September 16, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode of 'Garage Sales Unhinged,' hosts Julie and Jake discuss the deceptive practices of Value Village, a for-profit thrift store chain owned by Savers that has marketed itself with a charity-like image. Julie details how Value Village misleads donors into believing they are supporting charities when, in fact, the items donated often result in minimal contributions to charitable organizations.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Welcome to garage sales Unhinged.
Where the characters are as quirky as the vines.
I'm Julie. And I'm Jake.
Join us as we dive into the wildworld of garage sales, yard
sales, estate sales and anywheresecond hand sales are happening.
From bizarre bargains to hilarious haggles.
You won't believe the stories we've got lined up.
Let's get unhinged. Are you drinking a Moscow Mule?
(00:26):
No, it's just the cup. So boring.
Sorry. I mean, I guess that's kind of
we're going to start off this episode.
Jake was took a sip out of his copper mug that looks very fancy
and Moscow Mule esque. And what's what's in the mug,
(00:47):
Jake? Oh, a a Waterloo sparkling water
and vodka. So not not quite.
Not quite. Yeah, that's I know.
I think you need a ginger beer for that, not the sparkling
water. I I wouldn't know.
It's a clean cup and that's whatI do know.
That's what I assume. Well, you fancy.
(01:12):
How are you doing? Yeah, good, good.
You know, your your place has really come together.
I when I get to see you, it's onthis little, you know, square on
my computer screen as we do thisthing.
And you've gone through this whole journey in your house.
You've had contractors and you've had the people redoing
(01:35):
the foundation. And for a while you were
recording from a closet like some, you know, really
successful podcaster who's worried about, you know, the
brain waves coming out of the microwave.
But now here you are, you're back in your space and it looks
great. I just.
I. I did feel like the Anne Frank
(01:57):
of podcasting when I was hiding in my closet.
I know that's probably not a good joke to me.
Yeah, probably not. I mean, at some point, like I
still make jokes about Helen Keller and I'm like, it's at
some point, is it OK to do that?Well, she wouldn't know.
It's OK. She couldn't feel my throat or I
(02:19):
could, you know, write it on herhand or something.
She'd probably get a laugh at. I feel like she would have a
good sense of humor out. Of that, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, no. So you know, our house has been
in upheaval for like a year, Jacob Reference like Foundation
Fix. We had to get all of our pipes
replaced because our house is over 40 years old renovations
(02:43):
and chimney fixes and like it's just one thing after also like
as we were having like major house projects going on and it
was one after another. Thankfully they weren't
simultaneous. But at one point, and again,
everything that happened in the house, nothing was covered by
(03:03):
insurance because there was no like there was no tornado,
there's no hill storm. It was just these things.
It was maintenance. It was old age that needed to
get done. But this one thing really irked
me that happened and it's whenever our fridge went out.
Oh no, that happened too in the middle of that.
(03:24):
Oh, no. Great.
Yeah, so it was like, you know, we had a like a two week
reprieve and then something would happen, A2 week reprieve,
something would happen. And one of those things was our
fridge went out and we and we had a lot of exotic meats in the
freezer, lost everything. And I will say thankfully we
were home when the fridge went out.
(03:47):
So it wasn't like we had gone away for the weekend.
Came home and oh man, something smells.
It wasn't anything like that. We did have company staying with
us. So then we felt bad because it
was like you can't put anything in the fridge.
If you wanted something cold, wehave to go somewhere to get it.
We do have a small wine fridge in our kitchen, so I did try to
(04:09):
save some dairy products by putting it into the wine fridge.
Did that work out? For her listeners at home, a
wine fridge is not a good substitute for a actual fridge.
It does not get cold enough. OK, OK.
Yeah, and now we have. So we had to get a new fridge.
We still have the wine fridge and now in our wet bar area, we
(04:31):
have a another beverage fridge in there that holds our mixers
and stuff for for the wet bar. So it's also one of those things
that I'm planning in the back ofmy head that if things go South
again in the future with the fridge, I have places to store
the sour cream and the cheese and my my milk for my coffee.
And makes up some really interesting cocktails too.
(04:53):
You know, it's just some sour cream in this.
I mean, it'll be fun and we'll play like a drinking game with
our friends and be like, guess what the mixing is so.
Quick question, you mentioned that your fridge was full of
exotic meats. You'll have to explain that.
So my husband likes to hunt and fish with the fellas.
(05:18):
And so we had pheasant in the freezer, we had walleye, we had
all sorts of those things. We also have friends that they
have an exotic game ranch in Texas.
And so there's times when they'll give us some meat to
bring home, like elk and things like that.
So we had that in our freezer and that went straight to the
(05:38):
garbage, OK. Well, really sorry to hear that.
I don't know that that wasn't aslike out there as I was kind of
worried or hoping. We didn't have rattlesnake or
anything, right? When you say exotic meat, kind
of like, oh, and here's kangaroo, but even more exotic.
This kangaroo had a name, you know it's in in a family and.
(06:01):
Have you ever had kangaroo? No.
Yeah, me neither, but it soundedlike I was going to say I did.
Right. Yeah.
So it was one thing after another and yeah, nothing,
nothing went on the insurance bill, but our insurance did go
up. So thanks a lot, insurance
companies. So yeah, none of that is what
(06:25):
we're going to talk about today,Jacob.
So. It's usually the case, but the
first, the first 9 minutes of these things, you can kind of,
if you're here for any content absolutely related to second
hand stuff, you can kind of always get the first five.
It's cool. Don't skip it because that's
where we tell our best stories. That's when we.
(06:46):
Share our secret cookie recipes.I did see a book the other day
called. It was something along the lines
of when do chefs give out their top secret recipes?
And I didn't look at it because I was like, that's such a weird
name for a book and I just movedright along.
But now I'm going like, wait, when do they do it?
Like is it on their deathbed or?Like, yeah, yeah, there are only
(07:14):
11 secret spices, you know? All the Colonel, good old
Colonel Jacob, let's, let's get scandalous, shall we?
OK. Also, just to remind people,
this is my brother. I am Jacob's sister.
It's not anything. This is not insectuous,
(07:37):
scandalous, anything like that. No scandalous means that exotic
meat It's human. It is not.
They don't have the cops come tomy house.
No, I want to talk about the story that I found on the
interwebs. Granted, it's a little bit older
(07:57):
than what we're currently recording in 2025.
This story actually came out 10 years ago in October of 2015,
and I'm going to read you the title of it.
It's from Investigate W The title of the story is the thrift
store chain that dressed up likea charity and got sued.
(08:18):
And I'm sorry, wait, what? Wait, what year is this?
2015. And say it again, what happened?
The title of this story. Is because I'm not listening to
you. Clearly the thrift store chain
that dressed up like a charity and got sued.
OK. So Jacob and I both have careers
(08:43):
in, let's say, marketing. No, it's, I mean, let's say it's
it's that sounded. So suspicious.
Let's just say marketing. That's right.
Hold on a lot and I dance you like you like.
