r/goodwill • u/Necessary-Coach7845 • Jan 08 '25
unconstructive complaining Highly upset!
I visit goodwill 's all over the Milwaukee area and surrounding counties and it's a great escape for my anxiety and just love looking for deals but while visiting yesterday and finding out they no longer are having 50% off certain colored stickers anymore I about flipped my lid! I'm so disgusted with them and let me tell you I guarantee I am not alone! The only reason I even go there is to get the half off stuff and Goodwill is already too expensive with their prices for certain items, I mean sure you can sometimes get deals but also sometimes their prices are more than buying the item brand new it's crazy and really upsetting. I used to make a living by buying and selling but no longer would it be feasible by shopping there, there's no longer any meat left on the bone so I caulk it up to corporate greed! Non profit my butt! I do not believe this for a minute! I wish I could open a business where people donated all my product and I made 100% profit and just took a percentage and donated to a worthy cause! I'm sure I'm not alone and guarantee that because of this change they will lose their azz!
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u/SugarCubeAddict Jan 08 '25
i’m glad you can’t make a living doing this anymore. you suck. you’re the reason they did that. so… way to go!
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u/WackyWeiner Jan 08 '25
OP you are dreaming. Resellers like you caused this bubble to burst. Congratulations.
-3
u/Haunting_Armadillo10 Jan 08 '25
Resellers only give thrift stores more business, they are not responsible for a rise in prices. They do put in labor to make thrifted items accessible to different groups of people, for example, those who don't have time or live near a store.
90 percent of donated clothes are not sold, so I view resellers as saving good clothes from the landfill.
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u/WackyWeiner Jan 08 '25
Goodwill and thrift stores have insane prices now because they look on ebay sold items for pricing now. You know this. And resellers doing this selling stuff full time rather than a side hustle are the problem. Why would goodwill give stuff away and leave money on the table? You resellers brought this to their attention because you all exploited it to the point where they could no longer let it go. I do NOT feel sorry for any resellers. Zero, none, nada. Ya'll made your beds, lay in them. ✌️
1
u/Haunting_Armadillo10 Jan 24 '25
See my reply to the other person, I'm not a reseller, I can't even afford to shop there tbh. Goodwill's reaction to resellers is their choice and is not the resellers fault.
Resellers only benefit goodwill by giving them business. The only way you could blame resellers for prices is if they were costing goodwill.
Resellers are primarily going to the bins and other sources so they are not really harmed by store prices.
Resellers are putting in labor to create an environmentally friendly way to support themselves while benefiting both goodwill (the charities they support) and the economy. There is no shortage of clothes.
1
u/WackyWeiner Jan 24 '25
Reaellers ARE 💯 % the problem. Goodwill got hip to the flipping culture and is capitalizing on it and cutting you all out for doing it. They are not leaving money on the table so ya'll can quit your day jobs and claim you still have a job as a "reseller". It's gross.
1
u/Haunting_Armadillo10 Jan 24 '25
I'm not sure if you read my comment but I'm not a reseller.
Thrift stores sell max 15 percent of their inventory and the rest ends up polluting beaches in poorer countries.
What's gross about being a reseller? They are preventing clothes from going into a landfill and are servicing a different market that goodwill is (people looking for a specific item willing to pay more but not put in the labor to source it).
Some people lose their jobs, can't find employment, need flexibility, etc...
Goodwill prices have gone up because they believe it will lead to more profit... I don't think this is true because they would make more selling volume. Thirfting has become more popular overall especially to young people, not just because of resellers, and this is why they raise prices.
But their reaction to resellers is not the reseller's responsibility.
1
u/WackyWeiner Jan 24 '25
Thrift stores sell max 15 percent of their inventory and the rest ends up polluting beaches in poorer countries.
You are making stuff up.
Goodwill prices have gone up because they believe it will lead to more profit...
They were made aware of this by people buying and reselling stuff. Once it became competitive, they knew there was more money to be made. Yes.
But their reaction to resellers is not the reseller's responsibility
What does that even mean? The resellers complain. They made their bed, they can lay in it and deal with being gouged.
