Goodwill for furniture (Sarasota, Venice, Fruitville: 2015, apartment, home)

[kramco]

I am temporarily furnishing a new apartment. I could buy cheap stuff from Walmart or Target but I'd rather buy home furnishings from a Goodwill. Better to recycle stuff and be supporting Goodwill than be supporting China/Walmart, in my opinion.

Which of the many Goodwills in Sarasota and Venice are good for furniture? Night stands, kitchen tables, lamps, chairs?

[wondermint2]

You might want to try the Habitat for Humanity restores. They have one in Sarasota:

https://habitatsrq.org/restore

and one in Venice:

https://www.habitatsouthsarasota.org/restores

[KMerendino]

Goodwill is nothing more than a scam - read about what the execs get paid


Habitat is high as hell and a rip, and another scam - read below:


https://freedomsandtruth.wordpress.com/2015/06/15/the-habitat-for-humanity-scam-disguised-as-a-charity/




Google is your friend. SKIP both of these places friend - go buy the cheap chinese stuff.


Don't become a sukka !

[joshan]

regardless of how they pay their exec's, always better to reuse good products, than fill a land fill and send more cash to China.

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by wondermint2

You might want to try the Habitat for Humanity restores. They have one in Sarasota:

https://habitatsrq.org/restore

and one in Venice:

https://www.habitatsouthsarasota.org/restores

I agree with this, and also perhaps Salvation Army. Goodwill has virtually nothing, and what they have is overpriced crap. You could also try Craigslist, I have found some great items using CL.

[KMerendino]

The Salvation Army does good work, Goodwill is full of it...


Goodwill is a legal scam:


Less than one-eighth of the company's profit goes toward its charity work. Goodwill sells free goods at a profit, but less than one eighth of that profit actually goes to the job-related programs they market as their primary pillar of charity work.


https://medium.com/@aliceminium/the-dark-reality-behind-americas-greatest-thrift-store-empire-183967087a1e


S C R E W Goodwill



"Habitat RESTORE" is almost as bad - don't do business with these organizations --Salvation Army is quite a different story !

[Sunshine Rules]

You might try some of the used furniture stores in the area, such as Iverson's Used Furniture on Clark Rd or Twice's Nice in downtown Sarasota on Fruitville. There's another used furniture store just north of Clark Rd on the west side of Swift, I can't think of it's name at the moment.

The Whitfield Exchange on US 41 north of the airport also has some interesting items from time to time:
Home | The Whitfield Exchange


PS: Almost forgot to mention The Women's Exchange in downtown Sarasota:
https://shop.sarasotawex.com/

[BP1968]

We had had success finding used furniture on Facebook Marketplace.

[KMerendino]

Iverson's back in the day was competitive for sure...now? it's stupid too. They have become too big for their britches.....like another, Manatee Furniture/appliance.

[choff5]

OMG, there are so many places besides Goodwill. The Women’s Exchange in Sarasota is incredible. In Venice there are also:
- Tidewell Hospices has a shop, https://treasuresthriftshop.com/
- Davis Thrift shop does clean outs and every Sunday morning, it seems, at least in season, they have the furniture out in their parking lot. Contact them for how this works or watch their Facebook page https://davisthriftstore.com/the_store.html
- The Venice Auction has auctions every Thursday. We went once and I was amazed how cheap things went. It’s in the building where Detwillers are on 41 bypass The Venice Auction Company, Inc. | Venice, FL

These are in addition to The Restore, Habitat for Humanity’s store and the Salvation army, both very good. I swear I had a circuit of thrift stores I’d visiti in the pre pandemic era. Maybe this year I’ll get back.