Learned a bit about inner working on national thrift store

[silverdollarbill]

Hey everyone,

Randomly, I met the regional director of eCommerce for a national thrift store. I don't want to name the store, but it's initials are the same as our first president. I know there are a lot of great researchers here so you may be able to figure it out!

He mentioned a few things that explain a lot of our experiences along with a few things that may be helpful:

- first off, there is no national policy. Different regions operate independently and make their own rules (This explains why some folks have no results and other have luck)

- he was in a region where all jewelry is sent to the regional headquarter for review (He dictates the list of items sent and the list can change)

- for logistical reasons, there are exceptions to the rules....for example, in my region, most stores send all jewelry to headquarters for review. However, there are stores that do not follow this. (If you typically have bad luck, but find a store that produces results....it could be the exception to the rule and you should keep hitting it)

Anyway....I was really surprised I met this person. Everyone here is very helpful. I hope this into might help some of you.

happy hunting,
bill

 

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[GibH]

There are 164 seperate GW organizations in the U.S.

There are 5 in Florida that I know of.

 

[Holt0222]

The thing that surprises me is billings montana has 0 jewelry. So unless they send to a different store I don’t know what’s going on. Billings is the big town and doesn’t have any.

 

[niffler]

Boise first president stores only have brand new costume jewelry with original tags on it. Used jewelry disappeared a few years ago. scored some nice stuff before that though.

 

[randazzo1]

It makes sense. Just look at the amount of gold that the independent thrifts miss. If I was running a chain of charity thrifts I would never let the guys on the ground evaluate jewelry. Too easy to miss. But it seems there should also be a way to let the donor know - so they can get the true tax deduction. Imagine how cool that would be - a thrift with an in house appraiser - you drop ur stuff off and then get a legit appraisal in 7 days. I’d donate there lol.

 

[trdhrdr007]

I drove a truck for them in the early 80s when I was in college. No internet sales back then. Store managers were allowed to cherry pick anything that was donated. Everything else was taken to a large warehouse in the next town over. That was the collection point for the whole region. It was sorted there and sent back out to the stores.

 

[JimDon]

I drove a truck for them in the early 80s when I was in college. No internet sales back then. Store managers were allowed to cherry pick anything that was donated. Everything else was taken to a large warehouse in the next town over. That was the collection point for the whole region. It was sorted there and sent back out to the stores.

Allowed to cherry pick? Not likely sanctioned by the national organization. Two employees at my local SA were fired for cherry picking jewelry and watches.

 

[trdhrdr007]

Allowed to cherry pick? Not likely sanctioned by the national organization. Two employees at my local SA were fired for cherry picking jewelry and watches.

Guess I wasn't clear. They were allowed to cherry pick anything that was donated and sell it in their individual store instead of sending it to the warehouse. Definitely not allowed to cherry pick whatever they wanted for personal use.

 

[A2coins]

good info