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Thrift stores may not all be able to come back from this. People may never feel confidant to have yard sales or even estate sales ever again. Such a scare is being put out that people are thinking there’s a virus hiding behind every bush and inside every teddy bear. It is a global trauma that may never be forgotten. So where’s all the stuff that has been going to our traditional sources going? A lot might just go into landfill. A lot may go into those bins in parking lots that say “We Collect Clothes” or “We Collect Books”. Who knows where that stuff goes.
But a lot of stuff is too valuable to just dump into the trash. I think what’s going to happen is a lot of consignment stores. I witnessed this a lot traveling through the lower Mid-West. Few yard sales, but lots of large consignment stores carved out of abandoned department stores and divided into stalls sellers pay a monthly fee to sell stuff they may get from who knows where. Prices are often unreasonable. A lot of junk. Undoubtedly a lot of their stuff is for sale online. But that’s what I think is going to replace the huge numbers of yard and estate sales that used to be common in suburbs of large metropolitan areas of America the last 50 or so years.
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I’m expecting yard sales to resume, thrift stores will re-open etc. Even before this happened, my area has seen an increase in consignment shops and “vendor malls” (like antique malls, but anything and everything, from really well made crafts to over-priced yard sale junk.
I think IF this ends in a reasonable amount of time, we will go back to some degree of normal pretty quickly.
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If testing, selective (and in some cases enforced) quarantining and tracking of contacts, were enacted on a nationally coordinated basis, we could start reopening in a week. But none of that is being done. It’s almost as though there is an intentional effort to drive the US economy into a depression as well as prolong the eventual conclusion of the pandemic.
When I see the empty streets and boarded up businesses and imagine all the kids home-bound, education on hold, I see America traumatized to the point that from home sales are something Americans aren’t going to even consider for a while after the “all clear” is sounded. In the interim I’m afraid the consignment businesses, export businesses are going to seize the opportunity to set up ways to grab up used goods that might have otherwise made their way to yard sales and estate sales.
As I’ve seen in other states, businesses will rent a vacant store in a shopping center and put a sign out proclaiming “estate sale”. I don’t know where they get their inventory. Maybe they watch the death notices in the newspapers. Or maybe they advertised to buy whole estates. But one thing’s for sure. They’ll skim the cream since all I see at these places is what you see these days at Goodwill.
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I think yard sales will be back and bigger than ever. People will be eager to be rid of all the things they have cleaned out and de-cluttered during quarantine. It’s a lot easier to put the stuff out in the driveway and throw up a sign on the corner than taking the stuff to consignment stores. I also think people would still rather make a few bucks on their stuff than send it to the landfill. Regarding the bins in parking lots, you may want to do some research on what happens to the donations in them. 🙂
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The main problem with thrift stores revolves around their rents. If they are unable to open for two or three months, will they still be able to pay rent for their locations? It’s the same problem all retail locations are facing right now.
Yard sales could go either way – some people may never host them again out of fear. Other people have been bored at home for months and are tired of seeing the same clutter will have their first ever yard sales at the earliest opportunity.
Estate sales will continue in one form or another.
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It’s hard to say how thrift stores will fare. They may get a lot of stuff people used to set out at yard sales. Then again, if they’re kept closed too long, they may sell off to a larger store. Goodwill stores are primarily just donation locations these days. Anything sellable for over $20 goes online, not the sales floor.
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Here is a completely wild article about why you should almost definitely avoid dropping clothes in the yellow Planet Aid clothing bins.
US taxpayers are financing alleged cult through African aid charities
Scavenging on eBay is going to be the new norm for at least a little while. I personally love it (it’s how I already do 90% of my scavenging) but I know when it gets more consistently warm, I will miss going to the flea market. Have to figure out a way to do that over Zoom…
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I’d like to know how those donation boxes are regulated. I’m guessing you just file to form a non-profit organization and ‘say’ you’ll donate 15% of the proceeds of reselling the items donated to some charity and you can just plop one down in any parking lot you can get permission from the owner to do so. Sounds like great work if you can get it.
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Local charity thrift store has a pile of junk that stretches around the building – from a picture it looks like it’s 4 to 6 feet high and at least 50 feet long. And of course there are people are rooting through it , throwing stuff around, making a real mess.
How many volunteers us it going to take to clean this up when or if they can reopen?
People want to get rid of their stuff because it’s in the way, scavengers find value and transfer it, now and forever.
Add value! -
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I’m thinking there may be an uptick in garage sales once shelter-in-place orders have lifted. With so many people unemployed and businesses closing (and many yet to close) I think people will be doing whatever they can to make money to pay bills, including selling things from around the house.
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I’ve gotten my best pickins in the upper-middle class garage sales – especially the “community” garage sales organized by a property owner’s association or real estate office that sold the houses in a new tract. These organizing bodies are likely to not want to put their stamp of approval on a community (as in “community spread”) garage sale for a long time – if ever. And since more and more of these communities are gated, even individual households may not be able to hold a yard sale when they want to.
