The Salvation Army Family Store & Donation Center — Attraction in St. Charles

I wrote my yelp review about 2 months ago. I have gotten a response from them and the person that answered my emails was very nice. Sadly, i have not heard back from them or any follow up of what happen.

NOTE: the people below me that reviewed which is HEATHER and RON both work for Salvation Army and they were the two I spoken to or was in contact with.

also want to point out that we will call their Corporatate HR office because the way we were treated in that store was HORRIBLE and one of the worst ways I was treated in any store.

We have been shopping at the Montgomery/Aurora Location for 20 years. We are vendors and we buy clothing and shoes all the time. St. Charles have just opened late 2015. We were so excited because we finally have another Salvation Army to shop to!

I LOVE my Montgomery location and everyone there we know personally because we talk to them all the time!

St. Charles was the same way! The "first" round of employees we loved them so much! First day we went and talked to all of them and got to know them! Now we do this not only because we are friendly, but because we buy so much stuff and shop every week we let them know why and what we are about!

Now St. Charles just opened in October...and somehow I have never seen so many people LEFT that location so fast and replaced by...well JERKS!

That first round of people left by December. It was replaced by a very rude woman...but she left in less then a month. Then management was replaced by another woman which was fine and we were shopping and buying many things every week.

YESTURDAY - February 20, 2016 --

We went to shop for our usual stuff. We saw a new woman. Let me describe her. We didnt approach or talk to her right away because we wanted to see who is this first.

This woman is white, around 28-30. Dark Black or Brown hair and over weight. In Salvation Army, one mostly wears a red polo or shirt as a uniform. Nope, she had a tank top on with her breast hanging out. We were in the store shopping and we can hear her loudly talking on her phone yelling at her boyfriend and talking about personal business.

Since we buy a lot we always ask for a deal. We always get some sort of deal too because we buy a lot of stuff.

We already knew it was going to be bad when there were two bikes. One was 5.00 and one was 6.00. We asked her if we can buy both bikes for 5.00

She was SO RUDE and yelled as us and said WE ARE NOT GOODWILL! NO!

Okay...now its going to get bad. The bike thing, we rubbed that off. We bought 2 shopping carts of shoes.

We placed the shoes on the belt with this woman as a cashier. She grabbed our shoes and lazily and hard and threw them into the bag with no care at all. We are NOT picky but her body language showed she didn't want to sell to us.

We asked her to please not throw our shoes. She didn't respond or listen and we asked her again and she was so angry!

This heiffer went crazy in a second!

She said, "I AM NOT THROWING YOUR SHOES! YOU KNOW WHAT! I AM NOT GOING TO SELL YOU AGAIN! YOU ARE THROWING THE SHOES AT ME!"

We said we are only putting the shoes on the belt.

She said, "IF YOU DON'T LEAVE ME STORE RIGHT NOW I AM CALLING THE COPS! GET THE F**K OUT OF MY STORE NOW!"

She threw everything back into the car and pulled the two carts away and angrily pretend to put those shoes back on the shelf. We just stood there in Awe.

In all the years we been shopping at Salvation Army (and we have visited every location in the Chicago Land Area) something is wrong with this St. Charles one.

The shelves are empty, most employees are very lazy, the first round of employees who we liked left, and I don't know who this new person is or who made her into a manager but she is very trashy and very rude.

For a store that is a religious charity the way she acted towards us was very unprofessional and un...

I would love to give less than 1 star for the experience I had. I drove up to the donation area to drop off a large contractor bag full of clothes. I rang the bell twice. A person looked at me and then never came out. Then a woman came out rolling a bin toward my car. They told me they had a policy that they could not take items out of my trunk. I explained that I could try and get it out of my trunk but would not be able to lift it into the bin. The conversation that ensued after that was surreal. When I said I wasn't able to get it into the bin the woman asked "How did you get it into your trunk?" I was taken aback but then answered "my husband put it in there" her next response was "why didn't your husband come with you?" again I was surprised and answered "he's working". She stated the policy of not going into my trunk again and I said I can probably pull it out but still can't get it into the bin to which she said "so I am supposed to hurt myself to get it in?" I then said "is there a guy back there that could possibly help?" She then told me "you are gender discriminating" still floored by this whole interaction my handicapped sister who was in the car with me said "ok are there a few women back there that can help get it in the bin"? The woman continued to be rude and I asked for the manager. She then told me she WAS the manager. I asked her and that's how you treat customers? I did then say to her that she was being a jerk to which she said she was going to report me. I am not sure what she was going to report me for or to who? Because I said she was acting like a jerk? And she really really was. This was a ridiculous exchange for someone who was just trying to make a donation. I went into the store to try and get the name of the district manager to file a complaint for the way we were treated but nobody could give me the name or a number to get that information. Then when we asked for the manager's name that was in the back the cashier told us that "she didn't know who was working today" - very hard to believe but ok. My sister then walked to the back where she was told the manager was too busy to come out and finally then she came out and told us her name was Heather. Additionally at the register when I said it was hard to believe that nobody knew the name of the manager in back, the cashier proceeded to say "Ma'am we cannot take items out of the trunks of cars it's our policy" so it was clear that the "unknown" manager had let her front of store employees know I may be coming in - I did say that I was going to stop in and get the district manager's info so she knew I would likely stop in. I have donated here many times in the past, they have taken items out of my trunk each time - perhaps the policy has changed and that is fine (I didn't see it posted) but trying to get assistance getting it into the bin should not have led to this kind of exchange. It was VERY rude and unprofessional and yes a little jerky! I am saddened by this because I donate and shop this store quite frequently because it is a Christian charity. I actually pass 2 or 3 thrift stores to get to this one because I believe in the Salvation Army. Volunteer my time and money for them as do my children. Very very sad. I will not be going to this establishment anymore. Just so disappointed by...

As an avid thrifter I am continuously perplexed by this particular location. Some of the positive things I can say is that this store is a decent size and is on the whole pretty clean and organized. The major critiques I have are that the prices are crazy high and the stock volume is insanely low.

I'm a trinket/decor/book thrifter primarily and the shelves are almost ALWAYS 2/3 empty. This store has stocked gaylords for days in the back so I'm totally puzzled how it's even possible for them to maintain such low stock. Items will be purposefully spread out to try to make shelves appear more full, but then each item is $5-$10 higher than you'd expect when you pick it up to look at it. The same items also sit out for multiple weeks. If this store simply stocked the shelves appropriately they would be able to price products lower and move more product in the process.

Lastly, this store is one of the last local places to purchase decent quality second hand furniture, but the prices are outrageous. There is a voiceover that comes on from time to time stating that if they "didn't get it right the first time" prices are adjusted after x amount of time, but I have never once seen that be the case. They'll have a broken $20 ikea shelf sitting out on the floor for $40 for 2 months.

I just don't understand the sales model here, but signage indicates that you're not allowed to haggle or even ask about pricing. The whole thing is just weird. When their stock is good, it's great, but overall I usually just walk out of there feeling bummed...