We're both in marketing and we get paid in single dollar bills,
(09:05):
legitimate marketing business. Well, So what what I'm going to
do as I tell you about this really great story because this
is like this is gossip and the thrift world, right?
Like this is good salacious entertainment for those of us
that like true crime, criminal intent type things.
(09:26):
A lot of what was, and that's inthe story, it's based off of
marketing messaging that came from this company.
And the reason I tell people that you and I are both in
marketing is because like as I'mreading through it, I will say
nothing that the marketing messaging that this company puts
out is illegal. They never actually said that
(09:46):
they were a charity. They are skirting along the
lines of it pretty darn good, but they're staying on this side
of the law and not the other side of the law and we're going
to get down to well, how did they get sued and why did they
have to pay? Because they did have to pay.
Are you planning a garage sale, yard sale, or estate sale and
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(10:08):
Supply. They provide top notch resources
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From pricing tips to promotionalstrategies, they've got you
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make your next sale a success. Jake, are you familiar with a
store called Value Village? No, not at all.
(10:32):
Is that a regional thing? No, it's a national 1.
I actually think there's severalin Canada too.
Wow, no, never heard that. OK.
Value Village is a thrift store and how they operated is that
they would purchase donations from local charities for a set
(10:53):
amount of money and then they would resell it in their store.
So if a charity didn't have a thrift store that people donated
items to them, they could take it to Value Village, Value
Village resells it, and then thecharity actually get some of
that money back that was sold for that item.
(11:13):
So they're like a consignment place for charity.
Yeah, it's kind of like that. However, Value Village is owned
by the store brand Savers. Are you familiar with Savers?
Not familiar with savers either.Jay, come on.
How can I? Know I got to get out there.
(11:34):
Savers value village. They make a lot of money and I
should probably, I should probably know how much they
actually make. Yeah, I know, because a lot is
kind of relative between 2015 and now, a lot is changed a lot.
You know, OK, so savers value Village, their revenue for the
(11:56):
past trailing 12 months is just over $1.5 billion.
That's what the B billion they're growing at a rate of
4.47% year over year. Wait, wait.
You're saying they are growing? So this is after what you're
going to tell us. OK, yes, because what I'm going
(12:19):
to tell you is yes, they got sued.
Yes, they paid the the amount that they were deemed
appropriate to pay. But it goes a little bit deeper
than that. And, and if you're listening to
this, I hope your flabbers are going to get gassed because
there there should be more lawsuits for this type of thing.
(12:44):
So they're also a publicly traded company.
If anyone's interested, they're currently trending at $12.54 a
share. So JQ, you're like, yeah, I
don't know about. It I don't know if that is that
good. Is that good?
Let me consult calculator. Well, back in two 2023 they were
(13:04):
trading at $24.00 a share, so they've lost.
It's not good. Well, but in the big OK, so you
want to see what target is trending up?
No, probably not good. Target, they are trending at
$92.00 a share. Yeah.
And in 2023, they were trending at $159 a share.
(13:29):
So to kind of give you. You promised salacious details
and I got to tell you, these numbers are really doing it for
us. Well, it's to put into
perspective, everyone is a familiar with Target and if
you're not familiar, familiar with the Savers brand, are they
as successful Target on a financial side?
No. And you can kind of tell by
(13:52):
that, that stock market. So I'm just giving people a
picture of this business becausenot everyone is familiar with.
Them. I'm sorry if I was rude.
Back off anyway. But OK, so Value Village, they
would buy items from these charities and then sell it and
then their business models to turn around and give those
(14:13):
charities some of the proceeds from those sales.
The problem is Value Village started cutting out the
middleman so people could then start to bring clothing items
directly to Value Village, dropping them off.
It's not consignment, they were just dropping them off, giving
them for free, and then Value Village is turning around and
(14:35):
selling it and making 100% profit off those things.
That profit does not go to any charity.
That goes straight into the Savers. 1 billion plus annual
revenue. OK.
And I guess they weren't like set up to do business that way.
They weren't originally and whenever somebody was dropping
(14:59):
something off, they weren't toldthat they were donating to A5 on
one C3, but they also weren't being told that they were
donating to a for profit company.
And if you're like Jacob and I screw for profit companies, OK,
I own for companies, you work for one.
(15:21):
But it is one of those things that it is deceptive and that
people think that they're going to help a charity at a
charitable organization. In reality you are giving free
items to a for profit company and that for profit company is
going to keep all the profit forthat thing you just donated.
Yeah, that that was kind of stink.
(15:41):
So that's what was going on here.
So it's part of it. The other thing is they had an
agreement with the charities that and there were several
charities that had signed up with Value Village to be to have
this kind of reciprocal relationship where they may give
items to Value Village. Value Village sells it and then
they get some of the proceeds from that because not every
(16:01):
charity has its own thrift shop.They had a contract so they
would buy clothing items by the pound.
So let's say that you had 5 lbs of clothing.
They may purchase that for $0.25.
OK. So then they would take those
items and then resell them. So as part of this, and I don't
(16:23):
know what the actual poundage is, but let's say this part of
this, 5 lbs of clothing or 10 lbs of clothing.
Let's do it easier, 10 lbs of clothing.
Let's say that you had two pairsof jeans, a dress and a men's
button up shirt and you turn around and you were able to sell
them for $50. You only spend 1/4 on the whole
(16:47):
poundage and what was happening is that those charities were
only getting a tiny fraction of the the revenue from it.
Like less than they were promised.
I don't necessarily know if it was less than they were
promised, but in in this articlethat I was reading from
(17:09):
Investigate West. So some of the charities got
less than 1%. So whenever you think of like,
hey, I just sold something for $100.
One of the charities, I think they were getting point O 2% in
return. So if they if Value Village sold
something for $100 and that charity was getting 2 pennies.
Yikes. Yeah, another charity I think
(17:32):
they were getting it was like .56% something like that.
So again, it's, it's a less thana percent now and their records
and their and their financial filings every year they do say
that they donate anywhere between 5 and 17% back to
charities, but that also means that they're using 83% of this
(17:56):
revenue to run their business. But again, messaging, it's like,
what did they say? They, they had a term in here?
Oh, so they're the the sign or the messaging that was behind
all the cash registers in the stores, said Good deeds, period.
(18:18):
Great deals, period. So again, they weren't.
Ever. They never said they were 5O1C3,
but it was this ubiquitous promotion of charity that kind
of gave the perception of, oh, this is a place like a Goodwill.
While Goodwill does get some heat for paying their executives
(18:39):
a lot of money, they also reinvest a lot of the money that
they do make into community programs, education, job
placements, and the Value Village does not do any of that.
It is that really stinks. Is like they're doing anything
but saying the word charity. He's like, good.
(19:01):
Deeds which legally speaking, and I'm sure they had a legal
team in that company that probably had some kind of say in
the matter, like as long as we don't say charity.
Then we're not. Saying it's a charity, you can
say good deeds and if they've hey, if the person reading that
(19:23):
associates that with charity, that's on them, right.
