Revamped Home Furnishings: What the ____ Goodwill?!........And all the other thrift stores on the Central Coast!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

What the ____ Goodwill?!........And all the other thrift stores on the Central Coast!

Is it just me, or does anyone else notice how ridiculous goodwill is with their pricing? Actually, I should say Central Coast area California Goodwill's (and all other area thrift shops for that matter). I read tons of other blogs on a daily basis & it seems like I'm always seeing posts where you ladies are scoring $5.00 wing back chairs or side tables for $2.00. These prices are unheard of at Paso Robles second hand stores. I realize I live in an area with a higher cost of living, but seriously? Whoever does the pricing at our Goodwill stores I think tends to forget that these items are used (and in most cases, in pretty crappy condition). I'm not a total cheapskate but I just think it's pretty stupid to pay the same price for something at a thrift store for what you might find a similar item for on an online sale. Case in point, I was shopping at a Paso thrift store the other day & I noticed a used glass lemon curd jar that I KNOW came from Trader Joe's that had a $2.00 price tag on it! Thats about a dollar less than what it cost to buy it full of the lemon curd!!! Granted, it had a cool hexagonal shape & I've even saved mine to refill with homemade sugar scrubs to re-gift but this is an item that probably should've gone in the recycling! Who are you overzealous thrift shop pricing employees?

I also noticed these two cute French Provincial nightstands at Goodwill the other day. The one on the left had a price tag of $19.99 & the one on the right was on "sale" for 11.99. I pointed out to an employee that they were practically the same thing & asked if I could get the $11.99 price on ea. They said that the price was based on how long the item had been there. Which sucked for me, because I actually liked the one on the left a lot better.

    After she walked away I quietly took this opportunity to point out to my daughter that "These people don't low what they're talking about". The one on the left was made entirely of particle board & laminate. The one on the right was solid wood with dovetailed drawer joints. So for $11.99 (still too high in my opinion) I took it home. Still deciding if this will be available for sale or whether it's going in my daughter's room - she's pulling for the 2nd option.

   Our thrift shops also sell sweaters for $5.00-$7.00. I don't personally buy any of my clothes second hand but I'm pretty sure I can go to Ross any day of the week & buy a brand new one for that price! So to that I say, "What the ____ Goodwill?" YOU ARE NOT A NEW RETAIL STORE, YOU ARE NOT AN ANTIQUES STORE, YOU ARE NOT A VINTAGE BOUTIQUE! Price your things accordingly!

    What do you guys think? This is ridiculous, right?

2 comments:

AnonymousDecember 19, 2010 at 6:01 AM
That is a little high! There are three thrift stores around me and they all have different pricing---the one that is the highest is a place that takes all of your money and puts it towards an animal shelter...it is a good cause, but needless to say, I almost never buy anything from that one (they were selling jelly jars for $3 a piece and they weren't even vintage.)
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BrianneDecember 21, 2010 at 8:22 AM
Ya that the *%!"+! Goodwill is out to lunch. We have 3 super goodwills in Salem ,all with differant pricing. And thier never willing to work w/ you when it comes to negotioating a price.Even little childrens books are $1.99.
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Welcome to Revamped!

I set this blog up to hopefully be an expansion of an idea that I've had since I was 19! At that time I had a brand new baby girl, the keys to my very first apartment, a single mother's income & a taste for design that was way out of my own league. I remember going to the most expensive furniture showroom in town thinking that if I could just save up enough for one really nice piece, I could fake everything else with knockoffs or discount department store finds. After about 3 laps around the store I realized that not only would I have to give up groceries for a year so that I could afford the armoire I fell in love with, but I had no business even buying the three moss covered Styrofoam balls in the bowl on the matching coffee table (which by the way were $75)!

I left the store frustrated & totally convinced that I could make these pieces -only better- on my own, and more importantly, on my budget. And that's where it all started, armed with a few hand me down pieces from family members & some killer thrift store finds, I decided that the furniture I couldn't afford would serve as "inspiration pieces". With some help & encouragement from my mom(especially with anything involving sewing) I actually made that tiny little apartment pretty cute.

All the work definitely made me appreciate everything I had & I'm pretty sure I still haven't seen a 19 yr. old with a more stylish apartment!

Since then it's become way more than a hobby. At any given time I have at least 6 "projects" going on in my garage, I can't help it. It's in my blood. My Mom came from a big Italian farming family with six kids - imagine the hand me down action there. I don't think they threw anything away. I guess she passed the idea on that everything could be re-purposed if you were creative enough. My Dad's mom was a yard sale queen. Her house is filled with beautiful antique furniture that I'm sure she got for less than 1/4 of it's value because she had to scrape 18 layers of paint out of the hand carved details so that she could restore their original finishes. I swear, people around town knew who she was because she'd hit up at least 15 different yard sales on any random Saturday! So, I blame my family for my obsession. But, I stand behind the idea that good design can come cheap - really cheap.