this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2024
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Mildly Infuriating
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
https://www.goodwill.org/press-releases/goodwill-celebrates-national-thrift-shop-day/
It's literally their entire marketing scheme. And if the Goodwill near you is offering good prices still then that's great. But this is something people have noticed.
My local one has a banner up for Halloween costumes, but that's about it. There are some generic "feel good" images of people being happy to work inside on the walls, but it's not like it rotates or has ads or anything. Just generic cheerful "thank you's."
There is nothing about how the store is there to sell cheap things to the working class, just that their charity helps people get jobs.
That's just inside the walls too. I've never seen any kind of actual ad for Goodwill in print or online.
You can easily find video ads of goodwill on YouTube. And I linked you their literal strategy.
You said earlier that "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."
They certainly advertise the second part in that link, but I didn't see anything about the first part, which is what you seem to mainly be upset about.
They are pretty up front about selling donated goods to pay for their charity work of job training. They don't claim to be a "thrift store to help the working class" at any point.
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.
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.