard place they’ll often help you get the stuff you need for free rather than charging the $0.25 an item they might otherwise

        • @mosiacmango@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          -3
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          More like its $35 that Goodwill can use to help an actual working mom of 3 when re-sellers pay to get a coat they can sell online for $130.

          Retail charities view their store as the source of funds for the charity, not as the charity itself. They also know people are reselling high end items, so they can mark them higher to make more money for the charity.

          • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            31 month ago

            Then they aren’t a thrift store and should stop deceptively marketing themselves as one. Furthermore their “programs” are shit. If they just paid their employees then they could afford the online courses without the administrative overhead.

            • @mosiacmango@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              01 month ago

              That’s how all charity thrift stores work. That’s how they have always worked. The retail sales power the charity. Goodwill, habitat for humanity, salvation army, on and on. I have some local ones that pay for animal shelters.

              They all sell donated items to make money for the charity.

              • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                21 month ago

                And yet Habitat for Humanity manages to build houses while it’s stores are actually thrift stores.

                • @mosiacmango@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  2
                  edit-2
                  1 month ago

                  Habitat for humanity uses the exact same model as goodwill for its retail charity stores.

                  Retail Revenue

                  Most Habitat for Humanity affiliates around the country have a ReStore, which is a resale store that receives donations of various types of home goods from people in their community and sells them for a profit. This profit goes directly toward Habitat’s mission and supports the organization’s efforts to build and repair homes.

                  You can disagree with Goodwill as a charity, but both are still thrift stores.

    • @JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      181 month ago

      I wanna say this has been going on for a while, but it really feels like they’ve cranked it up just recently. I was in a goodwill probably just a month or so ago and it felt like everything there was the same price you’d have gotten it new. It’s insane.

      Stick to your local thrifters, people, chances are they have better shit anyway.

      • @Doombot1@lemmy.one
        link
        fedilink
        English
        121 month ago

        My friend frequents goodwill and one time, he came home super excited to show me the Husky mini socket set he bought. He excitedly told me “oh it was only $35!”, assuming he had gotten a great deal… that same socket set was also $35 brand new at Home Depot. It’s almost predatory because people just assume goodwill has better prices. That said… my friend should’ve been smart enough to double check that before buying it, lol

        • @socphoenix@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          41 month ago

          The goodwill near me wants $21 for a pair of jeans that are very obviously used and fairly thin. A thicker pair of jeans is $15.99 at the Walmart 3 miles down the road…

    • socsa
      link
      fedilink
      31 month ago

      They actually sort items and send the stuff which has higher value to stores in wealthier areas.