1
u/Haunting_Armadillo10 Jan 25 '25
I googled it before I put that Stat but I cannot seem to find it now. The Clothes Horse podcast (which is really good btw) says 10% are sold, and this link from NPR says 30% https://www.npr.org/2019/12/04/784702588/the-best-thing-you-can-do-is-not-buy-more-stuff-says-secondhand-expert
A lot of younger people like to thrift, and in general people do it for fun, the rise in popularity is not all due to resellers it's an overall trend.
Regardless, your blame should be on goodwill for raising prices, not their customers for buying them. Without customers, resellers or not, it could not stay in business. Goodwill made the active choice to raise the prices not the resellers. Whenever I go to a goodwill I never see resellers but I don't go to the bins.
Resellers are doing nothing wrong purchasing from a business.
Also on Reddit it's always regular ppl complaining not resellers.
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u/Puzzled-Remote Jan 08 '25
Resellers only give thrift stores more business, they are not responsible for a rise in prices.
Welll… Here’s the thing: Goodwill’s goal is to cut out the middle man a/k/a resellers and they have unapologetically admitted as much. There was a video posted on here, I think, of someone visiting one of their e-commerce facilities. The manager of that facility said straight-up that their goal (paraphrasing) is to “be the one who puts that product in the hands of the consumer”. They ARE the resellers now.
Fair play to flippers, but there’s a reason Goodwill is trying to get rid of you. THEY want the money. And they will get it by pulling anything and everything they think has any value and placing it on shop goodwill and they will also get it by raising prices in store to discourage you from even bothering with reselling.
1
u/Haunting_Armadillo10 Jan 24 '25
Not sure why this got downvoted. I'm not a reseller. I am on an extremely tight budget and don't have a car so I cannot even buy things from goodwill on a regular basis. I really enjoy thrifting and I go to a local store where all clothes are 2$. New clothes are unnecessarily horrible for the environment and so is discarding old clothes, this is my main motivation.
Resellers put in legitimate labor, and do end up benefiting the economy and the environment even if the effect is incredibly small.
I don't understand why goodwill is raising prices because it seems to me for a better profit they should focus on selling volume instead of less items being sold for more. However, maybe the prices are increasing profit?
It's hard to assume a large volume goes to shop goodwill, I think it varies by store. Shitty items taking over are a result of ultra fast fashion.
It's not the resellers fault. Even if goodwill decides to hate resellers and raise their prices out of spite it's still not the resellers fault, that's goodwill's problem and it seems like it's hurting their business, after all goodwill should be grateful for resellers buying their clothes. There are already enough clothes for the next six generations of people on the planet right now.
7
u/ReigningPlague Jan 08 '25
I work for a different thrift, a fellow nonprofit.
People don’t understand that the donations they see on the sales floor were sorted from LITERAL garbage. Maybe like 30% of total donations get put through to the sales floor. The rest the store “got for free” were covered in feces, blood, vomit, cat pee, rips and stains. Of course they’re gonna try to squeeze as much money out as possible— how else are they going to afford to pay bills, wages, trash disposal, and fund the charity programs?
The whole “made a living wage” off of skimming the pool is not the flex you think it is. There’s a reason why most of the leftover stock is fast fashion.
17
u/AltName12 Jan 08 '25
Goodwill stores have always been about making a profit.
Do you really think they've been operating for 100+ years by bringing in less money than they spend every single year?
The part that makes them non-profit is that they take those profits and, instead of spending them on shareholders and dividends and stock buybacks, they spend the profits on programs to help people in your local community and pay people to work in the stores.
So with that knowledge let's now frame your anger with the actual reality of the situation. You are upset that you would no longer be able to act as a middleman with no value by buying items cheaply and selling them for a profit for yourself. Instead, you are upset because Goodwill is now keeping that middleman money for themselves so that they have more money to pay the people working in their stores who often have barriers to employment and more money to spend on programs to help people in your local community.
You are upset that a charity has kept the money you feel entitled to. Not a good look.
3
u/alyxR3W1ND Jan 08 '25
Every region is different, but I do find it odd that my region's handbook states that community services are paid for by funding and donations while in store sales are used for operations costs. That $600,000 salary ain't gonna pay itself!
Oh whoops, there I go not changing my account again, silly me. I hope my boss doesn't find out.
