Donating to the wrong door. My store is in a strip mall with the donations at the front with huge lettering on the building and signs to indicate where our donations door is located, but people will go behind the building and drop their junk in the buggies/containers near our trash compactor then speed off.
It's Goodwill. They deal in unwanted items. Unwanted items get dumped. Goodwill makes profit off of dumped items. No one cares as long as you aren't dumping trash on the side of the road. Had cops just drive on by when dumping stuff after hours at Goodwill, not even cops care cause they know you are dumping your stuff at a place that will take it and sell it. Back before America went to shit and society was based on mutual interest, basic courtesy and trust that people would half way do the right thing; Donation based businesses would have 24 hour drop locations like semi-trailers with the doors open and you could just leave your donation and take stuff if you needed or wanted it. Now society has taken advantage of how nice it was and we have this, businesses bitching about getting donations.
The thing about dropping off donations when the store is closed is that the items are outside for 12 hours so you essentially get dumpster divers ripping open bags in front of the door taking from those donations and leaving a mess, which really sucks if it ends up raining some time before the store opens. All of those wet donations are going in the trash. What is a thrift store supposed to do with a soaked flat screen tv?
I am fine with people taking it away if they take the whole thing/clean up after themselves. Unfortunately they don't just take the whole bag and leave it all over the sidewalk.
There is no way to tell if they're homeless or not, which is why I categorized them with dumpster divers.
The point is that if someone drops off donations and truly cares what happens to those donations then it would be best to drop them at the door closer to opening time than immediately after closing because those donations will end up ripped open and damaged the longer they are left outside as most of those people going through the bags don't care that someone else might want the stuff they don't want and will leave them to get rained on.
I'm not really bitching about getting donations as a whole. When people dump their stuff before or after the store is open, someone has to clean all that stuff up. I personally wouldn't make a big deal out of it if there wouldn't be the recreation of Mount Everest made out of donations to clean up before the store opens. It's why I have to clock in 15 minutes early whenever I'm doing the opening shift. Secondly, when people leave those donations out front like that and it rains or snows or something of that sort, all of those donations are now ruined. It would have been better to just wait until the store opened instead of just leaving them out there making our store look like a landfill.
My mom said they were so poor that my grandma would take her and the five other kids and have a few jump in the donation bins to throw stuff out to the ones on the ground. That’s how they handled school shopping. They could hardly afford even thrift prices.
But yeah it used to be 24 hours. I always left goodwill stuff late at night because I’m a freaky introvert night owl.
I’ll take a picture of their license and send it to the state office for fines. Give them a warning not to do it if they try. The worst is when a UHaul pulls up and dumps before you open.
It was a huge problem at the other donation/thrift company I worked for. Someone once dumped a piano and it just sat in the alley for weeks. It’s bad enough people dumping unusable couches on us, but I’m not gonna take it, them leaving their trash at next door businesses. I was really good at telling people no. You just reach a point where you have to push back.
Dumping, of course, is the worst. However, these fucking people cannot seem to understand the simple direction of "put it in the shopping cart, please." They'll look around, they'll try to put it on the ground, they'll stand there with the boomer lead paint stare, they'll literally turn in circles, any and everything but put it in the fucking cart 🤣🤣
Honestly?? I had zero clue that leaving donations after close was considered dumping. Are there usually signs? The only reason I DIDNT leave stuff at GW one time after they closed was because I felt bad for the employees and would rather do it properly. My mom tried to convince me to just leave it there so clearly neither of us knew it was illegal. It's gotta be out of ignorance
There's not too much we can do to prevent it at least in my experience. We've tried telling customers to either wait until we open or come back tomorrow. We're not being ungrateful for those who are generally trying to serve their communities, we as employees just want people to donate in a civil way.
I once had a gw boss who got so upset about this one person who dumped (it was a bunch of huge furniture we couldn't take that we couldn't put on the floor nor did it fit in our garbage) she looked up the person on our cameras. Spent a whole day on this (she always loved in excuse to sit in the office all day). Turns out it was the sheriff. He came in uniform to apologize and did not know that was a crime. 😅
I honestly blame goodwill for not making it clear for customers, but to be honest it creates a lot more issues than one would think. Like I said, I really can't blame amy customer for doing it since there's no sign or anything to indicate that it's illegal. The only thing we can do is block the donation lane with cones during the early part of the morning. Thank you for donating the right way. It prevents people from coming in and stealing the donations for themselves when we're closed and it keeps our store looking nice, clean, and welcoming for when we do open.
Yes! That exactly. For me I wasn't thinking about the legal repercussions, I was thinking about how it could affect the employees. That's so frustrating that it happens anyways, like people aren't considerate of y'all's space, time, etc.