And again, I think that's. Where that marketing messaging
really skirts the line. But there's some, yeah.
There's some room for interpretation.
And again, it's well, we didn't say we were a nonprofit, We
didn't say that we were a charity.
(19:44):
So they had enough customer consumer complaints, like 1
complaint in one state went to the attorney general and the
attorney general took it and then gave that complaint to
Savers and then closed out the case.
That's all they did. They just told the government.
Gave the complaint to savers. What do you mean they contacted?
(20:06):
The company and said you have had a consumer complaint against
you do something about it and like like close the case
fantastic. Thank you, AG, That's great now.
At another state, again, they had consumer complaint because
there was this, hey, they're notactually giving as much money to
these charities. Also, several charities had to,
(20:29):
they, they broke their agreements or they got out of
those agreements with Value Village because they realized
how much Value Village was taking from their goods.
Also a really interesting thing about this and the contract that
Value Village paid these charities for like the poundage
of clothing and stuff like that.Any household items, appliances,
(20:51):
electronics, sporting goods was just considered to be part of
the items given to Value Village.
The charities actually got paid nothing for those items.
So that did not go into the poundage, but they had to give
that stuff to Value Village. But the powdered.
Is only like figured out by textiles by like clothes and
(21:14):
they didn't make that clear to the charities either.
The wording? In it if I I could probably go
in and find it in this article, but the wording in it was it's
separate from the poundage, but.It's going to be.
Inclusive of it, but we're not weighing it.
So like a bike weigh 10 lbs or 5lbs.
(21:38):
Again, they would only be payinglike 1/4 for it, a dollar for
it. But essentially, the way that
their contractors written, they didn't have to pay anything for
it. Wow.
OK. That sucks too.
Yeah, contracts, man. Again, I they probably have a
really solid legal team. Yeah.
So that's going to block. The I've got it's either you're,
(21:59):
whether you're a business or a person you know, you're either
very honest or you're very clever, but you usually don't
have to be both. Yes, yeah, yeah.
So I'm. Just looking at this article, so
(22:20):
another state there, they went after it was in Washington
state, they went after Value Village because of customer
complaints about how they were soliciting donations and and how
they were doing the payouts for different things.
And that is where the lawsuit came from and where Value
(22:40):
Village actually lost that courtcase and they had to pay it's
actually very tiny fee compared to.
What they should. Have paid They agreed to pay
$1.8 million to charities and provide more transparency to
(23:01):
donors and shoppers. Cool, that's great.
Also they did. Not have to admit fault, yeah,
yeah. So they settled down a quarter
or something like that or they probably?
Yeah. And again, even at this time
back in 2015, they were still a billion dollar company, right?
And one. Point $8 million.
(23:24):
Yeah, right. I know.
For. I know for the lay people like
Jacob and I like, $1.8 million is a lot of money.
However, whenever you look at the big scheme of everything,
that is a tiny fraction of what savers actually makes, yeah.
(23:45):
And not only that. But, you know, they got the way
that stuff works is like, OK, well, we've got this fee to pay.
I'm a big shot. Executive, I'm not letting that
affect my pay. Who can we fire?
You. Free up this money.
Oh, those people. Yeah, OK.
Well. And you know what part of this,
too, is? In this article, they
(24:08):
interviewed some local charitiesthat are near Value Villages and
their cities. And these charities have thrift
stores right across the street from Value Village.
And what they're competing against is Value Village has
ample real estate. They have access to a lot of
(24:28):
parking. A lot of thrift stores that are
actually nonprofit 5O1C3 base don't have great real estate.
They don't have great parking. They also don't have the
resources to do the type of marketing that Value Village
has. And so like while Violet Value
Village has big signs, new posters for all the seasonal
(24:50):
things, all that stuff, a charity just doesn't have that.
Also, a lot of these thrift shops, thrift shops of
charities, they are staffed by volunteers.
Everyone working at Value Village, they are getting a
paycheck. Like it's a it's a different
concept and it's gone. Yes, we would love and different
people said we would love for more people to come to the
(25:13):
thrift store and shop here and donate here.
But whenever you're just trying to make a quick stop and you
just trying to drop something off, you're going to you're
going to follow the signage thatleads you to the easiest option.
Yeah, because they already have all the signs in place.
Everything there is bigger and better than any thrift store
(25:34):
competitor that would be around them, which I get, I mean.
Like they have more capital, yeah, like they, but the problem
is how the ways they have come about getting that capital.
Well, and so the, the Attorney General of Washington State took
their findings and sent it out to all the other attorney
(25:55):
generals of other states were value villages to say, hey, this
is what it came about. This was the settlement, all
that stuff and no other lawsuit has been brought up.
So it's kind of like they did all of the work, they they
connected all the dots. Any of these other states could
actually move forward with a successful lawsuit and get
(26:19):
charities monies that are owed to them.
But no one has picked it up and this has been 10 years since it
happened, man. And this company is still a
publicly traded company, still doing the thing.
And. Odds are from what you're
saying, like, is anybody really watching whether they're doing
(26:43):
this, you know, doing this thingstill, who knows?
I'm actually on Value Village website right now.
They do have a donate page and talks about declutter
responsibly, which is a trademarked phrase.
So I guess I owe them money now they can take it out of my cold
(27:04):
dead hands. But yeah, it's it's trying to
teach people how to declutter what they accept.
Yeah, it's. Part of me is going it again, as
someone like Dick, if we weren'tdoing this podcast, I wouldn't
know that Value Village is a forprofit company.
(27:27):
If I've had things to donate andI just wanted to get out of my
house and it was a closer optionto my house versus all the other
options I might have, yeah, I would take it right over there.
But again, it's one of those andI've been talking to friends
about it that are going through the process of decluttering
houses or maybe they have thingsfrom their parents house that
they're trying to sell. It's a lot of time to research
(27:50):
what you have posted on various platforms or if you want to have
a garage sale or a yard sale, like that takes time and effort
and all that stuff. And man, sometimes it's like,
and I honestly, complete transparency, I did it today
during my lunch break. I cleaned out.
So every week for the foreseeable future, every
(28:11):
weekend, I'm cleaning out a guest closet because I'm tired
of just the amount of crap that we collect in there.
And so I cleaned out one of our guest closets this past weekend,
had a bunch of things to donate and that's I ran and did that
during my lunch break. And I'm like, yeah, I just want
it out of the house. These items are in really good
(28:31):
condition. I just have no, I no longer have
a need for a onesie chicken suit.
It's just hey you. Said any moment.
What are you talking about? You got to keep that.
I used to wear it for Halloween and like the onesie has this
(28:52):
little hoodie and you put on topand that's like where the
chicken head is and. And I would wear heels and red
lipstick and people like, what are you supposed to be?
I'm like, I'm a hot chick. See, it's funny.
All right? Yeah.
I. Get rid of it, it's not a good
joke. Well, I've done it enough time.
So I'm like, I don't. And also like, yeah, I, I got
Lou Mcgariel. Yeah, I got to get.
(29:13):
I got to get a new bit. I'm a pirate with with.
