Sweet spot for thrift stores

January 30, 2023 1:53 PM

Is there a rhyme or reason to why certain thrift stores have lots of great household items and furniture and others don't? Is there a geographically sweet spot between population centers (aka not in the city itself because it gets picked over almost immediately, but close enough in the suburbs/exurbs to get lots of donations?)

I have been assuming that Goodwill branches in a single region will ship items from one store to the other (oh we have way too many chairs, send some to the Beaverton branches) and can set their own prices/sale promotions. My question is coming out of scouring the Goodwill branches in the Portland, OR region and much more consistently finding useful items outside of Portland proper (but the one in Beaverton that's visible from the 26 was also very meh the one time I visited).

posted by spamandkimchi to Shopping (11 answers total)

Mefi's own YoungAmerican wrote about finding the best thrift stores on his menswear blog, Put This On.
posted by mmascolino at 2:02 PM on January 30, 2023 [6 favorites]

A few things: look at how easy it is for people to donate to that place (if you have a couch, can you drive it there and easily park and drop it off? do they do furniture pick up?) and if there are other donation options in the area. For example, maybe in Portland people are more likely to give to another place besides Goodwill (like Community Warehouse), and some of the Goodwills don't have dedicated parking areas for donations. In the suburbs, parking might be easier, and there might be fewer options around. I also wonder if the many places where you can sell and consign used furniture in town (Craigslist, Facebook, lots of consignment shops) means people might be more likely to sell rather than donate.
posted by bluedaisy at 2:21 PM on January 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

(I spent much of my weekend in Portland in used furniture shops, so I feel your pain. Let me know if you see someplace with great second hand table lamps.)
posted by bluedaisy at 2:21 PM on January 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm also in Portland. A few years ago, I started having Goodwill stores tell me to take particular small items to another location to donate - I assume they were able to be pickier due to large donations from folks decluttering while staying at home. I doubt that they're doing much shipping between stores.

I think the largest factor is that a lot of people are picking over Portland stores for both personal use and resale. Like, I'd see folks using scanners to find resaleable books fifteen years ago.

The Habitat ReStore has a ton of used furniture, although they take pretty much anything. There was also a store on SE Division specializing in secondhand dressers.

If you're looking for things in pretty good condition, FB Marketplace, freecycle or similar is the way to go.
posted by momus_window at 2:28 PM on January 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

There are A LOT of resellers (my wife being one of them) in Portland so things get picked over pretty quickly if you're there at the wrong time. The Goodwill in Aloha seems to be pretty decent and is just out of the way enough that resellers aren't in there constantly like they are in Portland and Beaverton. The ReTails thrift store in Vancouver seems to be a good bet with good prices pretty often.
posted by mikesch at 2:44 PM on January 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

In my experience, one sweet spot is towns that attract rich old people — small college towns, for example.
posted by Comet Bug at 3:17 PM on January 30, 2023 [7 favorites]

In my experience Goodwill stores have had slim pickings for the last several years. Not sure exactly why, the internet seems to think it's because they ship everything valuable to their online store, or it could be they get picked over by employees and professional resellers. In any case, they're not a very good charity and not a very good thrift store. I've found the best items at small independent thrift stores, like those affiliated with humane societies or religious groups.
posted by credulous at 3:36 PM on January 30, 2023 [4 favorites]

Could be the discretion of individual managers. The local ReStore went from great to bad (and now closed up) basically overnight when they brought a new manager in.
posted by Mitheral at 6:34 PM on January 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

I pretty much assume each store gets different audiences donating + whoever works at them may want particular things.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:22 PM on January 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

There is a significant number of folks who either part time, or even full time cruise thrift shops in the metro area I know such a human; it is a more than full time job, and they deal in furniture clothing and housewares. They routinely spend full days at 'the bins' for fresh items to come out, and will do a pretty routine circuit to most stores in the area in a week or two. At this point they have a pretty large storage unit of stuff collected, and they release it slowly to cushion 'slow times' in finding things. They hit up several thrift stores a day, and resell through instagram, etsy and like flea market style pop-ups. It's their only job, and they make a decent living doing it. Their partner (more as a hobby, not full time) refinishes "B list" furniture that is quality enough, but looks dated as is. Dealing with that competition can really dampen what you find out there. There are entire meme instagram accounts dedicated to that particular subculture and life. It's enough of a thing that it can really dent what you find.

I find much of what I would have found in the 90's/early aughts more at vintage resale shops, estate sales or through websites; fewer folks are holding onto these items and just giving them away to thrift stores. I tend to get more 'hits' at estate sales but those are typically run by third parties, and like, they know what a wagner cast iron pan goes for. They will indeed part with it marginally less than what you'd find online to just get it moved, but you're not going to get a screaming deal.

They keep making people and time keeps marching on, but they aren't making more vintage stuff, by definition there's less and less every year out there.
posted by furnace.heart at 9:34 PM on January 30, 2023 [5 favorites]

In addition to pickers cruising, the biggest factor I know of is whether the store has an avenue to list high ticket items online themselves. They have first crack at it after all, and if you have a few people who know what they’re looking for it makes a lot more sense remuneratively to list those vintage toys and current textbooks online than mix them in with the other crap.
posted by aspersioncast at 4:58 AM on January 31, 2023 [4 favorites]