Add to this that the households in the upper-middle class areas usually have children, and that is another factor for a household to take into consideration when contemplating opening the garage/yard to complete strangers.
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Life is filled with paradoxes, isn’t it? For years, we’ve said that we have way too much stuff…now we are simply thankful that we (the better half and I) have enough inventory to last us a long time, even if our sourcing were to dry up completely after the “all clear” is sounded.
But if we didn’t have all this stuff, I frankly wouldn’t be too concerned. This country is awash in stuff, and it isn’t all going to go into some unapproachable black hole. Also, quite frankly, scavengers tend to be a resourceful lot, and if one source vanishes, we’ll find another one.
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I base my skepticism on the level of irrationality I’m seeing in the population regarding this outbreak. It’s being presented in media as if we are under invasion from alien (like extraterrestrial ‘alien’) forces never before encountered by Earth’s humanity. If this media controlled hysteria weren’t true I might agree with you.
People are hoarding guns and ammo to protect their hoard of toilet paper from neighbors. WalMart has to station a couple of pallets of TP at the point inventory enters from the dock where it’s surrounded on 3 sides so an attendant can defend it from the first hoarder to show up sticking a hand truck under the pallet and wheeling it all out the door. Jesus, people used to use the pages of last year’s Sears Robuck catalog. People in Europe and Japan think toilet paper is barbaric. They wash after pooping.
I see people wearing surgeons’ masks while bicycling, jogging, driving in their own car. All of a sudden people fear touching anything. Like there are those coronaviri just floating around everywhere in endless variety all seeking a human host to put on a ventilator.
I really think the American psyche is scarred for all time.
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This is not the first pandemic the US has seen, nor will it be the last. People behaved in weird ways in 1918 as well, and the losses then were far, far worse than anything projected to occur now. Our country did not collapse into ruin then, and it will not happen now. Life is stubborn and insists on continuing. People are resourceful when they have to be. Turn off the news for awhile, and you’ll see the people rising to the challenge, finding ways of solving problems, and helping their neighbors.
Uncertainty over the future can be overwhelming. Don’t let it drown you.
There will certainly be permanent changes to society as a result of this pandemic. Some people will not survive emotionally or financially, as well as those that will not survive, period. I grieve for all those losses. The key to our country and global community moving forward and again thriving is to look for opportunity and hope for the future, rather than falling into despair over what we leave behind in the past.
As the Queen said, “Better days will return”. They always have. Humans are too resilient and stubborn to have it any other way.
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In 1918, there was a lot not known (nor believed to be known) about disease spread. The belief was common that diseases were God’s wrath for humans’ sin. Now we have science being bent to suit special interests’ agendas. And there are still a few of the “God’s wrath” believers around as well.
I know this outbreak will pass as all have. Humans have adapted to worse. What I am talking about is that the media and leadership are imprinting upon the populace exaggerated concepts about the lingering threat posed by the present outbreak. And many of our under-educated, over propagandized (by media) people are being indelibly affected to the extent that they will NEVER EVER shake hands or want to have anything (including potential reseller inventory) pass through their hands that has passed through anyone else’s hands (like that doesn’t mean *anything*) again – forever.
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Maybe shaking hands isn’t a good idea. Maybe science will bear that out in time. Lots of cultures do not shake hands as a greeting. We’re not entitled to touch other people who don’t want to be touched. We will come up with a new social practice that makes people feel welcome, and in time it will seem normal.
Years ago, people drank from a common cup at water fountains. Doctors did not wash hands or sterilize equipment between surgeries. There was a lot of push back and anger over the recommendation for doctors to wash hands between patients back then. Now it seems disgusting and reckless to drink from the same cup as a stranger, or for medical staff to not wash hands between patients.
Standards change when we have data to back up the recommendations. We’re flying blind right now. People are trying to make the best decisions possible with limited information.
If the media upsets you, I still think turning it off is the best route.
As for masks, the people wearing them when jogging or driving solo may have come to the same realization I did: my allergy symptoms have improved since wearing them. If I go outside, I put on a mask and don’t take it off until I’m ready to come back in my home. I’m less congested, the low-grade sinus headache I’ve had for a month is gone, and I don’t sneeze so much. I don’t have to take allergy meds any more. This is a winning combination for me, so the general public is just going to have to get used to seeing me in a mask during allergy season going forward, even if they think it’s silly and hysterical.
Also, once you put on a mask to run errands, you aren’t supposed to be touching it or remove it until you’re errands are complete. If I have to go to the post office and then the grocery, it’s not good to take the mask off in between trips. The more you touch the mask, the more chances you have of getting the virus on your hands and face. That’s not media hype; that is medical advice. Put on a mask and leave it alone until you are done. Then take it off carefully and either discard it or wash it.
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The rest of the country really doesn’t want to emulate NYC, NJ, New Orleans or Detroit when it comes to this.
Ineffective testing coupled with mixed messages from the government and continual downplaying is what led us to this point. NYC still had Chinese New Year festivities in February and almost had a St. Patrick’s Day parade in mid-March before officials took it more seriously. New Orleans still had Mardi Gras. Spring Break happened everywhere.