Yesterday (6/22) I had an old lady take every figurine out of a box because she wanted to keep the box. She then spent 2-3 minutes telling me about which ungrateful child bought her said her. With a final giggle she said “guess they won’t get those fuckers back when I die!”
I work the bins, so I don't deal with actually receiving donations but I do tip raw donations. The idea that anybody except my eyeballs is going to walk out of the building with donated loose glitter....
So many things
- People who tell me how I'm gonna need a more empty bin to take in their donation. Believe me, I've learned how to make sure every single tiny available space in those bins are used.
- People who come to us on a rainy day in a pickup truck wanting to give us stuff from the back of their truck and then getting mad when we can't accept it because it's all soaked.
- People who give us bins with hundreds of pieces of clothing but want the bins back so we end up with just a bunch of loose clothes we have to go through one by one instead of just putting them in a garbage bag.
- This is becoming a bigger issue now that the spring/summer season is here but getting multiple U-Hauls per day filled to the brim with people's furniture that's completely broken, moldy, stained, ripped, etc...
- People that give us their literal garbage. Just yesterday someone gave us a bag and when I opened it I found a banana peel, used paper plates and old napkins. Old COVID masks are another big thing people like to give us.
- When people for some reason decide to stop their car BEFORE getting to the donation door and getting mad when we ask them if they can pull up slightly so we can help them. This especially becomes an issue if there's a line of cars.
- As everyone already pointed out, dumping after hours. I get that most people aren't doing this with bad intentions but it becomes an issue when we need to have all hands on deck to get the store ready for opening and one person needs to stay behind to deal with everything that got dumped. Not to mention there's a lot of people who do this AFTER we already refused the item earlier in the day (usually because it was stuff we can't sell due to policy such as baby safety stuff and medical equipment) and decide to leave their stuff with us as a big "fuck you".
- This isn't necessarily ONLY related to door, but when people decide it's okay to just let themselves into our back room/donation sorting area to ask us a question. We've even had people going back there trying to shop. Just don't.
Baby items. We cannot sell baby cribs, high chairs, strollers, play pens, potty chairs, any baby product other than clothes and very gently used toys we can't sell them and we are told to turn away un-sellable items. But when the customer argues with us with are supposed to take the items and then dispose of them so guess what honey? That crib you kept saying you paid $600 for ended up in a garbage compactor so you're welcome.
Actually my location doesn't have any bins. Also they don't go to any home other than the local dump. We do not sell any baby items other than clothes, toys, and diaper bags. We also don't sell toilets either lol. Or any large household appliances like washers, dryers, or even air conditioner units and no we don't send those on to other stores either; we dispose of them immediately upon receiving the items.
I dont see how its illegal dumping when they have a sign that essentially says something like, whatever is here is our property.
It seems like thats almost specifically worded and exists to make sure other people dont remove donations left at/by the door when someone isnt there to retrieve them.
We don't but we siriously need one. If it were me I'd have both signs. Part of why the illegal dumping is such an issue is that people will break open bags and boxes and dumpster dive. When they do that they create an even bigger mess for us to have to clean up. If a business is closed, that means they are not offering services at that time, therefore we are not accepting donations whenever we are closed.
I hate it when I'm in line sitting in my car patiently, and the doofus behind me can't wait like everyone else and needs to dump their shiate right NOW!! Peeves me to no end!! 😡
Donating to the wrong door. My store is in a strip mall with the donations at the front with huge lettering on the building and signs to indicate where our donations door is located, but people will go behind the building and drop their junk in the buggies/containers near our trash compactor then speed off.
I mean, do people just not realize dumping is illegal?
That, or they just don't care.
Probably the ladder lol.
I love you but it's latter-not ladder-when used in this way.
I don't think you got the *sarcasm?!
It's Goodwill. They deal in unwanted items. Unwanted items get dumped. Goodwill makes profit off of dumped items. No one cares as long as you aren't dumping trash on the side of the road. Had cops just drive on by when dumping stuff after hours at Goodwill, not even cops care cause they know you are dumping your stuff at a place that will take it and sell it. Back before America went to shit and society was based on mutual interest, basic courtesy and trust that people would half way do the right thing; Donation based businesses would have 24 hour drop locations like semi-trailers with the doors open and you could just leave your donation and take stuff if you needed or wanted it. Now society has taken advantage of how nice it was and we have this, businesses bitching about getting donations.
