Plato's Closet Melbourne — Attraction in West Melbourne

I have lived in melbourne my whole life, have shopped at this store my whole life, and have donated more then enough clothes. I also am a store manager at a retail establishment.

With that being said, today i dropped off 2 huge trash bags full of clothing. I was curious to see what the process looked like so i sat in my car and watched the girl go through my clothing. When i say, that she grabbed handfuls of clothing, glanced at them and put them back in the trash bag, that is not an over exaggeration. She didn’t even bother unfolding the items. There were American eagle jeans and h&m shirts in there WITH TAGS STILL ON THEM, NEVER WORN. she wouldn’t have known though because like i said, she didn’t even bother to unfold the clothing.

When i got the text that she was finished, i walked in and asked her what the guidelines were for them taking clothes. i figured maybe they aren’t taking floral, or jeans with holes in them etc. She told me that “there really was no guidelines, we just don’t take clothes that are conditioned” … so i asked to speak to the manager. When the manager walked up to me she seemed very intimidated like a deer in headlights. So i told her i really wasn’t trying to come off as rude but i don’t understand what the guidelines are to taking clothes because i have brand new pieces of clothes in there that have the tags still on them and also haven’t even been worn before. She didn’t say anything back. So i proceeded to tell her that i watched the girl go through my bags and she didn’t even unfold the majority of my clothing. Then the girl that went through my clothing chipped in and said “like i said.. We didn’t take clothing that was conditioned or worn” .. very confused because the whole point of Plato’s closet is “chain retailer buying and selling trendy second hand clothing for teens and young adults”. so you’d think that getting clothes with the tags still on them would be a good thing, right?

I asked both of the girls if there was any way to contact a higher up, like a store manager or something and they told me the next person up are the owners. so i asked if there was any way to contact them and they had no answer for me.

Safe to say, i will not be shopping there any more. Nor will i refer any one to the store any more. As a local, i am VERY disappointed with...

I stopped in with my daughter's to sell a few things. Got the standard, passed because of wear etc, when bringing up that there were easily half a dozen items they passed on tgat were brand new, never worn, bought in the last 4 months, yes the polite cashier took another look, still not taking, now due to possibly style, so I asked what exactly qualified as wear , tear and styles that don't sell well, and grabbed a couple of the nastiest things I've ever seen, off their racks,filthy, worn to the end of its life, sweater dress, (in florida) and a filthy pair of vans, that happened to be in arms length and got told , 'sometimes things get passed over ', okay I get that, but at minimum, HALF OF the merchandise that was on the floor was not even Good will quality. And absurdly priced for that kind of " quality ". They passed on a brand flying tomatoe strapless romper, brand new free people boho dress, several brand new , BRAND NEW, sketchy tank shirts, Rip n dip shirts, brand new Adidas sweatshirt,brand new fit and flare Hollister dress, passed on 2 Herschel back packs in great condition, vans girls high tops worn half a dozen times in great shape. I know thia is long and a bit heated, i ran a Platos Closet in Massachusetts before moving to Florida and that kind of "merchandise " in their inventory, would NEVER, have cut it. When questioned, the 2 ladies, a blonde one with last extensions that was promoting her last extensions business to customers, and the other lady that looked a bit like Amy on the big bang theory, they got defensive and rude, and told there was no manager to speak with. On a positive note, Lucas was the best thing that store has going for it. He should be lead buyer , he knew his stuff and went back through one of my girls items and also questioned why they didnt take most of her things. Once picking other items, the blonde lady came back over and decided to get rather, persnickety as to a tiny little pinpoint mark on a top . It really is too bad though, they definately missed on a lot of good merchandise. Going to be using Posh...

I’m a little disappointed in the store I’ve been coming here since before style encore was open. I feel as though the last 3/4 years everything has changed. I miss the old staff used to be a very sweet girl with brown hair and a manager with tattoos and a blonde girl with curly hair (not good at names) that used to work there all the time but i haven’t seen them in years. They also used to take clothes everyday 7 days a week and would bust it down now it seems to be only when they feel like it which is heartbreaking but understandable if you’re short staffed. I tried to bring in clothes on a couple separate occasions but every time they’re not taking clothes and i even check the instagram (which they never post on anymore :( ) because usually they’ll post but they didn’t post anything yesterday on 3/3/24 about not taking clothes so i walked in expecting to be able to sell and i was unable to. i don’t understand what has happened in the last couple years it used to be such a good environment they used to greet us at the door and ask us how we were doing but now i feel as if im more of a burden going there i walked in Plato’s twice yesterday and the gentleman with the long hair looked at me in my eyes and didn’t say a word to me as if i did something wrong i walked in at 3pm they don’t even close till 7pm on Sundays. I just hope this gets to the right person and...