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I'm not sure if this is the right forum to ask, but since there is already an active thread here in thrift stores, I'll go ahead.
Have you ever had a donation turned away at a thrift store? We have a list of about a dozen items we will not accept and our list is much shorter than the guidelines Goodwill and the Salvation Army use. I am amazed daily at what people try to pass off as donations that really should have been thrown out or recycled, and it seems like the problem is growing. We don't want to discourage donors, but it costs a charity a lot of money to have items that can't be sold carted away. Yet people get upset daily when we thank them for thinking of us, and refuse their donation.
If you have had a donation refused, how was it handled?
If you can't sell those items in your store, why don't you give them away to food banks and shelters? Also, your store should be involved with a recycling program or know where to take plastics, glass, etc to drop off for recycling. All you have to do is give the donor that information on where they can take their items for recycling. For example, glass jars and glass vases can be given away to florists; they want, need and use these items and are grateful to get them.
If you can't sell those items in your store, why don't you give them away to food banks and shelters? Also, your store should be involved with a recycling program or know where to take plastics, glass, etc to drop off for recycling. All you have to do is give the donor that information on where they can take their items for recycling. For example, glass jars and glass vases can be given away to florists; they want, need and use these items and are grateful to get them.
We RUN a food bank and we support a shelter. We recycle metal, electronics, and tons of textiles every year. You obviously have no idea what junk people try to unload as donations. Nobody wants carpets that pets have peed on, nobody wants outdated scratched and torn furniture, and nobody wants boxes of junk that failed to sell for $.50 at your garage sale.
Sure, people are agreeable to trying the recycling center, until they find out that they will be charged fees.
Well, what do you do with things that don't sell in your store?
At the various thrift stores I visit they all have dumpsters out behind the store and that's where unwanted stuff goes. I see a lot of people drop off crap after stores hours when no one is around, some drop stuff into the dumpsters, others at the door of the thrift shop.
Yes, we had a sofa and chair rejected by Salvation Army when moving. It was a PITA because we had arranged to have them taken away, and didn't have time to figure out how to send them to trash or try to sell them, so ended up paying the landlord for the inconvenience, since we were moving out of state.
I understand what your'e saying, OP, but from a donors point of view - if it was good enough for our family to be sitting on, it really can seem arrogant to have Salvation Army turn it's nose up at it.
We RUN a food bank and we support a shelter. We recycle metal, electronics, and tons of textiles every year. You obviously have no idea what junk people try to unload as donations. Nobody wants carpets that pets have peed on, nobody wants outdated scratched and torn furniture, and nobody wants boxes of junk that failed to sell for $.50 at your garage sale.
Sure, people are agreeable to trying the recycling center, until they find out that they will be charged fees.
I'm not surprised. I was shopping once and there was a woman who was ticked off she couldn't donate a junk chair and a big screen tv from 1990
So, out of curiosity, other than junky furniture, non working or outdated appliances and raggedy articles of clothing, what else don't you accept?
I get that a lot of people think that if it was good enough for them then it's good enough for anybody, but I've always understood that thrift stores are in the resale business and not in the business of providing cheap mdse for the poor. No point in accepting items you can't make money on, or worse, items that cost money for the store to dispose of.
Yes, we had a sofa and chair rejected by Salvation Army when moving. It was a PITA because we had arranged to have them taken away, and didn't have time to figure out how to send them to trash or try to sell them, so ended up paying the landlord for the inconvenience, since we were moving out of state.
I understand what your'e saying, OP, but from a donors point of view - if it was good enough for our family to be sitting on, it really can seem arrogant to have Salvation Army turn it's nose up at it.
Except, if they know they can't sell it and will eventually have to PAY someone to take it away, why should they take it off your hands? You might say, well, they can give it to a poor person. Hey - so can you!! Use Freecycle or Craigslist.
A local thrift store employee told me they have to pay $70,000 a year in trash collection/dumpster fees. That's money that could be sending kids to camp or helping an old person with their winter heating bill.
here are some of the things our thrift stores will not accept:
1. old TV's.
2. small HD TV's.
3. old cellphones (flip/slide/etc.)
4. wigs.
5. food...like unopened cans/bottles.
yes, we tried to donate a TV.
turned down.
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