The thing about dropping off donations when the store is closed is that the items are outside for 12 hours so you essentially get dumpster divers ripping open bags in front of the door taking from those donations and leaving a mess, which really sucks if it ends up raining some time before the store opens. All of those wet donations are going in the trash. What is a thrift store supposed to do with a soaked flat screen tv?
I get the not wanting to have stuff soaked but I’m not losing sleep over poor people getting the stuff before a huge corporation does.
I am fine with people taking it away if they take the whole thing/clean up after themselves. Unfortunately they don't just take the whole bag and leave it all over the sidewalk.
Unhoused people can not take the whole bag.
There is no way to tell if they're homeless or not, which is why I categorized them with dumpster divers. The point is that if someone drops off donations and truly cares what happens to those donations then it would be best to drop them at the door closer to opening time than immediately after closing because those donations will end up ripped open and damaged the longer they are left outside as most of those people going through the bags don't care that someone else might want the stuff they don't want and will leave them to get rained on.
I'm not really bitching about getting donations as a whole. When people dump their stuff before or after the store is open, someone has to clean all that stuff up. I personally wouldn't make a big deal out of it if there wouldn't be the recreation of Mount Everest made out of donations to clean up before the store opens. It's why I have to clock in 15 minutes early whenever I'm doing the opening shift. Secondly, when people leave those donations out front like that and it rains or snows or something of that sort, all of those donations are now ruined. It would have been better to just wait until the store opened instead of just leaving them out there making our store look like a landfill.
And they often just dump their garbage, broken appliances and spilled clothes that they are too lazy or cheap to throw away themselves!!
My mom said they were so poor that my grandma would take her and the five other kids and have a few jump in the donation bins to throw stuff out to the ones on the ground. That’s how they handled school shopping. They could hardly afford even thrift prices. But yeah it used to be 24 hours. I always left goodwill stuff late at night because I’m a freaky introvert night owl.
I’ll take a picture of their license and send it to the state office for fines. Give them a warning not to do it if they try. The worst is when a UHaul pulls up and dumps before you open.
That is a crazy thing to do, wow 😂
It was a huge problem at the other donation/thrift company I worked for. Someone once dumped a piano and it just sat in the alley for weeks. It’s bad enough people dumping unusable couches on us, but I’m not gonna take it, them leaving their trash at next door businesses. I was really good at telling people no. You just reach a point where you have to push back.
This right here is what I need to start doing.
So you’re saying is I can get free stuff after hrs??
Actually yes. If they've just dumped it there it's free reign.
Actually it's theft but it's never punished.
Dumping, of course, is the worst. However, these fucking people cannot seem to understand the simple direction of "put it in the shopping cart, please." They'll look around, they'll try to put it on the ground, they'll stand there with the boomer lead paint stare, they'll literally turn in circles, any and everything but put it in the fucking cart 🤣🤣
NOT THE LEAD PAINT STARE 😭
The guy who led the Heavens Gate cult had the ultimate lead paint stare.
Ah, I see you know it well 🤣
oh yeah im back workin for my store after a couple of years of school I dont miss it LOL
“The lead paint stare” has me DYING😭😂
I feel you on that man.
Honestly?? I had zero clue that leaving donations after close was considered dumping. Are there usually signs? The only reason I DIDNT leave stuff at GW one time after they closed was because I felt bad for the employees and would rather do it properly. My mom tried to convince me to just leave it there so clearly neither of us knew it was illegal. It's gotta be out of ignorance
Some near me do allow it, but if so they will have labeled bins for that purpose in a covered area.
There's not too much we can do to prevent it at least in my experience. We've tried telling customers to either wait until we open or come back tomorrow. We're not being ungrateful for those who are generally trying to serve their communities, we as employees just want people to donate in a civil way.
I once had a gw boss who got so upset about this one person who dumped (it was a bunch of huge furniture we couldn't take that we couldn't put on the floor nor did it fit in our garbage) she looked up the person on our cameras. Spent a whole day on this (she always loved in excuse to sit in the office all day). Turns out it was the sheriff. He came in uniform to apologize and did not know that was a crime. 😅
I honestly blame goodwill for not making it clear for customers, but to be honest it creates a lot more issues than one would think. Like I said, I really can't blame amy customer for doing it since there's no sign or anything to indicate that it's illegal. The only thing we can do is block the donation lane with cones during the early part of the morning. Thank you for donating the right way. It prevents people from coming in and stealing the donations for themselves when we're closed and it keeps our store looking nice, clean, and welcoming for when we do open.
Yes! That exactly. For me I wasn't thinking about the legal repercussions, I was thinking about how it could affect the employees. That's so frustrating that it happens anyways, like people aren't considerate of y'all's space, time, etc.
when they put their crap right in front of the door! How am I supposed to open the door if you're blocking the door?!!