I'm a pirate with the with the wheel attached to my belt and
when somebody comments on it I say yeah it's driving me nuts.
So sorry, I totally just I'm notlistening to you.
(29:34):
Who cares? You probably.
Better so on. The Value Village website going
down the rabbit hole on the donate page.
They do have need a tax receipt.Again, it's not a donation
receipt where it's if I donate something.
So today I took my items to Goodwill, I can claim those on
my taxes because I donated to A5O1C3.
(29:56):
Value Village is not a 5O1C3. So whenever I click on need tax
tax receipt, it's a nonprofit partner tax receipt.
So again, I don't really understand why you wouldn't need
this at all, but it sounds. Like a worthless document.
(30:16):
So they have one here. We accept donations of used
goods on behalf of our nonprofitpartners.
If you donate it to a nonprofit at one of our locations, you are
able to access an electronic copy of your of our nonprofit
partners tax receipt below. So it's you're actually again,
me as individual. I'm not getting this.
(30:37):
I should be getting it from the five O 1C3 group.
Yeah, it's just it's really weird.
Well, question. Like what you just read where
they go. Like, hey, you know, we, we do
these things on behalf of our actual nonprofit partners.
Did it take you a? Minute to find that information
on their website, Yeah. Right, like that.
(30:59):
Wasn't upfront you have to like Oh yeah, we hey, we say it it's
just people have to know where to go to find the the full deal
right well and and. Here's the thing.
Like I went to the Texas sectionof the the receipts and there's
three locations that I could getthis nonprofit receipt from.
(31:20):
One's in Austin, two of them andare in are in El Paso.
So. That tells me that.
There's only. Within the Texas community, and
actually the two in El Paso are for the same nonprofit group
that there's only two charities in Texas that are that have this
(31:44):
agreement with Value Village. That being said, there is a
Value Village 15 minutes from myhouse.
So again, you can. Donate there, but you're not
going to get that nonprofit receipt because it has to go
through one of their charity groups.
And then again. You're not getting the receipt
(32:04):
from Value Village, they just put this on their website so you
can download it and do the self reporting yourself it sure
seems. Like a really central tenet in
this company's business model isjust to take advantage of
semantics. Like you say.
Donate and people make of a lot of assumptions around that word.
(32:25):
Yes. I mean a lot of.
People like for them, that's part of the silver lining of
taking stuff to Goodwill is thatI'm, I'm clearing up the space
and I get to claim this on my taxes because I donated it.
And with this place, no, you don't get to do that.
That would be. Like someone coming to you and
say, hey, will you donate your fully functioning working car or
(32:47):
will you give us your fully functioning working car for a
fraction of what you could actually resell it for?
And then we're going to turn around, sell it, and then take
the proceeds and go to the bar and have a really good time,
right? It's the same thing.
I guess we'll be like. If it's helpful for anybody, if
you're wondering about this kindof thing, if the company's
publicly traded, it's for profit.
(33:09):
Yeah, 5O1C. Threes are not publicly traded,
so if if it's got a stock symbol, if it's got a, you know,
stock value, then it's for profit and anything you give to
it won't do you any good as far as taxes are concerned.
You know, this whole thing kind of reminds me of similar
scandals around, I think grocerystore chains.
(33:32):
I think it was a grocery store chain in Canada a while back
that was like. People started.
Noticing, Oh, hey, like I'm looking at my receipt for my
groceries. Yeah, I got OK.
There's the hot dogs, there's the cereal.
Don't judge me. You know, that's just it's try
it, trust me, but try it with exotic meat.
(33:53):
But they noticed like at the bottom is like, oh, and here's
this, you know, 3 bucks donationyou made to this fund.
The the. Chain, not just one store, but
the chain was just by default going, Yep, you donated to this
charity and that helps, helps ustoward our commitment in these
(34:19):
charitable things. So like essentially the money
we're just taking from you with your credit card payment
automatically. We the Giant.
Multi $1,000,000 company are going to claim that as part of
our tax write off. And it was like.
It was a scandalous thing. And I think I think that happens
more often than you think. Like you go to the grocery check
(34:39):
out and you're paying and you'retrying to hurry because you're
doing the self checkout. And I don't know about you, but
whenever I do the self checkout,I want, I want someone to notice
how good I am at this. I want somebody like Wow, like
you put the cold stuff all in one bag and you didn't squish
your bread and you were very efficient, Sir.
(35:00):
You know, right this way the mayor would like to meet you
and. You're doing it and you're.
Hurrying and in in that hurry, like part of the checkout
experience is the screen comes up and goes.
Would you like to donate to somegeneric ass cause?
Would you like to donate? To end hunger for children.
(35:23):
Never heard of it. I'm certainly not going to look
it up right now. I've got a speed record to
maintain. But.
Is it legitimate? Where's it going?
And do I get to claim that or isthe store going to claim that?
And I get it like the point, thepoint of charity is not not what
you're going to get out of it. But if it's a fraudulent thing,
(35:46):
which given grocery chains, probably safe to assume it
maybe, yeah. It is kind of.
Like that, that transaction, that 3 bucks, that $1.00
multiplied by thousands of customers at that store,
multiplied by how many locationsdo that sort of thing.
(36:07):
And Albertson's gets to write off millions and millions and
millions of dollars that they'reprobably not going to pay anyway
in taxes. Well, and and.
It all of that is true and I andI would really encourage people
because every single time at thegrocery store and they ask, hey,
do you want to donate to this thing?
One, I already donate to that thing.
Two, I am going to capture the tax benefits of that for my
(36:31):
household. The other thing is that whenever
you have middleman in the process, you lose the full value
of that dollar you've donated because there's someone on their
side that has to do the administrative part of that.
Into Jacob's point, that companyis seeing a tax benefit of hey,
(36:52):
if we donated $1,000,000. Then we don't have.
To pay $1,000,000 somewhere elseand in taxes, tax breaks,
whatever it may be. Which sucks because it sounds.
Like we're talking, hey, like don't trust anybody, don't help
anyone. Like that's not the case.
No, it just goes. Directly to those community
organizations, the five O 1C threes that you want to help and
(37:15):
just give them the dollar directly, right.
But yeah, it was I thought this was such an interesting story
about savers, specifically Valuevillage.
There is a road map out there for other states that want to
lay down the hammer and get somecharities the the monies that
(37:35):
they need. State of Washington has already
done it. They shared their findings and
sounds like all you got to do isjust copy and paste.
But. Anyway, no and I don't want to
just RIP on Value Village and Savers that much because I will
say they do sell second hand items.
(37:59):
And there's. Nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing wrong with people giving them items to
sell. There's nothing wrong with
charity selling these items to them if they cannot do a thrift
store and this is another revenue stream or donation
stream for that charity. The problem is, is how they
message it and how they don't correct people's thoughts of
(38:22):
who's actually benefiting from these donations.
So. You're either very honest or
you're very clever. And I want to be one of those
you pick so well. That's this week's episode.
Devious. Stand unless I.
