"Oren" wrote in message
...
Has anyone here used the Habitat for Humanity ReStore?

Just discovered one is in our area now. It is a 40 mile drive round
trip, so I thought I would ask before I drive. I see they take
donations and I have some gently used things from around the house I
could donate.

Experience at the store? Prices, variety, etc...

Thanks.

Eh. Depends on site, depends on current donations- like any thrift store,
only good way to tell is go and look. I hit the one here (Battle Creek, MI)
every month or so, but usually walk out empty-handed. Some of the stuff they
have had on display should have gone directly to landfill, like nasty
furniture, delaminated cabinets, etc. But they occasionally have some great
things, like unused solid core door slabs suitable for work tables for 20
bucks. The best stuff is usually from when some other store or
industrial/governmental 'greenshirt' shop cleans out their back room, and
hauls it off to the ReStore instead of the dump. Most of the
individually-donated ripout material seems to be pretty well trashed out,
either because it was de-installed less than carefully, or because it was
simply shot, which is why most people replace things.

But I'm not dissing them- good organization, hearts in the right place, etc.
I just think that if they were a little choosier at what they put IN the
store, and sorted it out better, they might get a lot more repeat customers,
and make more money. I go mainly for recreation, when there are no good
auctions. Somebody doing repairs for a living, well, time is money. If he
has to spend an hour going through window rack to find that one matching
orphan storm window panel, just to save 20 bucks, replacing the entire storm
window with a cheapie from the borg starts to look pretty good. In and out
in five minutes, and he KNOWS the borg will have it in stock.

aem sends...