People should have been wearing gloves back in February, especially in the larger cities. Masks should’ve been worn in public by early March. When I first started wearing a mask out in public in early March in NYC and the government was still saying “the risk for the average American is low,” I was laughed at on the street. Now I look out my window because I’m too afraid to go outside and the few people out walking are all wearing masks. When I last left the house, discarded gloves littered the streets (its own problem by itself).
The media downplayed what happened in Wuhan in January. The media downplayed the risk here through half of March.
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I find the tiring thing about walking around outside is that other people seem to have the situational awareness of a carrot. I see ’em twenty or thirty yards away, and I’m already crossing the road (or walking in the middle of the road) before they even show some awareness that someone is walking towards them. Years of living in an inner city, dodging beggars, muggers and chuggers! 🙂
There’s a British Channel 5 series called “The Secret World Of Your Rubbish” (contains swearing and general British weirdness). Covers the gamut of garbage, from metal scrap to scavenging Amazon returns from landfill. Also a barbeque scene…
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“I really think the American psyche is scarred for all time”
I don’t think so. In the immediate wake of 9/11, people where I worked were saying “I don’t think I can ever go the mall again. I hear they are going to target malls next”. Some of them said this for months, but eventually, they were back shopping in the malls. They also said “We weren’t united before this happened, but from now on, the USA will be united forever!” I said then “Sorry, nope, we’ll go back to being divided” And we did (which is to say, we went back to normal, for better or worse)
So, while some things will change, many will not. After a disruption of this magnitude, some people will want major changes, but others—probably most—will just want to get back to whatever they consider normal.
But first and foremost, we’ve got to get through this. We aren’t out of the woods yet. Things have the potential to get infinitely worse.
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People went back to the malls after the Twin Towers attack because Dubya literally told them to.
Americans are continuing to become more divided, not united. Even the Democratic party is divided over Bernie vs. Biden. Trump will probably win because the Berners will refuse to vote for Biden.
Trumpf’s medical guy says to never shake hands again.. He didn’t say for now. He said NEVER. That’s the mindset being pushed. Not “go shopping”.
The difference now is that the present administration has taken unprecedented steps at extending executive powers and the media is sensationalizing everything to boost their ratings. The media and government worked to stop the doldrums following the Twin Towers attack. Those same powers are now working to extend the hysteria and irrational policies.
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I think that you will see a lot more inventory out there in a few months time. With everyone stuck at home many people are probably looking around their homes and thinking “why do we have this or that”, lets clean house when this is over. Everyone might be buying puzzles and such right now to keep busy but they will probably be donating those to thrift stores when they can come out of their homes. Once you’ve completed a puzzle the thrill is gone…
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I’m afraid people, seeing all the stuff accumulating in back of some thrift stores, will get the (contagious) idea that if the professional resellers aren’t willing to touch the stuff, they shouldn’t either. Puzzles (unless they are new/sealed) are not likely to attract any buyers since puzzle pieces are obviously heavily handled. And people will wonder if the puzzles were last worked by a coronavirus on their hospital bed.
I’m afraid people are being swept up in the hysteria of rushing unnecessary items straight into their trash can just to eliminate things they have to worry might be contaminated. It’s all irrational but that’s the problem. It’s like their house is on fire ant they’ve just grabbing as much as they can and dragging it out of the path of the fire. They accept the loss as unavoidable.
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It’s annoying that for like 12 straight posts you’ve painted the entire American public as a bunch of mouth-breathing, room-temp IQ-having dummies who just get whipped into a panic at the drop of a hat. You just breeze past any evidence of the contrary and continue with your FUD.
Log off the internet for a bit, wait until social distancing barriers have dissolved, then go talk to some normal people. I think you’ll find people other than yourself are capable of intelligent thought.
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Executive orders do not respect barriers between intelligent people and dummies.
Get read to throw “OK Boomer” at me but a lot of intelligent people went along with the [Nuremburg Laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws).
I know this is not the same. But we do have a charismatic leader with irrational following who is poised to “rescue” America from economic ruin. It should not be lost that this “leader” is largely responsible (for a number of reasons) for causing the crisis he is poised to “rescue” us from.
And us resellers are considered part of the “enemy” underground economy by big business.
Son of a WWII combat veteran, I have done a good bit of self-study (along with some college) attempting to grasp just what happened to allow the atrocities of that time of madness to occur. And I don’t like at all what I’m seeing in the news today.
My apologies for trying to turn this post into a political soapbox (and I am). I will now self-close my posting to this thread. I’ve said about all I have to say. I’m only dwelling on this because I believe the followers of Scavengerlife are a special group and hope any info I may have provided might lead to us all coming out of this right side up regardless of whether we are able to go back to things as they were or take advantage of emerging opportunities.
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I have no idea what you’re wanting people to say right now. Some version of “Yes, we’re all fucked. Our lives are destroyed”, it seems.
In nearly 50 years on this stupid rock, I’ve yet to encounter a problem that was solved by immersing in self-pity and angst.
I hope you find some peace.
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