Love it, yes. Go eat some exotic meat,
(38:44):
everybody. Again, that's.
Not spoiled by.
Welcome to garage sales Unhinged.
Where the characters are as quirky as the vines.
I'm Julie. And I'm Jake.
Join us as we dive into the wildworld of garage sales, yard
sales, estate sales and anywheresecond hand sales are happening.
From bizarre bargains to hilarious haggles.
You won't believe the stories we've got lined up.
Let's get unhinged. Are you drinking a Moscow Mule?
(00:26):
No, it's just the cup. So boring.
Sorry. I mean, I guess that's kind of
we're going to start off this episode.
Jake was took a sip out of his copper mug that looks very fancy
and Moscow Mule esque. And what's what's in the mug,
(00:47):
Jake? Oh, a a Waterloo sparkling water
and vodka. So not not quite.
Not quite. Yeah, that's I know.
I think you need a ginger beer for that, not the sparkling
water. I I wouldn't know.
It's a clean cup and that's whatI do know.
That's what I assume. Well, you fancy.
(01:12):
How are you doing? Yeah, good, good.
You know, your your place has really come together.
I when I get to see you, it's onthis little, you know, square on
my computer screen as we do thisthing.
And you've gone through this whole journey in your house.
You've had contractors and you've had the people redoing
(01:35):
the foundation. And for a while you were
recording from a closet like some, you know, really
successful podcaster who's worried about, you know, the
brain waves coming out of the microwave.
But now here you are, you're back in your space and it looks
great. I just.
I. I did feel like the Anne Frank
(01:57):
of podcasting when I was hiding in my closet.
I know that's probably not a good joke to me.
Yeah, probably not. I mean, at some point, like I
still make jokes about Helen Keller and I'm like, it's at
some point, is it OK to do that?Well, she wouldn't know.
It's OK. She couldn't feel my throat or I
(02:19):
could, you know, write it on herhand or something.
She'd probably get a laugh at. I feel like she would have a
good sense of humor out. Of that, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, no. So you know, our house has been
in upheaval for like a year, Jacob Reference like Foundation
Fix. We had to get all of our pipes
replaced because our house is over 40 years old renovations
(02:43):
and chimney fixes and like it's just one thing after also like
as we were having like major house projects going on and it
was one after another. Thankfully they weren't
simultaneous. But at one point, and again,
everything that happened in the house, nothing was covered by
(03:03):
insurance because there was no like there was no tornado,
there's no hill storm. It was just these things.
It was maintenance. It was old age that needed to
get done. But this one thing really irked
me that happened and it's whenever our fridge went out.
Oh no, that happened too in the middle of that.
(03:24):
Oh, no. Great.
Yeah, so it was like, you know, we had a like a two week
reprieve and then something would happen, A2 week reprieve,
something would happen. And one of those things was our
fridge went out and we and we had a lot of exotic meats in the
freezer, lost everything. And I will say thankfully we
were home when the fridge went out.
(03:47):
So it wasn't like we had gone away for the weekend.
Came home and oh man, something smells.
It wasn't anything like that. We did have company staying with
us. So then we felt bad because it
was like you can't put anything in the fridge.
If you wanted something cold, wehave to go somewhere to get it.
We do have a small wine fridge in our kitchen, so I did try to
(04:09):
save some dairy products by putting it into the wine fridge.
Did that work out? For her listeners at home, a
wine fridge is not a good substitute for a actual fridge.
It does not get cold enough. OK, OK.
Yeah, and now we have. So we had to get a new fridge.
We still have the wine fridge and now in our wet bar area, we
(04:31):
have a another beverage fridge in there that holds our mixers
and stuff for for the wet bar. So it's also one of those things
that I'm planning in the back ofmy head that if things go South
again in the future with the fridge, I have places to store
the sour cream and the cheese and my my milk for my coffee.
And makes up some really interesting cocktails too.
(04:53):
You know, it's just some sour cream in this.
I mean, it'll be fun and we'll play like a drinking game with
our friends and be like, guess what the mixing is so.
Quick question, you mentioned that your fridge was full of
exotic meats. You'll have to explain that.
So my husband likes to hunt and fish with the fellas.
(05:18):
And so we had pheasant in the freezer, we had walleye, we had
all sorts of those things. We also have friends that they
have an exotic game ranch in Texas.
And so there's times when they'll give us some meat to
bring home, like elk and things like that.
So we had that in our freezer and that went straight to the
(05:38):
garbage, OK. Well, really sorry to hear that.
I don't know that that wasn't aslike out there as I was kind of
worried or hoping. We didn't have rattlesnake or
anything, right? When you say exotic meat, kind
of like, oh, and here's kangaroo, but even more exotic.
This kangaroo had a name, you know it's in in a family and.
(06:01):
Have you ever had kangaroo? No.
Yeah, me neither, but it soundedlike I was going to say I did.
Right. Yeah.
So it was one thing after another and yeah, nothing,
nothing went on the insurance bill, but our insurance did go
up. So thanks a lot, insurance
companies. So yeah, none of that is what
(06:25):
we're going to talk about today,Jacob.
So. It's usually the case, but the
first, the first 9 minutes of these things, you can kind of,
if you're here for any content absolutely related to second
hand stuff, you can kind of always get the first five.
It's cool. Don't skip it because that's
where we tell our best stories. That's when we.
(06:46):
Share our secret cookie recipes.I did see a book the other day
called. It was something along the lines
of when do chefs give out their top secret recipes?
And I didn't look at it because I was like, that's such a weird
name for a book and I just movedright along.
But now I'm going like, wait, when do they do it?
Like is it on their deathbed or?Like, yeah, yeah, there are only
(07:14):
11 secret spices, you know? All the Colonel, good old
Colonel Jacob, let's, let's get scandalous, shall we?
OK. Also, just to remind people,
this is my brother. I am Jacob's sister.
It's not anything. This is not insectuous,
(07:37):
scandalous, anything like that. No scandalous means that exotic
meat It's human. It is not.
They don't have the cops come tomy house.
No, I want to talk about the story that I found on the
interwebs. Granted, it's a little bit older
(07:57):
than what we're currently recording in 2025.
This story actually came out 10 years ago in October of 2015,
and I'm going to read you the title of it.
It's from Investigate W The title of the story is the thrift
store chain that dressed up likea charity and got sued.
(08:18):
And I'm sorry, wait, what? Wait, what year is this?
2015. And say it again, what happened?
The title of this story. Is because I'm not listening to
you. Clearly the thrift store chain
that dressed up like a charity and got sued.
OK. So Jacob and I both have careers
(08:43):
in, let's say, marketing. No, it's, I mean, let's say it's
it's that sounded. So suspicious.
Let's just say marketing. That's right.
Hold on a lot and I dance you like you like.
We're both in marketing and we get paid in single dollar bills,
(09:05):
legitimate marketing business. Well, So what what I'm going to
do as I tell you about this really great story because this
is like this is gossip and the thrift world, right?
Like this is good salacious entertainment for those of us
that like true crime, criminal intent type things.
