Barkin’ Basement — Local services in Cumberland

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I collected a ton of great new and gently used toys, as well as housewares, and loaded my SUV to capacity. I called to ensure they were accepting donations, as it was a solid 2 hour drive from my home in DC. A gentleman answered the phone and explained that the weekend wasn’t good for him to accept donations, so I agreed to do the drive and donations the following weekend. Fast forward to the following weekend, and I was approximately 10 minutes away (after a 2 hour drive) at 3:45pm (realizing that they closed at 4 on Sundays rather than 5pm) and called ahead. The same gentleman chastised me and said he was closing up early as there hadn’t been a customer in an hour and a half. He was closing and wouldn’t be there in 10 minutes to accept my donations. He couldn’t have cared less about my drive, my donations, or frankly, the purpose of this shop (to support the animal welfare efforts of Allegany County). Words really can’t describe how disheartened I was that this rude man was representing any organization, let alone an animal welfare organization. I hope that a board member sees this review and reconsiders the staffing at this shop. If he was able to drive me away without donating, despite a 4-hour round trip drive, I wonder how many other donors he has...

This store has a wonderful mission of using proceeds to help animals! We were visiting Cumberland from Pittsburgh and stopped in today. I found a nice short-sleeve shirt for work. Only $1.50! I gave him $2 and told him to keep the change and then dropped a few more singles into a donation bin to further support their mission. My partner bought a nice pair of pants for work for $2.50. I had a nice brief conversation with the clerk (who I think was an unpaid volunteer, actually) and another customer when they found out we were from Pittsburgh about sports fanbases in the local areas. It’s a shame half of Downtown Cumberland is vacant, but stores like this...

Rude staff who cares more about animals than humans - the "volunteers" buy the good stuff at half price and resell online for personal profit. Animal shelters get state funding and millions of dollars every time millionaires (like Betty White) die. There are definitely better ways to go thrift shopping. If you want to donate to animals, drop some dog food off at the shelter. And if you want to score good things for low prices, keep walking. You never know what you might find right around the corner at one of the little privately owned...