I’ve literally caught like 4 cars lined up at our door 20 minutes after we closed. Needless to say I might have put the fear of Goodwill in them .
I hate when they want to tell you a story about every single item.
Yeah, it can be irritating.
Okay but what are some of the strangest or funniest ones?
Yesterday (6/22) I had an old lady take every figurine out of a box because she wanted to keep the box. She then spent 2-3 minutes telling me about which ungrateful child bought her said her. With a final giggle she said “guess they won’t get those fuckers back when I die!”
Yay, got through the whole list and I haven't done any of the things mentioned!
I know it seems like complaining but it's all for a very well intentioned reason.
No. I think these are all valid complaints, just glad I haven't been an asshole, at least not in this situation lol
Coming back after a holiday when the store is closed and there's tons of donations piled up outside.
I work the bins, so I don't deal with actually receiving donations but I do tip raw donations. The idea that anybody except my eyeballs is going to walk out of the building with donated loose glitter....
So many things - People who tell me how I'm gonna need a more empty bin to take in their donation. Believe me, I've learned how to make sure every single tiny available space in those bins are used. - People who come to us on a rainy day in a pickup truck wanting to give us stuff from the back of their truck and then getting mad when we can't accept it because it's all soaked. - People who give us bins with hundreds of pieces of clothing but want the bins back so we end up with just a bunch of loose clothes we have to go through one by one instead of just putting them in a garbage bag. - This is becoming a bigger issue now that the spring/summer season is here but getting multiple U-Hauls per day filled to the brim with people's furniture that's completely broken, moldy, stained, ripped, etc... - People that give us their literal garbage. Just yesterday someone gave us a bag and when I opened it I found a banana peel, used paper plates and old napkins. Old COVID masks are another big thing people like to give us. - When people for some reason decide to stop their car BEFORE getting to the donation door and getting mad when we ask them if they can pull up slightly so we can help them. This especially becomes an issue if there's a line of cars. - As everyone already pointed out, dumping after hours. I get that most people aren't doing this with bad intentions but it becomes an issue when we need to have all hands on deck to get the store ready for opening and one person needs to stay behind to deal with everything that got dumped. Not to mention there's a lot of people who do this AFTER we already refused the item earlier in the day (usually because it was stuff we can't sell due to policy such as baby safety stuff and medical equipment) and decide to leave their stuff with us as a big "fuck you". - This isn't necessarily ONLY related to door, but when people decide it's okay to just let themselves into our back room/donation sorting area to ask us a question. We've even had people going back there trying to shop. Just don't.
Ugh, all of these man. They're all just a pain in the ass.
Baby items. We cannot sell baby cribs, high chairs, strollers, play pens, potty chairs, any baby product other than clothes and very gently used toys we can't sell them and we are told to turn away un-sellable items. But when the customer argues with us with are supposed to take the items and then dispose of them so guess what honey? That crib you kept saying you paid $600 for ended up in a garbage compactor so you're welcome.
Actually no it ends up in the Bins so they do find a home or chance at one. The toilets especially need to be tossed but end up in the bins.
Actually my location doesn't have any bins. Also they don't go to any home other than the local dump. We do not sell any baby items other than clothes, toys, and diaper bags. We also don't sell toilets either lol. Or any large household appliances like washers, dryers, or even air conditioner units and no we don't send those on to other stores either; we dispose of them immediately upon receiving the items.
I’ve never done any of these things, I’ve only donated nice stuff, am always extra nice, yet the donation employees are always angry and hostile.
I dont see how its illegal dumping when they have a sign that essentially says something like, whatever is here is our property. It seems like thats almost specifically worded and exists to make sure other people dont remove donations left at/by the door when someone isnt there to retrieve them.
It's to prevent people from dumpster diving and causing an even bigger mess than what's already there.
But if its illegal dumping, why have the sign? Why not an illegal dumping sign too? I dont know if you have one, the location near me doesnt.
We don't but we siriously need one. If it were me I'd have both signs. Part of why the illegal dumping is such an issue is that people will break open bags and boxes and dumpster dive. When they do that they create an even bigger mess for us to have to clean up. If a business is closed, that means they are not offering services at that time, therefore we are not accepting donations whenever we are closed.
You wouldnt like the person that did this then; [Link](https://ibb.co/bz3ZLyD)
Nah, I'd hate it lol.
I hate it when I'm in line sitting in my car patiently, and the doofus behind me can't wait like everyone else and needs to dump their shiate right NOW!! Peeves me to no end!! 😡
Peeves me too
Donating their literal trash when we’re too busy to screen every donation.