Horrendous is an understatement. This Family Thrift is located in an extremely blue collar, lower socio-economic part of the city. The owners buy large pallets of clothes, probably get a pallet of 1000 plus pieces of clothing for $1,000.00 to $2,000.00. They also solicit clothing donations from churches and community centers in rich suburban areas like Lake Forest, Winnetka, Glencoe, etc.
So the owners obtain a small part of their clothing merchandise at rock bottom prices, but the remainder they get is from donations. Yet they have the utter audacity to price OLD, USED athletic wear between $11.91 up to $19.99. Let me repeat, OLD, USED athletic wear that has been worn by someone who has worked out in them and sweated profusely. I don't care who the manufacturer of these athletic clothing items are, or if they were made with spun gold, the bottom line is that these are OLD, USED, SWEATED-IN athletic wear items that they got FOR FREE as a result of their solicitations for donations to churches in super rich suburbs or from their purchase of large pallets that they paid a song and a dance for.
Again, let me repeat, the location of this family thrift is in an EXTREMELY IMPOVERISHED AREA where the median income is $35,000.00 on a good day. 99.9% of the people who shop in here are in here because they are economically disadvantaged and can't afford to shop at regular retail stores. To charge these kind of prices in this neighborhood is despicable and shameful. They see a Lululemon logo and then they see dollar bill signs. They just need to put their coveted clothes on Ebay themselves if they are concerned about people who are resellers making money off of them.
It wasn't just the athletic wear that was astronomically priced. There were a pair of non-descript leather shoes WITHOUT SHOE LACES that were all smudged and stained marked at $120.00. Even at half off $60.00 is appalling for a thrift store. And even at half off $10.50 for USED, SWEATED-IN athletic wear?
And if the price-gouging wasn't enough, the store was a MESS. Totally disorganized, women's blouses, tops, etc. mixed in with children's clothing, winter coats mixed in with shorts, carts up front by the cash wrap overflowing with high-priced plastic bags filled with garbage lotions, soaps, used hair brushes, etc. marked ridiculously high, $5.91, $6.92, etc. It's a vicious cycle for them, basically it's messy because they have TOO MUCH MERCHANDISE, and they have no where to put it, so it's jammed all over the place, and the reason for the mess is because no one is buying the stuff because its priced too high. And aside from their coveted USED, SWEATED-IN Lululemon athletic wear, the rest of the clothing items are generic garbage, Old Navy, Talbot's, Gap, J. Crew on a good day, and a lot of cheap, made in China crap that rips apart after one washing, that further adds to the cluttered mess because they are also putting ridiculous prices on this garbage so no one is buying it. Some of the same merchandise has been sitting there for months.
This particular Family Thrift is huge, it's about 10,000 to 15,000 square feet. I was in there on a Saturday. I literally was the only person in the store in a Saturday. And quite telling that there was only one employee in the ENTIRE STORE on a Saturday.
The owners, who are from Houston, Texas, do not own the store front, which is a former Dominick's, They rent it. Even though this thrift store is located in an impoverished area of the city, the owners have to be paying a minimum of $6,500.00 to $10,000.00 a month for rent, plus liability insurance, which is at least $1,500.00 monthly. Then they still have to pay whatever minimum wage salary to their employees. No one, not even resellers, are paying their horrifically high prices. That is clear based on the fact that not one person (besides myself) was in there shopping on a Saturday.
Can't see how the owners are even breaking even after they pay rent, insurance, and their employees' wages. Why these owners are continuing to stick it out in this impoverished neighborhood and charging these prices for this crap that clearly no one is buying is mind-boggling.
Bottom line the pricing here is shameful.
If the owners were smart they would just shut down and take their over-priced crap back to Texas with them. read more