stopped by GoodWill today

[tortoise]

I'm with you TanksHill! I have been in pet care inductry for 10 years. I know many of the suppliers, wholesale and retail prices. I know what is available locally and what has to be special or online ordered.

Most of the pet stuff is priced at or over retail price. Not just at the closest Goodwill, but 4 - 5 thrift stores in my hometown 40 miles away. People don't really know what it is supposed to be/look like, and I see broken stuff a lot too.



I shop often, shop sizes ahead for my son. When I'm shopping more than 1 size ahead, I won't touch it unless it's a 1/2 price tag. I make out like a bandit on his clothes. I keep tags on so I can compare prices - helps me on thrift sale shopping.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Our thrift stores and Goodwill don't really have any mega deals that I've found. :/ And clothes shopping is a PITA there, because everything is sorted by COLOR and not SIZE! I don't have the time or patience to stand there for hours looking through hundreds of pants, only to find a really nice pair and realize they're not my size!

My sister has a really nice Mega-Thrift store down there and she finds great clothes there all the time!

 

[savingdogs]

We have something called Value Village here and it is awesome. I think it keeps Goodwill on its toes because of the competition.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Funny . . . I used to shop at Value Village all the time, but their prices have gone up here, so now I am going to Goodwill more often . . . they also have a better selection at Goodwill these days. A new Goodwill store opened where there used to be a retail chain store that went out of business. Every time I go by the parking lot is absolutely FULL! It never was that busy when the retail chain store was there. LOL Sign of the times, I think.

I think it is a lot more fun to shop second hand, since you never know what you will find, and I never feel guilty about buying something . . . or lots of things, for that matter.

 

[tortoise]

St. Vincent De Pauls here has sweet deals. 1/2 the price of Goodwill. I picked up some like-new boys shorts and pants for less than $1.50 each! Goodwill here would be 2.99 - 4.99.

 

[BeccaOH]

Our Goodwill isn't great. You really have to go in regularly to find a deal. Things are often overpriced IMHO. A friend who works there agrees that the manager is pricing most stuff too high, but it may be because they have color-coded deal days that reduces the price and helps move out old items.

I thought I'd pick up a deal on a plain bowl for a rabbit dish, but they were priced $1-4 each. I might as well buy new! Found a 3-piece set of ceramic ramkins at JoAnn's for $2.50 instead.

 

[TanksHill]

We have those color coded tags as well. But nothing EVER goes on sale.

The worst thing. Everything is 99, 1.99 2.99 etc... So the canning jars are 99cents each. I tried to explain to the manage once that they don't cost that much new. He said that's the lowest price he has.

Once I was in line and the gal asked me if I got a discount. I looked at the little old lady behind me in line and said "If I buy my grandmas book will I get the discount" The cashier said yes. The poor little old lady just kinda looked at me in awe when I paid for her 50 cent book. She saved me 10% on my whole order.

 

[old fashioned]

We love thrift stores but I have to admit DH is better at finding really great deals. I can sometimes, but usually when they have a big sale or their 1/2 price tags. I've noticed too that alot of the thrift stores have raised their pricing and is sometimes as much or more than new. We find better deals at garage sales alot of the time.

Actually one of the best deals we've had in a while was last week at Home Depot. I finally talked DH into getting some 'steer gro' composted manure for the garden and had found it at HD for only .88 per bag 2 weeks before. He wasn't too happy about hauling 'poop in MY truck', but he relented. When we got there they had raised the price to 1.29 a bag & I said nevermind. As we were looking around, we found 2 carts loaded with a mix of ripped open bags of Miracle gro topsoil, potting soil, and some bark mulch and only one bag of steer gro. We asked a salesperson about the bags and we got 27 bags for $30.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I think it was at Value Village, rather than Goodwill, but I found a couple of high-end stainless steel pans for maybe $10 per pan, it seemed like a fair price to me and I am always collecting cooking utensils, pans, etc. so I picked them up . . . then I saw the same brand pans new in a store for $200 per pan. I was shocked!

 

[hoosier]

I've never gotten a good deal at the thrift stores around here. Mostly, it's junk, and over priced junk at that. :/

It is the same here. Much of it is priced OVER what you can buy new at Walmart, and it isn't even in great condition. I think they are trying to pay for their new building.