Goodwill bins

[Beans]

Article on the hiring blind employees.

Goodwill Takes Heat For Paying Those With Disabilities Less - Disability Scoop

Went to my local goodwill today. Vase of costume jewerlry: $19.99, Books are $2.50 unless they are either very old or something that some one would buy then they have a much higher price. All pictures are prints or junk some up to $20.00. Records $1.99 unless they are from the 70s, ie Zepplin, Aerosmith, then the are marked up very high and the covers are in very bad condition. Use be able to buy a small bag of misc toys for $1.99 now the bags are smaller and the pricers are at the min $3.99. I looked at the area where they have vases and stuff like that, you can go buy new ones for the close or the same price. All the good stuff that comes in is looked at very close, researched on Ebay and the either sent some place else or put behind the cashier with high prices. I have donated some nice stuff to see if I was right about the good stuff going some where else monitered it for 3 weeks every day ( I live very close) and never seen the stuff I donated.

 

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[TreasureHunters]

Found a women's two tone Tag Heuer watch for two dollars. Might change the band on it cause its worn pretty bad and replace the battery the list it on eBay.

was this a bin store where you pay per pound?

 

[mkulltra]

It was their sort facility. They sell clothes, household and toys by the pound. Picked that out at the display counter with a bunch of other watches. People just wait around for them to bring out more stuff to go through. Crazy!

 

[Mr. Silver Stash]

It was their sort facility. They sell clothes, household and toys by the pound. Picked that out at the display counter with a bunch of other watches. People just wait around for them to bring out more stuff to go through. Crazy!

Dude, you are totally hooked on treasure hunting! hahahhaha!

 

[clovis97]

Went to my local goodwill today. Vase of costume jewerlry: $19.99, Books are $2.50 unless they are either very old or something that some one would buy then they have a much higher price. All pictures are prints or junk some up to $20.00. Records $1.99 unless they are from the 70s, ie Zepplin, Aerosmith, then the are marked up very high and the covers are in very bad condition. Use be able to buy a small bag of misc toys for $1.99 now the bags are smaller and the pricers are at the min $3.99. I looked at the area where they have vases and stuff like that, you can go buy new ones for the close or the same price. All the good stuff that comes in is looked at very close, researched on Ebay and the either sent some place else or put behind the cashier with high prices. I have donated some nice stuff to see if I was right about the good stuff going some where else monitered it for 3 weeks every day ( I live very close) and never seen the stuff I donated.

I've been told by GW employees that most donations are redirected to other stores.

Supposedly, this is how GW distributes donations evenly.

I donated some stuff, and about two days later, my sister called me from a GW about 30 miles away, and said she was standing in front of the items I had just donated.

 

[2ndisbest]

Ok, I get it, you are a fiscal conservative - which is fine.

All I want people to consider is this: Do we really want our businesses to make a buck on the backs of our fellow hard working Americans, especially those with disabilities? There are plenty of examples of US companies who manage to walk a fine line between treating their workers fairly and still being able to turn a profit. Isn't that the American dream? Or is it to succumb to the GREED that has corrupted us and turn our backs on our own people just so a few can make a whole lot more?

Nobody forces you to work for a certain company or employer. An employee/employer relationship is consensual. Both people benefit from the relationship.

As far as the greed aspect goes that is a two way street also. If these employees are offered a position at a different company for more money are they to say no, I make enough already at my current job? I wouldn't want to be "greedy".

To put this into context everyone on this forum can relate to, when we all go out to an estate, garage, or whatever sale, we are making financial choices the entire time. If you go up to a person selling item A and you know you can sell that item for $50 on ebay, will you pay $40 for it? Of course not, because of fees, shipping and the investment of your time you would certainly not buy that item for $40. (of course I mean to resell, not own) However there is a price that you will purchase it at. If you and the seller can find a consensual price to agree upon, a deal will be struck. (say $20) Both parties benefit. The buyer would rather have the money you offer and you would rather have the item than the money.

At the next sale you visit you find the same exact item and the seller is asking $10. Obviously you will purchase the same item you paid $20 for $10. Again both parties benefit. But you being "greedy" only paid $10 when you were willing to pay $20. Or do I have it wrong and you tell that seller I want your item but I will pay you $20 instead of $10?

If an employer offers X amount of dollars to do a job and nobody applies, I would think they would have to offer more to attract employees. On the flip side if a an employer offers too much to do a job I am sure they will be flooded with applications and in the end they might not make enough money to keep the business running at a profit.

