You may want to rethink your shopping once you learn about these hidden thrift store secrets!
If you’ve never been there, thrift store shopping can be a bit intimidating. For many, the stores can feel pretty chaotic. They just don’t feel super organized… do they?
But once you learn the tricks of the trade, like keeping an open mind and shopping on the weekdays, you can find plenty of secondhand hidden gems for a fraction of their initial cost. And doing so can help you look classy on a budget.
Thrift store shopping, or “thrifting,” isn’t new, but we are in “the golden age of secondhand shopping.”
We already know that buying pre-owned clothing is way more sustainable than purchasing trendy fast fashion, and shoppers are becoming increasingly conscious of buying ethically and sustainably.
That said, there are 7 hidden thrift store secrets you’ll want to keep in mind about these stores before you dive in. Here’s the dirty truth about your favorite secondhand shops.
Hidden thrift store secret: Recalled items can end up on the shelves at thrift stores
Many donors don’t realize that these stores have strict rules to follow. And breaking these rules can result in costly fines or lawsuits. Most importantly, these rules protect shoppers. Safety is the number one priority.
Federal inspectors often pay visits to thrift stores to ensure the organization isn’t selling anything that’s been deemed hazardous or on the recall list. Nevertheless, recalled items occasionally wind up on thrift store shelves.
Many of the thrift shops examined by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled items for sale, including children’s toys.
So you may want to keep this hidden thrift store secret in mind the next time you’re considering buying something for your kids or grandkids!
Hidden thrift store secret: Disgusting things frequently make it into the donations at thrift stores
Whether you regularly shop at The Salvation Army, Goodwill, or any other thrift store, whether nonprofit or for-profit, there are bound to be some less-than-pleasant finds. Thankfully for consumers, most of these are caught before making it out into the store aisles.
Of course, this still royally stinks for the employees. As such, they recommend you not donate anything of the gross variety.
So, things that have been sitting out in your yard for too long or are moldy or damp … if you donate something like that, even in a batch of clothes, it can quickly ruin other things. It means they can lose out on donations.
Hidden thrift store secret: When shopping at thrift stores, keep in mind that “vintage” can also mean lead poisoning
If you’re a collector of vintage items, you’ll agree that a secondhand store can be a goldmine. But plenty of risks creep into many aisles of your favorite thrift shop. No federal agency regulates the sale of used items in the United States.
The end result? Many Americans might be bringing the lead-poisoning hazards of other generations back into their homes. And the worst part is that you can’t tell if a product contains lead simply by looking at it.
As part of a study on secondhand items bought from antique, thrift, and junk stores in New York, Virginia, and Oregon, a team discovered that many items contained surface lead concentrations around 700 times more than the federal limit.
These items varied from necklaces to ice cream scoops to window shutters. So, if you plan on buying vintage items from your local thrift store, you shouldn’t assume they’re safe.
Hidden thrift store secret: Your donations might end up overseas
Things that don’t sell at thrift store outlets go to Goodwill auctions. Next, items that couldn’t find homes with any bidders get shipped to a textile recycling organization.
According to Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles, 30% of their organization obtains gets processed into industrial rags, 20% is shredded into soft fiber filling for furniture and a few other items, and 5% is sent to the landfill.
Nevertheless, the majority, which is 45%, of the clothing that ends up at SMART is either re-sold within the US clothing industry or sent overseas.
Even though this might sound better than all those items getting sent to a landfill, the publication noted that re-selling clothes into the US secondhand market just encourages them to repeat the cycle all over again.
And another hidden thrift store secret is that sending clothes to other countries can majorly impact the textile industries in under developed countries, robbing locals of incomes and jobs.
Hidden thrift store secret: There can be significant pay discrepancies when it comes to thrift stores
Overall, Goodwill is a very charitable organization, but wage discrepancy is an ongoing matter plaguing this nonprofit thrift shop. Citing federal tax records, The World-Herald wrote that Goodwill Omaha paid CEO Frank McGree almost $1 million in 2014.
Besides his quarter-million base salary, he was given a $95,000 stimulus bonus, $52,000 in deferred retirement, and a retention bonus of $519,000… AND a membership to a country club. Besides this, 13 other managers and executives received yearly salaries of over $100,000 that year.
Now, learning this hidden thrift store secret and considering the Goodwill brand is a $6.1 billion industry, you may conclude that they pay their employees well. Well, not so fast! Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to all employees.
While some higher-ups were “living it up,” many disabled employees were earning as little as 22 cents per hour, which is well under minimum wage due to some kind of legal loophole in the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Conclusion? You can afford to pay your executives six- and seven-figure salaries but can’t afford to pay minimum wage to your employees?… Interesting!
Hidden thrift store secret: Chances are your local thrift stores are selling something hazardous
As we mentioned, many thrift shops list their do’s and don’ts about donating. Goodwill, for instance, doesn’t accept large appliances like stoves or CRT televisions due to the Digital TV Transition.
It may go without saying, but these types of stores also want to avoid being burdened with hazardous materials. Some Salvation Armies have banned entire categories of objects because the hazards associated with accepting them overshadow the benefits.
Nevertheless, this could be a bit more foolproof. You might not even realize when something for sale poses a health hazard. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission notes that 69% of thrift shops contain at least one hazardous product.
This varied from cribs that didn’t meet federal safety standards, children’s clothing with drawstrings that didn’t meet CPSC guidelines, and old hairdryers that didn’t have the required safety plug.
So, knowing this hidden thrift store secret, it might just be best to avoid buying certain items at thrift stores, especially when it comes to baby items.
Hidden thrift store secret: How nonprofit ARE thrift stores?
Back in 2015, the chain of thrift stores “Value Village” were sued for deceiving people about how much their donations go to charities and covering up their role as a for-profit company.
At the end of 2019, a judge ruled that the organization violated the law and fooled its customers into believing the stores were nonprofit.
These laws help safeguard consumers, of course, but it’s essential to note that even bona fide nonprofit thrift stores don’t donate all their money to charity or use it all on their programs.
The Better Business Bureau specifies that nonprofits have to spend at least 65% of total expenses on program services. This means there are many variables in how nonprofits can use the rest of their income.
So if you’ve been exclusively shopping at thrift stores because you thought you were helping, we think it’s safe to say that you can shop at other places too, including Amazon!
Did you know about these hidden thrift store secrets? Please feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
And if you liked this article, you may want to also read: Retail Closures: 8 Beloved Stores That Are Shutting Down