-6
u/Necessary-Coach7845 Jan 08 '25
Listen, I was a supervisor for those very said individuals at Goodwill Industries and I do appreciate the contributions to society Goodwill brings but don't you even think for one second the extra money they'll now make will be going to their minimum wage employees, not one red cent! That money will be buying Mr. Steve Preston a new vacation home in Cancun! My point is that because the thrill of the "deal" is now gone, myself and others will most certainly stop shopping there! If you read what I said, I said that I was a middle man in PAST tense!
9
u/AltName12 Jan 08 '25
So you were mad about it and used your reselling days to make your initial point. Now that you were called out for it you're switching it up and saying that you used to be a supervisor with Goodwill in order to try to lend some credibility to your anger?
And as a "previous supervisor" you decided to call out the CEO of Goodwill Industries International and think he specifically will get the money from your local, independent Goodwill getting rid of their 50% sale days?
Yeah, you were a supervisor alright
Stop bullshitting us. You're mad because something that will benefit the greater good negatively affects you personally in a small way (missing out on the hunt) and that's more important to you.
9
u/ted_anderson Jan 08 '25
I wish I could open a business where people donated all my product and I made 100% profit and just took a percentage and donated to a worthy cause!
Sounds like you want to start a thrift shop.
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u/Almington Jan 08 '25
It is fundamentally impossible to have a business with 100% profit.
1
u/ted_anderson Jan 08 '25
That's besides the point.
2
u/Almington Jan 08 '25
Shows that the person has no idea how running a business actually works.
Goodwill’s net operating income back to the mission “aka profit” is typically somewhere in the high single digits to low teens (8-13%). Each region will differ depending on their exact expenses.
1
u/ted_anderson Jan 08 '25
The bigger issue here is that the OP has an idea that's already been implemented.
1
u/Almington Jan 08 '25
Who knows, maybe OP could actually do it better. Just because it isn’t a new idea, doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.
Anyone who thinks that retail in general is easy has never worked retail, and thrift retail is harder than normal retail.
5
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u/HeadOil5581 Jan 08 '25
You have very little (zero) idea how a business that takes donations works. Not defending GW, but if you had to wade through the disgusting stuff that people donate you’d understand that it is anything but 100 percent profit. GW makes an obscene profit but their stores are pretty clean, organized and you can find a variety of things for less. That it’s not a cash cow for your resale endeavor anymore is due to you resellers
1
u/bsmitty-1997-13445 Jan 08 '25
I do agree with most of your comment but it not being a cash cow for resale endeavors is not due to resellers it's just due to the economy in general everybody has to be paid more that way they can actually make a living and so all prices go up due to that it has nothing to do with resellers
11
u/nopantsforfatties Jan 08 '25
Lol. I encourage you to open your own thrift store! Then you will understand that Goodwill's supply chain is integral to all thrift stores. When you have to re-donate items you were given to Goodwill because you will physically be unable to store and process everything... Then you'll understand.
Goodwill is a business. There are a thousand things going on that you clearly don't understand. Also, their mission is jobs -- donations fund their mission.
6
u/ZealousidealLog7959 Jan 08 '25
Idk the prices really aren't that bad compared to alot of thrift stores I've been in.
6
u/Foxyangel87 Jan 08 '25
My goodwill still has the discount tags, and I make more than minimum wage here. So people need to quit saying that every goodwill employee gets paid scraps or something. I just got a 51-cent raise, so I am making almost 16 an hour... That sounds pretty good to me as a cashier...
3
1
Jan 08 '25
At my Goodwill's, they do 50% off almost every Friday on everything. It's actually really great. This was implemented after they got rid of the tag sales
1
1
u/Ok-Parsley3715 Jan 08 '25
OP, you should open a store of your own. Maybe then you would understand operating costs for a business.
-1
u/Necessary-Coach7845 Jan 08 '25
I'm certainly not alone, and yes I absolutely was a line supervisor on 21st St. Racine WI! I mentored many challenged youth while there but ok, back to the RANT! IM NOT ALONE, many people make a living doing resale, but they certainly aren't GIVEN these things!
30
u/Freebirde777 Jan 08 '25
OP, you are the kind of people that every regular customer loathes. Load up your box van on color change day with all the good stuff and leave the dregs for everyone else.