Sure an employee can get fired at any time, but they can also look for a better paying job too. It is a two way street. Obviously if your skills are not in demand or very good you will not make as much as in demand skills or superior skills.

Unfortunately in this case forcing an employer to pay a disabled/blind worker the same as a full able bodied worker will ultimately cost that worker their job. Obviously this isn't the case for all disabilities, a one legged man can work at a desk just as well as a two legged man, but the same on a loading dock? Doubtful.

On a more personal note I have worked with a mentally disabled/slow person when I was just out of high school. It was a government job. In the government's eyes everyone is equal. (ok not really but that is a whole other rant) This individual had been there for over 20 years and at the very least made twice as much as me per hour. During any given day I did 10x the work this man did. So I made half the money for 10x the productivity. In my eyes this was not fair, so after two months I resigned. I vowed to never work another government job ever again. I held no ill will against this man, he was actually a very nice man. But do you think this man would have a job in the private sector making that kind of money for that level of productivity? Absolutely not.

If a private company did this they would not be in business for very long and make no profits and then everybody would be out of a job. How does that help anyone?

And for the record I am not a conservative, I am a libertarian. The line I like to use is "A liberal is a libertarian that doesn't understand economics." Sure that simplifies it, but I imagine 95% of the differences between a liberal and a libertarian has to do with varying opinions or to be blunt ignorance of economics.

And guns.

I have followed your posts on here for a while, and you know far more about this garage sale business than I ever hope to. I know you like to expand your knowledge, so I offer this link to a book that probably can explain it better than I ever could. It is a free download. Reading this book started me down a path of understanding, and today I see the world in a different light.

Economics in One Lesson (PDF, DOC) : Library : Foundation for Economic Education

 

[diggummup]

It was their sort facility. They sell clothes, household and toys by the pound. Picked that out at the display counter with a bunch of other watches. People just wait around for them to bring out more stuff to go through. Crazy!

There is a GW (non sort fac.) down here where the management had to call the cops and throw a small group of Haitian women out of the store because they would to come in everyday and loiter all day long waiting for the bins to come out of the back room. Then they would start fighting and arguing over stuff, shoes and clothes mostly. Crazy people.

 

[mkulltra]

That's pretty much how it was there. Might stop in every once in a while on my way to work to see if anything good is around. Finally found a true estate sale today. That was awesome! Going through drawers and everything looking for hidden treasure. They collected some of everything which was pretty cool too.

 

[diggummup]

Finally found a true estate sale today. That was awesome! Going through drawers and everything looking for hidden treasure. They collected some of everything which was pretty cool too.

Lucky you. I guess I missed that one. Where was it?

 

[lost]

I was at an estate sale last Sunday looking for left overs. I was on the second floor when one of the women downstairs yelled out, "is anyone helping the old man upstairs"? I looked around for him. It was ME.

 

[mkulltra]

It was in Sunrise Lakes which is an all 55+ community. As much negative i've heard about estate sales on here, i was skeptical but everything was priced really reasonably. I picked up two Swarovski bear figurines for ten bucks (worth about $50 each on eBay). And of course I picked up a couple silver pieces for $3.

 

[0121stockpicker]

Can still find goodies at those sales. If you take your iPhone/iPad, etc to any of these stores / sales you can quickly check items on eBay to see if they have sold and for how much. Only look at what things have sold for and not what they are selling for!!

 

[TreasureHunters]

Can still find goodies at those sales. If you take your iPhone/iPad, etc to any of these stores / sales you can quickly check items on eBay to see if they have sold and for how much. Only look at what things have sold for and not what they are selling for!!

Yep best to just throw ANYTHING you may think of value into a cart then go somewhere in the corner and just check them with your phone and toss anything not worth it back in. edit - Im talking about the goodwill bins..

 

[creeper71]

Don't let Fox News blind you so badly that you can't see that these are just Americans trying to earn a living. But if you are happy trying to survive earning less than minimum wage working a job that is less than glamourous, be my guest.
Hey, maybe GW can move it's operations overseas. Then they won't have to worry about who they hire or how much they pay them.

You really should look into things before you jump the gun... If these people are Blind they are more then likely getting Social Sercurity Benifits ..So if they would work fulltime at min wage they would make more then they are allowed to make under SS Rules an lose there benefits.. So I guess that is where you want them to be?? only earning one income from goodwill with out SS?

