01.11Value Village Tale
In my head I fantasized about the day that I would go into a goodwill store and buy up all the awesome clothes for a low price. I thought for sure that was going to be the case this week, when my wife and I finally broke down and went to the thrift store. The nearest one to our home is called “Value Village” which is something new to me. (coming from California, we don’t have such stores, they are usually Goodwill) So we walked into a very open, huge warehouse like store and it was marvelous at first glance.
The place resembled a Ross outlet store rather than anything second hand or used. I saw a huge sign on my left and gravitated towards that first. The sign said “books” and I was salivating at the idea of selling more books online. I figured I would buy about ten of them for one dollar, turn around and sell them for two dollars plus shipping and get away clean online. This was not the case as I read the price list on the side of the bookshelves. Anything worthwhile would cost me a tough 5.99 each! It’s a hard sell, and the selection was really poor. People do not treat their books very well and these things were water damaged, torn, and horrible. I was sad.
From there my wife left, and I went towards the men’s clothing and figured that I would find a great deal on some pants or shirts. I hit the shirts first, looking for anything that resembled anything cool. You know the hipster stuff; old high school gym shirts, band t-shirts, wrestling shirts, or anything with an awesome classic skateboarding graphic, but nothing was to be found. I then went towards the pants and the only thing worth mentioning was a few pairs of dickies size 38 but the lengths were 36 and up! I’m 5 foot ten inches tall and my inseam length is 30 (the length of my pants) while I wear a 38 so that I can sag my pants halfway down my butt, because I’m scared of being an old man and pulling them up to my waist. (in which case I’m a size 36, and even then I sag)
Bad condition. Horrible stains, and smells that I only remember from my childhood, growing up in the ghetto of Inglewood California, dreaming of the Sundays that I would get to go to the Roadium and get some Nes cartridges cheap.
I move toward the electronics and there was nothing to be seen. Some old televisions that were on wheels, and a few yellowed out microwaves, but nothing worth while. I did see an original Playstation unit, but this thing looked like it was used as a Frisbee rather than a video game console. Value Village wanted 19.99 for it, a far cry from the original 199.99 asking price that it was originally back when I begged my parents to get me one; they said no.
Just when I thought the whole day was a loss, I nearly tripped on something. I looked down to find a usb cable! The almighty usb cable is used to connect printers, scanners, copiers, and a plethora of other devices to computers and I happened to need one for work! So I grabbed it and contemplated possibly not paying for it since it didn’t have a price tag on it, but being the honest idiot that I am, I brought it to the registers up front.
With perfect timing my wife comes running up to me and she has in her hand a book. It is her birthday coming up, so I figured I would be sly and take it from her and give it to her on her birthday. (without making money online, I don’t have a lot of money to spend so I am on the cheapest birthday budget in the history of birthday budgets) She shows me the book and it’s written by Dee Dee Ramone! That’s right, the bass player of the legendary RAMONES! The book is in perfect condition and she found it amidst a pile of old Stephen King novels, and so at the end of the tally, my usb cable and the Dee Dee Ramone book, I had to pay 3.99.
I still hate Value Village, and I no longer glorify the idea of second hand, thrift stores, or goodwill like I did before actually getting out of my chair and going to such a place. These places do not offer new, or barely used items, they offer the worst of the worst and beyond salvageable in most cases. Why anyone would choose to shop here when they could afford the prices of an outlet store for new items, or dare I say…Walmart…is beyond me. It is a sad , sad, day when I am too good for Swapmeet like prices…but then again, I am no longer in a ghetto.
I miss the Roadium most of all. I miss my Nes cartridges and not caring where clothes had been as long as they fit. My next adventure will take me to Half Price Books, more on that later.
Related Posts
It seems to me many times that people can’t stand to throw stuff away so they donate it to thrift stores instead, making it someone else’s problem, even though it is truly garbage.
I used to cruise the area goodwills for good finds, random older skate shirts did well on ebay, Izod and Lacosste shirts were my best finds. I learned that you just have to know the right locations to go to. For me, there is a Goodwill about 30 minutes away, on the beach. It’s near a bunch of condos owned by rich retirees from Canada who seem to sell all the clothes they wear down here every season.
Reese’s last blog post..McCoffee
January 11th, 2008 at 10:49 am
We have a value village here in Ottawa too… and my experience was very similar to yours.
We went there when we were really broke and hoping for good bargains. Clothes stunk and most of the equipment was way beyond second hand. All I bought was some old Cosmopolitan and a few books…
Zhu’s last blog post..The Tipping Dilemma
January 11th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Here in NYC the “thrift stores” are anything but - prices are high.
The book and cable were a score.
Thanks for stopping by to visit.
Waving at you from the East Coast,
Frances
Frances’s last blog post..I want to leave this life guns blazing?
January 12th, 2008 at 8:42 am
We have some 2nd hand stores dedicated to just clothing around - those aren’t too bad. However, the normal thrift stores with everything - our experience is very similar to yours.
January 12th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I love thrifty stores! Old photos/cameras and laptops and clothes and books - god I love it! I have to stop myself buying everything1
January 13th, 2008 at 4:03 am
God You sound like a real money hungry cheapskate. But that’s not the point here.
The point is that Goodwill sells second hand clothes and old things, in the condition they get them. If you wanted to get rid of your old clothes, and you are not not old and have a lot of time on your hands, you just want to get rid of the stuff and would not even think of cleaning it first, would you. Yes the state the things should be better, but Goodwill basically takes what they can get from the public and tries to resell it.
VALUE VILLAGE IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA IS A HUGE MONEY MAKING CORPORATION, AND DONT YOU FROGET! IT’S MAIN GOAL IS NOT INDIVIDUAL OR COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT. YOU CAN NEVER GET A CLEAR ANSWER ABOUT THE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS THAT THEY SUPPOSEDLY HELP OUT. They are out to make money and lie to the public about their community involvement.
Value village can pick and choose what they want to sell, from the rag traders and social groups that THEY BUY THEIR SEND HAND CLOTHES and items FROM.
Value village buys most of the stuff they sell, (so they can pick and choose) they buy the donations, from the organizations that collect donations. That’s how it works in Ontario, Canada
If you choose to take it to their store, that’s up to you, BUT THAT MEANS YOU ARE MAKING A RICH COMPANY, RICHER (its almost as similar as giving money to Target, or Zellers)
INSTEAD OF YOUR DONATION DIRECTLY GOING TO A SOCIAL ORGANIZATION LIKE GOODWILL
March 31st, 2008 at 7:44 am
You can’t spell forget properly.
If you’re going to argue, and use italics, the least you could do is spell check.
I like your zeal.
I went to goodwill this weekend, it was sour.
March 31st, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Your experience is not typical. I work for V.V and I model and my store is 100% clean, remodeled and very up to date. We have .99 days and 1/2 Thurs-sun. Our store is always packed with customers and We have the latest styles and you can get dickies for under 6.99. Our books our 2.99 or lower. I know Canada does not have .99 days or 1/2 off any longer… sorryabout your experience, but I can get aton of clothes for a 1/4 of what retail is, and alot is new. Plus we only put out what you donate.. Walk a mile in our shoes and then you would know what we go thru each day.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:54 pm