penny. pincher.

Since my arrival in the mountain west i've been alarmed by what many out here consider to be 'thrift stores'.  

Now i mainly want to focus in on an establishment we know as D.I. [deseret industries].  

i should back up for a second.  

I grew up in Normal, Illinois.  [ i know, how can there be such a thing as the 'normal police'?  & yes, i graduated from Normal High School]

My standards for thrifting is rather high.  You can just ask my sister-friends Laura & Leah.  We have the schedules of the local thrift stores memorized by heart.  We could probably tell you the hours and specials of the week before we could get out the pledge of allegiance.  

We have the trifecta of our most fruitful thrift stores that we hit up weekly.  Mission Mart, Salvation Army, & Bromenn.  

Our favorite of the three is our beloved Mission Mart.  This is our haven of incredible vintage clothing items, classic shoes, astounding accessories & for a price no one could turn down.

All the items are labeled with one of about 5 different colors  and every week every item of a choice color is 19 cents !!!  did you catch that... 19 C.  that's 19 pennies folks.

in my latest trip there i purchased a pair of sailor shoes, a vintage dress, a extremely 80's shirt and a turquoise blouse.  ALL for 19 cents a piece.   now this is what my two friends and i consider an average trip. [last year when i ventured into mission mart after a year of being in utah i left that store with a garbage bag  full of what i would consider gems in my wardrobe.]

My family now resides in Rexburg.  There is a d.i. no more then a 10 min. walk away.  I decided to take my chances very well knowing my strong disdain for this institution.  I start to poke around the huge stock of dresses.  The cheapest price i found on any of these was $8.  'say what' ???  i'm sorry, but there are probably only a handful of dresses in the whole bunch that are worth 8 bones.  With in these i found about 3 or 4 that pleased my eye, but even after trying them on and finding two that seemed to have been sewed to fit me, i couldn't bring myself to pay the outrageous double digits on the price tag.  

Now, i'm not one who is great with economics & i'm definitely not a business major, but i wonder what this establishment is even thinking ?

ok, i know what you're probably thinking.  This is a non-profit organization for the poor & needy.  I understand this, but then why aren't they making prices fit for 'poor' people.  I think in general the middle and higher class don't shop at 'thrift stores'.  so why offer second hand clothes for the same price as brand new clothing from stores such as target ?

i think in the past three years i have visited this same d.i. on several occasion and have seen the same dress there since my first visit back in 2005.    

for crying out loud why not get a better marketing plan.

make special offers or discounts.  i'm not asking for every thrift store to be as generous as mission mart, but why not have sales.  For example :  every weekend a different genre of clothing is 50% off.  Or on certain days everything you can get into a paper bag is 10$.  

i can't see this doing anything but attracting more people and in turn making more profit.  which is the objective, no ?

i refuse to pay 8$ for a second-hand skirt.

end of story.