 

[Minrelica]

We had a great goodwill outlet here in St. Paul called "Diggers Delight" back in the 90's and I scored so many treasures there... Everything was in huge gaylords and you had to hang over the edge and dig for the goods... Lots of really nice old books and brand new Levi's... Then one day the local City Pages did there "Best Of" issue for the year and listed them as "Best place to furnish your apartment for under $100" and that was pretty much instantly the end of that since it wasn't far from the University! I remember being very angry when I saw the article because the place was not only a goldmine it was also very hidden... They closed shortly after and reopened a few miles away and now the stuff is pushed out onto a conveyor belt every few minutes and people go NUTS over everything. There are strict rules too... You need to wait until all of the conveyor belt is filled with bins and you can't touch anything until they say "GO" and then people zip around throwing things everywhere trying to find that treasure... The funniest thing is watching someone try to find the matching shoe that could be in a bin all the way across the room... Some people are there every single day and they have shopping carts lined up around the perimeter where they run back to and dump their finds... It's a great way to kill a couple of hours on a Saturday morning if you like people watching but don't plan on finding any so called treasures... The stuff is there for a reason

 

[diggummup]

Yep best to just throw ANYTHING you may think of value into a cart then go somewhere in the corner and just check them with your phone and toss anything not worth it back in. edit - Im talking about the goodwill bins..

I know a guy that does this at estate sales.

 

[Minrelica]

I know a guy that does this at estate sales.

Yup, around here they're called A**HOLES... Educate yourself before playing the game

 

[Shambler]

2ndisbest - your post is what young people with money write. If unregulated capitalism was so awesome, no one would try to fix it.

Let's take for example, GM. My father worked for them for 37 years. He believed what they told him and stayed loyal to the business - exactly what you want from an employee (right? since your examples are about the almighty employer's "rights"). In the end, at 63 years of age, he had lost his pension and medical because of lies (lies permitted by your view of capitalism). Not because of unions like Fox News would like you to believe. See, in the final 8 years of the business, it's executive committee made $928M. My father, an undervalued employee - one that you'd classify as not as talented as the next, died of cancer. The cancer most likely was a result of operating one of their machines for so many years. He died ashamed and in pain. All he did was work hard his whole life trying to provide for his family - never making quite enough to do something different.

I'll agree minimum wage laws are silly. They result is inflation and eventually the "bump" in minimum wage is balanced with a bump in cost of living. It's merely a trick to buy votes. What it DOES do is keep employers honest when hiring the least fortunate (by circumstance or genetics). It keeps an employer from "cornering the market" in an area where they might be the only option. Not long ago, an employer in the USA could produce something that made them filthy rich and they could do it by paying a few tokens that allowed the employee to buy food from the employer and live in employer provided housing but never have enough money to get a different job, move, or better themselves. All of that was in the Employer's own self interest. The same employer you put so much value in with your version (theory) of economics. There are giant sections of this country where that would still be very possible without employee centric laws.

The unforunate thing about American political discussion in the last 20 years is that it's not about solutions. It's about theory. We can't get anything useful done because people like yourself have been manipulated into a polarized view of everything while those that manipulated you are pulling the rug out from under you.

 

[2ndisbest]

2ndisbest - your post is what young people with money write. If unregulated capitalism was so awesome, no one would try to fix it. Let's take for example, GM. My father worked for them for 37 years. He believed what they told him and stayed loyal to the business - exactly what you want from an employee (right? since your examples are about the almighty employer's "rights"). In the end, at 63 years of age, he had lost his pension and medical because of lies (lies permitted by your view of capitalism). Not because of unions like Fox News would like you to believe. See, in the final 8 years of the business, it's executive committee made $928M. My father, an undervalued employee - one that you'd classify as not as talented as the next, died of cancer. The cancer most likely was a result of operating one of their machines for so many years. He died ashamed and in pain. All he did was work hard his whole life trying to provide for his family - never making quite enough to do something different. I'll agree minimum wage laws are silly. They result is inflation and eventually the "bump" in minimum wage is balanced with a bump in cost of living. It's merely a trick to buy votes. What it DOES do is keep employers honest when hiring the least fortunate (by circumstance or genetics). It keeps an employer from "cornering the market" in an area where they might be the only option. Not long ago, an employer in the USA could produce something that made them filthy rich and they could do it by paying a few tokens that allowed the employee to buy food from the employer and live in employer provided housing but never have enough money to get a different job, move, or better themselves. All of that was in the Employer's own self interest. The same employer you put so much value in with your version (theory) of economics. There are giant sections of this country where that would still be very possible without employee centric laws. The unforunate thing about American political discussion in the last 20 years is that it's not about solutions. It's about theory. We can't get anything useful done because people like yourself have been manipulated into a polarized view of everything while those that manipulated you are pulling the rug out from under you.

