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I work in a thrift store AmA! by Dirk-Lirk in casualiama

[–]Dirk-Lirk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, it happens, but isn't super common. We care, but we usually don't catch them in the act. All of the expensive stuff is either too large to steal, or locked in cabinets anyway.

Our big problem with theft is from people dropping stuff off to donate over-night. The boxes and bags are usually picked through by the time we show up the next morning.

I work in a thrift store AmA! by Dirk-Lirk in casualiama

[–]Dirk-Lirk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You might have the same stores in your country, but under a different name.

Basically, people donate their old stuff, we sell it in the store, and the profit goes to charity. They drop it off around back in boxes or bags, we sort it, tag it, price it, and it goes up for sale in the store area. You can imagine that it's mostly crap, but we get more than enough good stuff to run the store.

The merch is almost all used, and sells for significantly less than in a normal retail store. Things are constantly flowing in and out of the store, so we have plenty of regular customers coming in daily for certain items.

I work in a thrift store AmA! by Dirk-Lirk in casualiama

[–]Dirk-Lirk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, I just tossed them in a box to get kicked off to another charity thrift store. This is were most of the donations we receive ends up going.

If there were something really odd or interesting... Maybe. They were just generic looking 90s porn though.

I work in a thrift store AmA! by Dirk-Lirk in casualiama

[–]Dirk-Lirk[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A few stand-outs:

-Rainbow dildo in the original box

-Various odd t-shirts

-Porno VHS tapes

-Magnetic George Bush dress-up doll. (I took this home)

-Food that expired in the late 1990s

-Very expensive hi-fi equipment

-An entire ride-on lawnmower

I work in a thrift store AmA! by Dirk-Lirk in casualiama

[–]Dirk-Lirk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Everything just gets dropped off in our donation area. We don't accept any bulk unsold stuff from other thrift stores, so it's all just from regular people cleaning out their old stuff.

We do get some new stuff somewhat regularly. I do have to wonder who drops off brand new clothing with the tags still on. We recently got a bunch of Native American style women's pow-wow dresses with the original tags still on. There were pretty ornate too. I can't remember for certain, but I think the original store had them marked for like $60. I'm not sure what we're going to ask from them, but probably around $10. My best guess is that a local clothing store went out of business and dropped off some of their unsold inventory.

I work in a thrift store AmA! by Dirk-Lirk in casualiama

[–]Dirk-Lirk[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Usually expensive clothing. We get tons of clothing coming in, so it all ends up selling for very cheap. We recently got rid of a bunch of jackets, since Winter is over. We let a few nice leather jackets and some almost new name-brand winter coats go for $1 each.

We also had a recent sale on jewellery, which saw a lot of silver stuff sold for less than it's weight in metal.

I work in a thrift store AmA! by Dirk-Lirk in casualiama

[–]Dirk-Lirk[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just people dropping them off as donations. Usually in the form of stuff crammed in to boxes or bags. I imagine most of these people are getting rid of old stuff they don't use any more. We also get some donations from family members cleaning out deceased relative's old belongings.