That includes using e-commerce for collectibles and other prime merchandise and tapping into global markets to sell goods that local shoppers spurn. But the business model the charity has relied on since its founding in also faces challenges on multiple fronts. The quality of new merchandise has been falling for decades — which Minter singles out as perhaps the greatest threat to the secondhand economy. China is now the fastest-growing exporter of used clothing and soon could dominate international markets.
Workers plug in televisions, computers, microwaves and other large electronics and separate the duds to be sold as scrap metal or to authorized recyclers for about 11 cents a pound.
Things that are clearly unusable, like moldy clothes, broken furniture, bags of actual garbage — yes, it happens — are shuttled straight to the dumpster.
When something especially cool is dropped off, staff members alert Wojtech and debate the price. Wojtech steps inside the bay doors and into a scene of nonstop activity. At stations devoted to one category, sorters with an eye for quality pick what they think will sell and set the prices.
Alicia Ross is at the shoes and accessories station, working her way through racks of overflowing blue bins. The bar is high for the retail sales floor. Ross fishes a brown leather purse out of the reject box and pulls out the lining to reveal a big blue blotch. In-house experts estimate values, post the offerings and track bidding. But she wanted work with more meaning.
About 4, new products are rolled out every day at the Renton store. Each gets a color-coded tag and a four-week life span on the floor. As the clock ticks down, the items are increasingly discounted. She points out stacks of appliance-size boxes on the loading dock awaiting pickup. There was one instance where a guy had purchased an entertainment center that he intended to come back with a trailer to pick up, and we sold it to someone else; however, that was not by mistake.
So, when he came back with a trailer several days later, he was not impressed. I don't know why or what the circumstances were, but a lot of people donated brand-new stuff.
We had an ecommerce store a lot of valuable stuff went to. For example, we sold a lot of gaming consoles on there. We made a killing off selling furniture sets.
Like loveseats, couches, chairs, etc. One time we sold swords and knives that were all in a set. I'm not going to act like I knew what exact type of swords and knives they were, but I know it was definitely against our company rules to sell them. Whoever bought them knew what they were, because they paid a pretty ridiculous amount. We did get a bunch of consoles and games. I saw a pretty sweet Nintendo 64 collection with insane amount of games.
That all went to our ecommerce site. I don't doubt it, I just never really thought about it, because I have always had it with my We got a bunch [of] modern and next gen-stuff from time to time.
I use to cringe pretty hard, because I would have to put out PS4 controllers for a pitifully cheap price for them to sell, when I would've bought them in a heartbeat. It's worth noting we couldn't shop in our own store. The totes would be drenched with water and sometimes coffee would be everywhere.
We were actually Goodwill EasterSeals, which merged together. There was like only of those stores around. We had donation centers that would send stuff to us to process and sell. Follow Us. Terms Privacy Policy. All rights reserved. Education Images via Getty Images. Mark Boster via Getty Images. RJ Sangosti via Getty Images. Portland Press Herald via Getty Images.
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