On another thread, I suggested looking for church groups as a source for thrift purchases. In Florida, upon asking around, I found five different resale shops operated by church organization volunteers. Most of them operate on very limited hours, like three days a week. The best part is that they use their congregations as a source of sale items, and have no incentive to hyper manage their pricing. Our experience in all cases, is that the pricing is lower than "for profit" or Goodwill, and that the operation is more of a social gathering place.
Here in Illinois, in the next town, is a larger operation operated by ladies from 7 churches. They receive so many donations that they work on "turnover" so the prices are very, very low... and often after the seasonal good sales have peaked, the items are offered for free. Childrens' books, religious books and "how to" books are always free or offered for $.25 or $.50. All clothing and accessories... shoes, handbags belts etc. are sold by baskets... (those wire handle baskets ala Walmart)... All you can fit into the basket for $5... for $4 on Thursday. The nice part about this is that the donations come from many fairly wealthy donors, so it's very common to find top of the line labels and often goods that have had little or no wear.
As to how the better resale stores are operated... We now see that there is much going on behind the scenes, with many people working in the "back room" to sort, size and often test the donated items. In the case of clothing, in these stores, only clean and intact items are offered for sale, and the presentation is offered by size. Likewise, items are color code aged as they are put out on the sales floor, with periodic culling of older goods.
At the opposite end, those thrift shops that do not manage the goods usually go out of business in short order.
After getting over the "not for me" hurdle, resale shops can be a lot more fun than department stores...
Here in Illinois, in the next town, is a larger operation operated by ladies from 7 churches. They receive so many donations that they work on "turnover" so the prices are very, very low... and often after the seasonal good sales have peaked, the items are offered for free. Childrens' books, religious books and "how to" books are always free or offered for $.25 or $.50. All clothing and accessories... shoes, handbags belts etc. are sold by baskets... (those wire handle baskets ala Walmart)... All you can fit into the basket for $5... for $4 on Thursday. The nice part about this is that the donations come from many fairly wealthy donors, so it's very common to find top of the line labels and often goods that have had little or no wear.
As to how the better resale stores are operated... We now see that there is much going on behind the scenes, with many people working in the "back room" to sort, size and often test the donated items. In the case of clothing, in these stores, only clean and intact items are offered for sale, and the presentation is offered by size. Likewise, items are color code aged as they are put out on the sales floor, with periodic culling of older goods.
At the opposite end, those thrift shops that do not manage the goods usually go out of business in short order.
After getting over the "not for me" hurdle, resale shops can be a lot more fun than department stores...