(09:26):
A lot of what was, and that's inthe story, it's based off of
marketing messaging that came from this company.
And the reason I tell people that you and I are both in
marketing is because like as I'mreading through it, I will say
nothing that the marketing messaging that this company puts
out is illegal. They never actually said that
(09:46):
they were a charity. They are skirting along the
lines of it pretty darn good, but they're staying on this side
of the law and not the other side of the law and we're going
to get down to well, how did they get sued and why did they
have to pay? Because they did have to pay.
Are you planning a garage sale, yard sale, or estate sale and
need some help? Look no further than Garage Sale
(10:08):
Supply. They provide top notch resources
and expert advice to help you host the perfect sale.
From pricing tips to promotionalstrategies, they've got you
covered. Visit garagesalesupply.com and
make your next sale a success. Jake, are you familiar with a
store called Value Village? No, not at all.
(10:32):
Is that a regional thing? No, it's a national 1.
I actually think there's severalin Canada too.
Wow, no, never heard that. OK.
Value Village is a thrift store and how they operated is that
they would purchase donations from local charities for a set
(10:53):
amount of money and then they would resell it in their store.
So if a charity didn't have a thrift store that people donated
items to them, they could take it to Value Village, Value
Village resells it, and then thecharity actually get some of
that money back that was sold for that item.
(11:13):
So they're like a consignment place for charity.
Yeah, it's kind of like that. However, Value Village is owned
by the store brand Savers. Are you familiar with Savers?
Not familiar with savers either.Jay, come on.
How can I? Know I got to get out there.
(11:34):
Savers value village. They make a lot of money and I
should probably, I should probably know how much they
actually make. Yeah, I know, because a lot is
kind of relative between 2015 and now, a lot is changed a lot.
You know, OK, so savers value Village, their revenue for the
(11:56):
past trailing 12 months is just over $1.5 billion.
That's what the B billion they're growing at a rate of
4.47% year over year. Wait, wait.
You're saying they are growing? So this is after what you're
going to tell us. OK, yes, because what I'm going
(12:19):
to tell you is yes, they got sued.
Yes, they paid the the amount that they were deemed
appropriate to pay. But it goes a little bit deeper
than that. And, and if you're listening to
this, I hope your flabbers are going to get gassed because
there there should be more lawsuits for this type of thing.
(12:44):
So they're also a publicly traded company.
If anyone's interested, they're currently trending at $12.54 a
share. So JQ, you're like, yeah, I
don't know about. It I don't know if that is that
good. Is that good?
Let me consult calculator. Well, back in two 2023 they were
(13:04):
trading at $24.00 a share, so they've lost.
It's not good. Well, but in the big OK, so you
want to see what target is trending up?
No, probably not good. Target, they are trending at
$92.00 a share. Yeah.
And in 2023, they were trending at $159 a share.
(13:29):
So to kind of give you. You promised salacious details
and I got to tell you, these numbers are really doing it for
us. Well, it's to put into
perspective, everyone is a familiar with Target and if
you're not familiar, familiar with the Savers brand, are they
as successful Target on a financial side?
No. And you can kind of tell by
(13:52):
that, that stock market. So I'm just giving people a
picture of this business becausenot everyone is familiar with.
Them. I'm sorry if I was rude.
Back off anyway. But OK, so Value Village, they
would buy items from these charities and then sell it and
then their business models to turn around and give those
(14:13):
charities some of the proceeds from those sales.
The problem is Value Village started cutting out the
middleman so people could then start to bring clothing items
directly to Value Village, dropping them off.
It's not consignment, they were just dropping them off, giving
them for free, and then Value Village is turning around and
(14:35):
selling it and making 100% profit off those things.
That profit does not go to any charity.
That goes straight into the Savers. 1 billion plus annual
revenue. OK.
And I guess they weren't like set up to do business that way.
They weren't originally and whenever somebody was dropping
(14:59):
something off, they weren't toldthat they were donating to A5 on
one C3, but they also weren't being told that they were
donating to a for profit company.
And if you're like Jacob and I screw for profit companies, OK,
I own for companies, you work for one.
(15:21):
But it is one of those things that it is deceptive and that
people think that they're going to help a charity at a
charitable organization. In reality you are giving free
items to a for profit company and that for profit company is
going to keep all the profit forthat thing you just donated.
Yeah, that that was kind of stink.
(15:41):
So that's what was going on here.
So it's part of it. The other thing is they had an
agreement with the charities that and there were several
charities that had signed up with Value Village to be to have
this kind of reciprocal relationship where they may give
items to Value Village. Value Village sells it and then
they get some of the proceeds from that because not every
(16:01):
charity has its own thrift shop.They had a contract so they
would buy clothing items by the pound.
So let's say that you had 5 lbs of clothing.
They may purchase that for $0.25.
OK. So then they would take those
items and then resell them. So as part of this, and I don't
(16:23):
know what the actual poundage is, but let's say this part of
this, 5 lbs of clothing or 10 lbs of clothing.
Let's do it easier, 10 lbs of clothing.
Let's say that you had two pairsof jeans, a dress and a men's
button up shirt and you turn around and you were able to sell
them for $50. You only spend 1/4 on the whole
(16:47):
poundage and what was happening is that those charities were
only getting a tiny fraction of the the revenue from it.
Like less than they were promised.
I don't necessarily know if it was less than they were
promised, but in in this articlethat I was reading from
(17:09):
Investigate West. So some of the charities got
less than 1%. So whenever you think of like,
hey, I just sold something for $100.
One of the charities, I think they were getting point O 2% in
return. So if they if Value Village sold
something for $100 and that charity was getting 2 pennies.
Yikes. Yeah, another charity I think
(17:32):
they were getting it was like .56% something like that.
So again, it's, it's a less thana percent now and their records
and their and their financial filings every year they do say
that they donate anywhere between 5 and 17% back to
charities, but that also means that they're using 83% of this
(17:56):
revenue to run their business. But again, messaging, it's like,
what did they say? They, they had a term in here?
Oh, so they're the the sign or the messaging that was behind
all the cash registers in the stores, said Good deeds, period.
(18:18):
Great deals, period. So again, they weren't.
Ever. They never said they were 5O1C3,
but it was this ubiquitous promotion of charity that kind
of gave the perception of, oh, this is a place like a Goodwill.
While Goodwill does get some heat for paying their executives
(18:39):
a lot of money, they also reinvest a lot of the money that
they do make into community programs, education, job
placements, and the Value Village does not do any of that.
It is that really stinks. Is like they're doing anything
but saying the word charity. He's like, good.
(19:01):
Deeds which legally speaking, and I'm sure they had a legal
team in that company that probably had some kind of say in
the matter, like as long as we don't say charity.
Then we're not. Saying it's a charity, you can
say good deeds and if they've hey, if the person reading that
(19:23):
associates that with charity, that's on them, right.
And again, I think that's. Where that marketing messaging
really skirts the line. But there's some, yeah.
There's some room for interpretation.
