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Old 03-04-2019, 06:00 PM
 
Location: Military City, USA.
5,534 posts, read 6,449,994 times
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"Nah, it's personal now... I hate hipsters and I don't like that user in particular. She clearly doesn't like my taste. I'm finished with this forum. The nerve of these biased mods to censor me and call me a troll..."

If the shoe fits...........
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Old 03-04-2019, 06:27 PM
 
Location: Texas
13,480 posts, read 8,321,981 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattie View Post
I work at a non-profit thrift store. We receive far more clothes than we could ever sell, which enables us to be a bit fussy about what hits the racks. Nothing stained, torn, worn, or dated gets hung, and the same goes for shoes and handbags. We fill a tractor trailer every ten days or so with the discards, and sell it by the pound to a textile recycler.

We depend on donations, but sorting through the mountains of bags and boxes requires a lot of volunteer labor. It can be discouraging to see how many people use donation centers as dumps.
That's great they recycle. I hate it when stuff is just dumped in the trash. Some stores don't hire anyone to sort through clothing, they just put it all out.
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Old 03-04-2019, 06:36 PM
 
Location: In the Pearl of the Purchase, Ky
11,047 posts, read 17,444,421 times
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Greatblueheron, when my friend's dad died, they donated all his clothing to a local theater group for props. He said they were greatly appreciated. On donating to places like Goodwill or Salvation Army, we have a local fund raising store along those lines raising funds for a local school for the handicapped. A couple weeks ago they started a pretty good sale. All the clothes you could put in one of the tote bags used for groceries, for a quarter. Thins out the inventory pretty quick.
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Old 03-04-2019, 07:19 PM
 
13,978 posts, read 25,874,479 times
Reputation: 39897
Quote:
Originally Posted by PriscillaVanilla View Post
That's great they recycle. I hate it when stuff is just dumped in the trash. Some stores don't hire anyone to sort through clothing, they just put it all out.
I'm not sure what type of stores you've been in, but every thrift store I am familiar with, and that's quite a few, has either volunteers doing the sorting or paid staff. A store won't stay in business long if their merchandise doesn't attract buyers.

I never answered the original question though. While we do give away clothing to our clients, they pick from the same racks that shoppers do. And yes, we sell a lot of clothes!
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Old 03-05-2019, 05:46 AM
 
Location: Nantahala National Forest, NC
27,074 posts, read 11,757,642 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kygman View Post
Greatblueheron, when my friend's dad died, they donated all his clothing to a local theater group for props. He said they were greatly appreciated. On donating to places like Goodwill or Salvation Army, we have a local fund raising store along those lines raising funds for a local school for the handicapped. A couple weeks ago they started a pretty good sale. All the clothes you could put in one of the tote bags used for groceries, for a quarter. Thins out the inventory pretty quick.
That's a great, creative idea! And that is a wonderful way to raise funds with the $.25 bag and gets rid of clothing quickly...
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Old 03-05-2019, 05:49 AM
 
51,603 posts, read 25,617,156 times
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Some are purchases.

Some are pitched out.

Some are bundled and shipped off to third world countries where they undermine the local economy.
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Old 03-05-2019, 06:22 AM
 
Location: northern New England
5,429 posts, read 3,997,148 times
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There is a social service agency in this area that operates 3 thrift stores. They use the color tag system, after a month the particular color tag goes to half price, then a dollar, then $.10. They rotate through 4 colors, I believe. So they ARE making an effort to move things out. Still, the main store had a MOUNTAIN of bags of donations in their receiving area. I can only imagine what was at the bottom. If you brought in more stuff, the bag got thrown up on top of the other bags.


Recently they opened an even bigger store. One that used to be a furniture store, with fork-lift accessible storage space in the back. The mountain of bags is gone from store A, moved to the new store. Which in itself is huge, with racks and racks of clothing for sale. And this is NOT in a big city. It just boggles my mind how much clothing is around.


Another large thrift store in the area washes, irons, and/or dry cleans every piece of clothing that comes in. And their prices show it. They never seem to have a sale. I questioned them about this once, the answer - they didn't want to encourage people to buy more clothes than they needed. Meanwhile the racks are groaning, overloaded with clothes that don't sell.
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Old 03-05-2019, 08:07 AM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,253 posts, read 84,190,273 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PriscillaVanilla View Post
That woman was not very bright. Of course, its possible she's one of those who thinks poor people should be forced to wear rags.

Clothing like that could be cut up and used for other purposes, if one is so inclined, but nobody has to wear it. Some charities and churches will even give away free clothing in decent condition, so there's no need to wear things with holes in them. This isn't the nineteenth century we're living in.
Exactly. The place I where I was volunteering is a soup kitchen and food pantry that grew over thirty years. It was started by a group of local churches and businesses.

They also accept clothing (it has to be seasonal, though). Once a month they have a day when they put out all the clothing, more or less by size, and people can come and take what they need. It's free.
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Old 03-05-2019, 08:13 AM
 
17,118 posts, read 21,777,787 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VTsnowbird View Post
The way to solve this problem is not at the thrift shop end, it's to stop buying so many new clothes. But I doubt that will happen.
I have never bought used clothes but I am not a shopper for tons of new clothes either! Thru March 2019, I have bought 2 pairs of shorts and a pair of jeans so far to replace well past worn out shorts/jeans.
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Old 03-05-2019, 08:14 AM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,253 posts, read 84,190,273 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VTsnowbird View Post
The way to solve this problem is not at the thrift shop end, it's to stop buying so many new clothes. But I doubt that will happen.
It depends. I'm not much of a shopper. As a six-foot-tall woman, my clothing choices have always been limited, and I never became a clothes horse.

However, I did end up over a long career with quite a few pieces of basic office clothing, such as skirts, jackets/blazers, dress slacks. I retired three years ago, and while I still occasionally work part-time, I didn't need the business clothing anymore.

Except for a couple of suits/jacket/skirt/pants combinations, I pulled it all out of my closet and gave it away. Most of it was in good shape, and I sent it off with the hope that some tall woman out there about my size found an office job and can use the clothing.

Except for the occasional business event, retirement doesn't require much in the line of clothing. Some jeans, some stretchy stuff, T-shirts, sweatshirts, a few sweaters for when I need look somewhat presentable. Less is more.
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