I am not rich at all. I come from no money. And by the government's own standards I would qualify for every welfare program. And I have never taken a dime back from which the government has stolen from me. (social security, medicare, medicaid, fica etc, etc.) I don't own a 60 inch flatscreen or drive a brand new car (its actually 14 years old). As I said before my cellphone is a joke, it takes me sometimes 4-5 minutes to look up one item if it even works at all. Having said that I am still in the top 10% world wide. I am rich by world standards, maybe not U.S. but world standards. Anyone born in this country is already "rich". And that was not due to socialism or a welfare state. Right now capitalism is not failing, fascism is failing. We live in a pseudo capitalistic society. AKA fascism/ crony capitalism. Wherever there is a free market business and people flourish. Hong Kong. There will always be poor, no matter what, but a liberal that has no idea how economics works thinks they can fix it by making everyone else poorer.

The more government tries to "fix" things the more they make it worse. Liberty is the answer, the freedom to succeed the freedom to fail. 2008 the banks should have gone under and failed. GM should have never been bailed out. If you want to read up on a country that did not bail out their banks, try Iceland. Whenever I hear the word regulations, I think to myself somebody paid a lot of money to our government for that competition barrier. If you think large corporations care about regulations you are mistaken. Hell they write them! And then lobby congress to pass them. It is cheaper than competition. That is why the only competition from automobiles comes from overseas. A new car company has too many barriers to overcome to even think about starting to compete. The only way a new company competes in many areas of business is if a billionaire gets behind it. Apple was started by 2 guys in a garage. And we all know steve jobs is the business messiah..... Do you think two guys could start a new car company in a garage in today's regulation filled world?

In previous post people complain about estate sale companies and how ridiculous they are and that OMG there are no regulations on these people! As I have said many times before, that is a good thing! If these companies in your area are so lousy there is nothing stopping you from stealing all their business from their dissatisfied customers! Start your own! There are at least 50 estate sale companies in my area. If I ever needed their services I know exactly the 3-4 or four I would call for pricing. madoff, enron...... These frauds were not stopped by the government agencies whose purpose was to stop them. All these agencies do is give the consumer a false sense of security. Fraud will always happen, and if the consumer understands this they might do their own research instead of relying on others who have no skin in the game to do it for them. How often do you buy an item if someone you don't know comes up to you and says "oh man you can make so much money off that item you should buy it without looking at is closely or looking on ebay to see what it is selling for"?


My dad is a retired postal worker and every day I see him I tell him he is going to get screwed out of his pension/social security so I hope he has made some backup plans. A student of history and economics will easily spot the how and why. Being the born skeptic I am I tend not to trust anybody when they talk about MY money. Your dad's pension was most likely never going to be there. Nor is my father's. Why do so many people on these boards alone chase a silly little metal like gold, or silver? It has no REAL value. We tend to believe like all fiat currencies, they will come and go. But these silly metals have been used as money for 6ooo years. They have a decent track record.

You seem to think the wool has been pulled over my eyes because I side with big business. It has not. I understand why these businesses do what they do. I however think you fail to understand how they are able to do it. The CEO's of gm would have never made that much money if at the time they had 35 competitors instead of 2. Competition and the free market would never have let those salaries get so inflated. (and sound money) Don't blame capitalism for the situation this country finds itself in today. The government and regulations are just a tool of corporations. We put people into power because they promise to give us things and if they don't, we don't elect them. If you neuter government like the Constitution was intended to do, you wouldn't have a lot of these problems.

Thee are any facets to the problem and many are interwoven, so just fixing one won't necessarily fix everything. However I just want to make it clear, Capitalistic is not failing. One of the last free markets that exists is the internet. The growth has been exponential, the wealth created incalculable. And all government had to do was stay out of the way. Of course on a daily basis it comes under attack. Amazon is now lobbying for taxes to be collected on sales. New lawsuits about copyright infringement. New laws being passed about "net neutrality". As long as you can see that these attacks on the internet are really coming from corporations, who are using congress as their attack dogs, then you are taking a step in the right direction.

 

[diggummup]

It was in Sunrise Lakes which is an all 55+ community. As much negative i've heard about estate sales on here, i was skeptical but everything was priced really reasonably. I picked up two Swarovski bear figurines for ten bucks (worth about $50 each on eBay). And of course I picked up a couple silver pieces for $3.

That was the one where the daughter was in town to sell her mothers stuff out of her apartment (condo), started at 9 on Sat.. I'm glad I wasn't there. Anytime I find a Swarovski figurine, the wife keeps it. I'm lucky she didn't confiscate the Christmas ornaments I had.