And again, it's well, we didn't say we were a nonprofit, We
didn't say that we were a charity.
(19:44):
So they had enough customer consumer complaints, like 1
complaint in one state went to the attorney general and the
attorney general took it and then gave that complaint to
Savers and then closed out the case.
That's all they did. They just told the government.
Gave the complaint to savers. What do you mean they contacted?
(20:06):
The company and said you have had a consumer complaint against
you do something about it and like like close the case
fantastic. Thank you, AG, That's great now.
At another state, again, they had consumer complaint because
there was this, hey, they're notactually giving as much money to
these charities. Also, several charities had to,
(20:29):
they, they broke their agreements or they got out of
those agreements with Value Village because they realized
how much Value Village was taking from their goods.
Also a really interesting thing about this and the contract that
Value Village paid these charities for like the poundage
of clothing and stuff like that.Any household items, appliances,
(20:51):
electronics, sporting goods was just considered to be part of
the items given to Value Village.
The charities actually got paid nothing for those items.
So that did not go into the poundage, but they had to give
that stuff to Value Village. But the powdered.
Is only like figured out by textiles by like clothes and
(21:14):
they didn't make that clear to the charities either.
The wording? In it if I I could probably go
in and find it in this article, but the wording in it was it's
separate from the poundage, but.It's going to be.
Inclusive of it, but we're not weighing it.
So like a bike weigh 10 lbs or 5lbs.
(21:38):
Again, they would only be payinglike 1/4 for it, a dollar for
it. But essentially, the way that
their contractors written, they didn't have to pay anything for
it. Wow.
OK. That sucks too.
Yeah, contracts, man. Again, I they probably have a
really solid legal team. Yeah.
So that's going to block. The I've got it's either you're,
(21:59):
whether you're a business or a person you know, you're either
very honest or you're very clever, but you usually don't
have to be both. Yes, yeah, yeah.
So I'm. Just looking at this article, so
(22:20):
another state there, they went after it was in Washington
state, they went after Value Village because of customer
complaints about how they were soliciting donations and and how
they were doing the payouts for different things.
And that is where the lawsuit came from and where Value
(22:40):
Village actually lost that courtcase and they had to pay it's
actually very tiny fee compared to.
What they should. Have paid They agreed to pay
$1.8 million to charities and provide more transparency to
(23:01):
donors and shoppers. Cool, that's great.
Also they did. Not have to admit fault, yeah,
yeah. So they settled down a quarter
or something like that or they probably?
Yeah. And again, even at this time
back in 2015, they were still a billion dollar company, right?
And one. Point $8 million.
(23:24):
Yeah, right. I know.
For. I know for the lay people like
Jacob and I like, $1.8 million is a lot of money.
However, whenever you look at the big scheme of everything,
that is a tiny fraction of what savers actually makes, yeah.
(23:45):
And not only that. But, you know, they got the way
that stuff works is like, OK, well, we've got this fee to pay.
I'm a big shot. Executive, I'm not letting that
affect my pay. Who can we fire?
You. Free up this money.
Oh, those people. Yeah, OK.
Well. And you know what part of this,
too, is? In this article, they
(24:08):
interviewed some local charitiesthat are near Value Villages and
their cities. And these charities have thrift
stores right across the street from Value Village.
And what they're competing against is Value Village has
ample real estate. They have access to a lot of
(24:28):
parking. A lot of thrift stores that are
actually nonprofit 5O1C3 base don't have great real estate.
They don't have great parking. They also don't have the
resources to do the type of marketing that Value Village
has. And so like while Violet Value
Village has big signs, new posters for all the seasonal
(24:50):
things, all that stuff, a charity just doesn't have that.
Also, a lot of these thrift shops, thrift shops of
charities, they are staffed by volunteers.
Everyone working at Value Village, they are getting a
paycheck. Like it's a it's a different
concept and it's gone. Yes, we would love and different
people said we would love for more people to come to the
(25:13):
thrift store and shop here and donate here.
But whenever you're just trying to make a quick stop and you
just trying to drop something off, you're going to you're
going to follow the signage thatleads you to the easiest option.
Yeah, because they already have all the signs in place.
Everything there is bigger and better than any thrift store
(25:34):
competitor that would be around them, which I get, I mean.
Like they have more capital, yeah, like they, but the problem
is how the ways they have come about getting that capital.
Well, and so the, the Attorney General of Washington State took
their findings and sent it out to all the other attorney
(25:55):
generals of other states were value villages to say, hey, this
is what it came about. This was the settlement, all
that stuff and no other lawsuit has been brought up.
So it's kind of like they did all of the work, they they
connected all the dots. Any of these other states could
actually move forward with a successful lawsuit and get
(26:19):
charities monies that are owed to them.
But no one has picked it up and this has been 10 years since it
happened, man. And this company is still a
publicly traded company, still doing the thing.
And. Odds are from what you're
saying, like, is anybody really watching whether they're doing
(26:43):
this, you know, doing this thingstill, who knows?
I'm actually on Value Village website right now.
They do have a donate page and talks about declutter
responsibly, which is a trademarked phrase.
So I guess I owe them money now they can take it out of my cold
(27:04):
dead hands. But yeah, it's it's trying to
teach people how to declutter what they accept.
Yeah, it's. Part of me is going it again, as
someone like Dick, if we weren'tdoing this podcast, I wouldn't
know that Value Village is a forprofit company.
(27:27):
If I've had things to donate andI just wanted to get out of my
house and it was a closer optionto my house versus all the other
options I might have, yeah, I would take it right over there.
But again, it's one of those andI've been talking to friends
about it that are going through the process of decluttering
houses or maybe they have thingsfrom their parents house that
they're trying to sell. It's a lot of time to research
(27:50):
what you have posted on various platforms or if you want to have
a garage sale or a yard sale, like that takes time and effort
and all that stuff. And man, sometimes it's like,
and I honestly, complete transparency, I did it today
during my lunch break. I cleaned out.
So every week for the foreseeable future, every
(28:11):
weekend, I'm cleaning out a guest closet because I'm tired
of just the amount of crap that we collect in there.
And so I cleaned out one of our guest closets this past weekend,
had a bunch of things to donate and that's I ran and did that
during my lunch break. And I'm like, yeah, I just want
it out of the house. These items are in really good
(28:31):
condition. I just have no, I no longer have
a need for a onesie chicken suit.
It's just hey you. Said any moment.
What are you talking about? You got to keep that.
I used to wear it for Halloween and like the onesie has this
(28:52):
little hoodie and you put on topand that's like where the
chicken head is and. And I would wear heels and red
lipstick and people like, what are you supposed to be?
I'm like, I'm a hot chick. See, it's funny.
All right? Yeah.
I. Get rid of it, it's not a good
joke. Well, I've done it enough time.
So I'm like, I don't. And also like, yeah, I, I got
Lou Mcgariel. Yeah, I got to get.
(29:13):
I got to get a new bit. I'm a pirate with with.
I'm a pirate with the with the wheel attached to my belt and
when somebody comments on it I say yeah it's driving me nuts.
