Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul are ripping off poor people!

I have been an antique dealer for 40 years and have spelunked thru Goodwill, St Vincent de Paul, and Value (not) Village for the last 15 years. I go there when estate sales, garage sales and auctions are scarce, and also skip in when I am in the neighborhood if I have a few minutes. So you see, I have had loads and loads of experience shopping in these humble? resale palaces. Trouble is, now that the economy has gone into the crapper, the poor and downtrodden who have been shopping these stores in earnest for their family’s clothing, strollers, tables, chairs, rugs, lamps ect…are getting hosed down something terrible! The recession has brought many more earnest shoppers in looking to save a buck by buying used goods.  This of course has caused the stores to raise their prices thru the roof!

In case you doubt this, consider that I also donate regularly to these stores when I clean house (spring and fall) and often see my donated items on the shelves or hanging on the clothing racks. I was thunderstruck when I donated a mohair jacket with holes in the pockets and a burned hole on the cuff (it was nice tho as it was from Ireland) to St Vincent’s and found it a week later hanging on the rack for $12.00! I had purchased it two years previous from the same store for $2.00!What a rip off! That same afternoon I skimmed Goodwill and saw dresses I used to buy to sleep in (soft Indian print, loose fitting and comfy) for $18. !!! Ridiculous!! You can go to TJ Maxx, Ross, or Old Navy and get way better deals on brand new clothing.  Not only clothes are spiked up. I saw very ordinary pottery lamps for 18.99 that you could get for 7.99 at Ross! And sheet sets for 12.99 (used and tired) that you could buy at Ross for 10.50 and 14.50 that are brand new!

I firmly believe in recycling everything imaginable, but I do think that poor people are getting ripped off by these stores that are posing as humanitarian! WTF? So you say they train folks to run a cash register and schlepp merchandise around, and get a good job after they are trained up. Did you ever notice that the same people you saw there last year are still there this year? It is true! They have not moved into the work force outside of these stores…they are there for good. I am glad they have a job, but I am not buying into the whole humanitarian schtick that these organizations are fronting to us. Especially guilty is Value Village. Do you know who owns it? One family who lives here in Seattle in splendor. They are millionaires! No kidding! I know folks that work at their home as domestic employees! Sure, they donate a percentage….so what! If folks knew how little they actually donate, they would offer their goods on the sidewalk for free and do more honest charity!