"aemeijers" wrote in message
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"Oren" wrote in message
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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.

Just like a thrift shop, the good stuff will go out the door in a moment. The
bad stays until they dump it to make space. So that's what you see.

Bob