So sorry, I totally just I'm notlistening to you.
(29:34):
Who cares? You probably.
Better so on. The Value Village website going
down the rabbit hole on the donate page.
They do have need a tax receipt.Again, it's not a donation
receipt where it's if I donate something.
So today I took my items to Goodwill, I can claim those on
my taxes because I donated to A5O1C3.
(29:56):
Value Village is not a 5O1C3. So whenever I click on need tax
tax receipt, it's a nonprofit partner tax receipt.
So again, I don't really understand why you wouldn't need
this at all, but it sounds. Like a worthless document.
(30:16):
So they have one here. We accept donations of used
goods on behalf of our nonprofitpartners.
If you donate it to a nonprofit at one of our locations, you are
able to access an electronic copy of your of our nonprofit
partners tax receipt below. So it's you're actually again,
me as individual. I'm not getting this.
(30:37):
I should be getting it from the five O 1C3 group.
Yeah, it's just it's really weird.
Well, question. Like what you just read where
they go. Like, hey, you know, we, we do
these things on behalf of our actual nonprofit partners.
Did it take you a? Minute to find that information
on their website, Yeah. Right, like that.
(30:59):
Wasn't upfront you have to like Oh yeah, we hey, we say it it's
just people have to know where to go to find the the full deal
right well and and. Here's the thing.
Like I went to the Texas sectionof the the receipts and there's
three locations that I could getthis nonprofit receipt from.
(31:20):
One's in Austin, two of them andare in are in El Paso.
So. That tells me that.
There's only. Within the Texas community, and
actually the two in El Paso are for the same nonprofit group
that there's only two charities in Texas that are that have this
(31:44):
agreement with Value Village. That being said, there is a
Value Village 15 minutes from myhouse.
So again, you can. Donate there, but you're not
going to get that nonprofit receipt because it has to go
through one of their charity groups.
And then again. You're not getting the receipt
(32:04):
from Value Village, they just put this on their website so you
can download it and do the self reporting yourself it sure
seems. Like a really central tenet in
this company's business model isjust to take advantage of
semantics. Like you say.
Donate and people make of a lot of assumptions around that word.
(32:25):
Yes. I mean a lot of.
People like for them, that's part of the silver lining of
taking stuff to Goodwill is thatI'm, I'm clearing up the space
and I get to claim this on my taxes because I donated it.
And with this place, no, you don't get to do that.
That would be. Like someone coming to you and
say, hey, will you donate your fully functioning working car or
(32:47):
will you give us your fully functioning working car for a
fraction of what you could actually resell it for?
And then we're going to turn around, sell it, and then take
the proceeds and go to the bar and have a really good time,
right? It's the same thing.
I guess we'll be like. If it's helpful for anybody, if
you're wondering about this kindof thing, if the company's
publicly traded, it's for profit.
(33:09):
Yeah, 5O1C. Threes are not publicly traded,
so if if it's got a stock symbol, if it's got a, you know,
stock value, then it's for profit and anything you give to
it won't do you any good as far as taxes are concerned.
You know, this whole thing kind of reminds me of similar
scandals around, I think grocerystore chains.
(33:32):
I think it was a grocery store chain in Canada a while back
that was like. People started.
Noticing, Oh, hey, like I'm looking at my receipt for my
groceries. Yeah, I got OK.
There's the hot dogs, there's the cereal.
Don't judge me. You know, that's just it's try
it, trust me, but try it with exotic meat.
(33:53):
But they noticed like at the bottom is like, oh, and here's
this, you know, 3 bucks donationyou made to this fund.
The the. Chain, not just one store, but
the chain was just by default going, Yep, you donated to this
charity and that helps, helps ustoward our commitment in these
(34:19):
charitable things. So like essentially the money
we're just taking from you with your credit card payment
automatically. We the Giant.
Multi $1,000,000 company are going to claim that as part of
our tax write off. And it was like.
It was a scandalous thing. And I think I think that happens
more often than you think. Like you go to the grocery check
(34:39):
out and you're paying and you'retrying to hurry because you're
doing the self checkout. And I don't know about you, but
whenever I do the self checkout,I want, I want someone to notice
how good I am at this. I want somebody like Wow, like
you put the cold stuff all in one bag and you didn't squish
your bread and you were very efficient, Sir.
(35:00):
You know, right this way the mayor would like to meet you
and. You're doing it and you're.
Hurrying and in in that hurry, like part of the checkout
experience is the screen comes up and goes.
Would you like to donate to somegeneric ass cause?
Would you like to donate? To end hunger for children.
(35:23):
Never heard of it. I'm certainly not going to look
it up right now. I've got a speed record to
maintain. But.
Is it legitimate? Where's it going?
And do I get to claim that or isthe store going to claim that?
And I get it like the point, thepoint of charity is not not what
you're going to get out of it. But if it's a fraudulent thing,
(35:46):
which given grocery chains, probably safe to assume it
maybe, yeah. It is kind of.
Like that, that transaction, that 3 bucks, that $1.00
multiplied by thousands of customers at that store,
multiplied by how many locationsdo that sort of thing.
(36:07):
And Albertson's gets to write off millions and millions and
millions of dollars that they'reprobably not going to pay anyway
in taxes. Well, and and.
It all of that is true and I andI would really encourage people
because every single time at thegrocery store and they ask, hey,
do you want to donate to this thing?
One, I already donate to that thing.
Two, I am going to capture the tax benefits of that for my
(36:31):
household. The other thing is that whenever
you have middleman in the process, you lose the full value
of that dollar you've donated because there's someone on their
side that has to do the administrative part of that.
Into Jacob's point, that companyis seeing a tax benefit of hey,
(36:52):
if we donated $1,000,000. Then we don't have.
To pay $1,000,000 somewhere elseand in taxes, tax breaks,
whatever it may be. Which sucks because it sounds.
Like we're talking, hey, like don't trust anybody, don't help
anyone. Like that's not the case.
No, it just goes. Directly to those community
organizations, the five O 1C threes that you want to help and
(37:15):
just give them the dollar directly, right.
But yeah, it was I thought this was such an interesting story
about savers, specifically Valuevillage.
There is a road map out there for other states that want to
lay down the hammer and get somecharities the the monies that
(37:35):
they need. State of Washington has already
done it. They shared their findings and
sounds like all you got to do isjust copy and paste.
But. Anyway, no and I don't want to
just RIP on Value Village and Savers that much because I will
say they do sell second hand items.
(37:59):
And there's. Nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing wrong with people giving them items to
sell. There's nothing wrong with
charity selling these items to them if they cannot do a thrift
store and this is another revenue stream or donation
stream for that charity. The problem is, is how they
message it and how they don't correct people's thoughts of
(38:22):
who's actually benefiting from these donations.
So. You're either very honest or
you're very clever. And I want to be one of those
you pick so well. That's this week's episode.
Devious. Stand unless I.
Love it, yes. Go eat some exotic meat,
(38:44):
everybody. Again, that's.
Not spoiled by.
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