Value World Thrift — Local services in North Olmsted

Update: Almost a year later, here is my update: Raised to 3 stars, I went during the presidents day sale which is 50% off. Great sale for sure!

Pricing update: (Trending UP) the prices have gone down, someone either read reviews or realized they weren't selling anything marking items at retail prices. There are still some odd ball things priced way too high but we are now at more regular prices here so that's good to see.

Selection Update: (Trending Down) How can you get even worse than before? Well they still have things listed by color rather than size which is incredible inconvenient when searching but now every tag in the men's section was marked M for Mens instead of the size which every other thrift store marks. You originally think all shirts are medium lol, I thought they sorted by size but no they found something to make it even worse when shopping.

So now clothing is just marked M, W or TT etc for Mens, Womens and Toddlers etc. So their price tag doesn't show the size and on about half of them blocks the shirt tag that has the size, you have to now move that tag to see the size of half of them.

They have "Kings" and "Queens" sections for 2XL+ sizes so if you're bigger at least you have a 1 rack separate to look at.

Still barely any items besides clothing, other thrift stores have multiple isles of random stuff like paintings, pots, containers etc. There is 1 isle of all this stuff.

Smell Update: (Trending UP) I really didn't have any bad smells to report this time in there, I wouldn't say it smelled good but there were certainly no bad smells this time.

Donating Clothes here? I did and they told me you don't get a receipt so if you need that for taxes this place isn't your spot.

Final Thoughts - At a 1 star I wouldn't even go here so I raised to 3 stars because I would come here if there was a sale or I had a coupon. The selection sorting is so irritating that I would rather go to another thrift store. If they changed clothing selection to be by size and marked said size on the tag correctly I would probably raise to a 5 star but I can't stand looking endlessly through racks as it stands now. Prices are crazy high, selections sorted by color instead of sizes and there are almost no items besides clothing.

Prices- Thrift stores should be exactly what they are, used clothing for cheap. I went there seeing price tags of 20 bucks for shirts, 40+ bucks for shoes and baby items at 15+. It almost seems like someone is throwing darts at a board with the prices, it makes little to no sense for tons of them. Shirts should range from 1-10 bucks and average 3-6 bucks. You look around at everything here and I left thinking I could literally buy most of this stuff new for these prices. Absolutely insane.

Selection- mens and womens are separated but the items on the shelf are loosely separated by colors. So you find yourself endlessly going through items just to find you wouldn't even fit in most of them. What a waste of time!! This feels like something done by a lazy mentality because it's probably easier for a worker to throw a black shirt on the shelf next to another but idk, all I know is that it makes me not want to look.

Smell- when you walk in you get blasted with an overwhelming smell of an old foot sitting in an attic of your grandma's old dresser. It stays with you while walking around the whole time.

I left thinking I won't be back for at least a month or two and I hope they figure it out then. Lower prices, change sorting by sizes, and get some...

As people said, it smells like cat pee in some areas. I left congested and with hives. (I notice some sources of donations are better than others about donating clean clothing.)

Also as people said, the racks are really hard to shop. I struggle at thrift stores due to shoulder problems, but this one is tough. A lot of effort spent disentangling hangers and garments, which leads to the size-and-color sorting issue which is very much an issue.

Where there is a handful of mutli-color skirts, the absence of size sorting is no problem. Tons of room on racks, bright colors so you can move everything else to see that the thing is too large. When I went to find a black skirt for my neighbor: forget it. I brought a tape measure since it's not pants, because every woman knows the way sizes run, if you are a 12, that can mean 10 in one brand and 14 in another. There were so many black skirts, the rack was overstuffed, the sizes are chaos. I wasnt sifting tons of too-small to find one size 12...maybe. It is much easier to shop at the North Randall Value World, where skirts are by size and you can quickly and easily see if there are black skirts in your size.

And then the black tee shirt section. The entire womens' tee shirt section, but especially black where you can't tell anything apart like you can various blues and whatnot. Again, Randall and formerly Parma Hts and Lakewood sorted by size and color. Even a ballpark on the sizing helps.

The lack of dressing rooms is annoying. Go in leggings and a cami if you need a good fit. I saw one mirror, same as Randall.

What I bought: not pants. I wont shop pants in the sizing chaos. Forget it. I don't know how those were priced past a stripey pair of slacks that squeezed it's leg into visibility for $12. NOPE. A skort, a tee shirt that was easy to pick up, and a sweater I recognized as linen. All were actually mostly thrift store priced. I went expecting what I saw in comments entirely. There were some thrift priced things, in between items priced similar with the hike in prices at Goodwill. Not worth it. Then I saw the really appalling prices. A Land's End heavily worn long sleeve tee that should be a buck or two for people who need yard clothes:$12. Pilled polyester summer dress: $19. I could go on. There is enough that is thrift priced to make the trip worth it if it weren't so hard to shop.

i don't buy the bit about the money going to help anyone justifying prices. Kids thrift because broke but also fun. Adults short on time do it because poor. Adults doing it for fun: also poor. Ask us to round up our purchase, or for donations. There are other, nicer, more affordable thrift stores doing it that we see results on because they give updates on the thing they are funding.

Markedly absent is the weird smell the old Value World had from treating for bed bugs, per a former employee. I hope to god this stuff is being treated. My insanely allergic body did not detect bedbugs, but there are whole sections I didnt go near.

Verdict: i may stop back with able bodied help, and if I need a very specific thing. This is not a fun store to browse in at all, and I will visit again to see if stuff is better before I recommend...

I’d give this place 3.5 stars if I could. The store is huge and super organized which is very nice if you’re looking for a particular item. The workers were all very nice and helpful, and even started friendly conversations when I could tell they were busy! It was awesome that they went out of their way to do that. I read other reviews saying the workers were rude, but this was not my experience at all.

I agree with some other reviews that it is overpriced, but if you dig for a while you can find some nice pieces for cheap, and they have a .99 cent rack which is awesome! I got a Hollister sweater from that section which was pretty cool and made the trip worth it. However if you’re going to this thrift store to try and find a “steal” on a designer brand, you’re gonna end up paying upwards of $90.

That being said, the thing that was frustrating was that there were no fitting rooms. Covid isn’t an excuse to not have them anymore, and it comes off as outright lazy for the store to not have them. If you’re charging that much for certain garments you clearly have the funds to put changing rooms in, and/or the funds to hire more workers to work them. I get it, people steal and it’s hard to keep track of it in fitting rooms. However if you’re that worried about people stealing get security tags. There’s no excuse to not have changing rooms when you’re paying retail prices for some items. Especially because 99% of retail stores have fitting rooms.

Overall I had a good experience but if you’re looking to try things on and get higher end brands for cheaper prices then go down the street to VOA. They have dressing rooms and won’t charge $90 for a jacket. I’ll likely be back but not as often as I regular Goodwill or VOA. This review is not meant to bash the store as I enjoyed my trip, but more as a warning to people with expectations that this store is similar to other thrift stores in the area, as it’s not...