America's Thrift Stores & Donation Center — Local services in Knoxville

i do not usually write reviews so this is posted with a heavy heart. i had really high hopes for this place its super close to my apartment and has pretty decent prices with a nice selection. the workers were so nice and the place was a lot more organized than other places i’ve been. however, a majority of the items i picked up while thrifting were COVERED in bed bugs and bed bug eggs. i called and to let them know and the manager did offer me to bring them back and give store credit so that was very nice of her. while i know this can be a common accident in secondhand clothing, these clothing items were so obviously infested with a little inspecting. i just hope this store actually takes the precautions to prevent this in the future and does more thorough checks of their merchandise. i would love to come back but as someone who’s dealt with bed bugs before this scares me for the shoppers and workers alike as the whole store will inevitably become infested if not taken seriously. i will definitely be more cautious with my thrifting purchases in general...

Visited last weekend and purchased a $25 coffee maker and a $5 game. Got home, cleaned the coffee maker - the reservoir is cracked and leaked water on to the counter. Opened the taped-up game to find only the board and no playing pieces. Receipt says returns accepted for store credit in 30 days. Walked in this weekend and I was immediately told "No returns on electronics" before I even said anything. I wasn't sure they were talking to me, since I had a coffeemaker and a board game. When I said it's a coffeemaker, a second cashier said...louder... "No returns on electronics! Items are sold as is! " So we handed the items to them, told them to throw them in the trash, and left. Once I returned to my car, it took every ounce of willpower to NOT go back in and test every single coffee maker there, because you KNOW they put the damaged one I left there back on the shelf. We won't be going back - there are other...

Edit after ATS reply: I literally watched the employee pull up google lens and pick the most expensive top result to price an item I had asked the price of. "We assure you this is not how our items are priced" is meaningless when I physically saw it happen, to my face.

When they opened i went and found good deals, but went back this week and the prices are now ridiculously high; like, at or even well over retail. They use google lense to price (an employee did it right in front of me) and just go with whatever is the highest list price (not actual sold comp) they see, which if you're familiar with Google lens is usually well above the actual sold value. This is not a true thrift store, sadly. Just a for-profit store selling used items they got for free at...