Value World Thrift — Local services in Pontiac

I stopped in during a run. I had confused it with a Value City, but that was my misreading--it's a thrift store. I was impressed with the prices and selection, and I took a picture of a twin-sized bed frame to pick up another time when I had my car.

When I returned the next day, I was further surprised to see that there was a sale for 50% off, storewide. I tried to load the bed frame into a cart, since some of the pieces were pretty big. I was very visible, since I tried multiple orientations for the pieces of the bed frame. I spent some time figuring out which checkout lane to go to, since it seemed like some people were in line ahead of me, though it turned out they were still shopping. Again, this made me very visible--so much so that I was waved over to a checkout lane by the workers there.

I paid, checked out, and chose to get a printed receipt. I had a good amount of trouble getting out of the door, since so many pieces of the bed frame were hanging off of the cart. At one point, two large pieces fell off of the cart. A woman approached me and asked whether I had paid for the bed frame. I told her I had. She asked whether I was sure. At this point, I decided never to come back to this store.

I told her that I was sure and had the receipt in my pocket. She suggested leaving some pieces of the bed frame near the door, assuring me that no one would try to take them. This seemed strange to me, since she had just implied that I was stealing them myself.

I took the thinner parts of the bedframe to my car, wondering whether I was overreacting to her question. I brought my car around to pick up the two larger pieces and was please to see that no one had stolen them. I wonder how many people thought about stealing those pieces until that woman approached them and shamed them or made them feel uncomfortable by implying they were stealing.

I was planning to bring my wife to the store to shop maternity clothes, but I no longer feel comfortable coming to Value World. There are other thrift stores and consignment shops in the area that I will check out instead.

However, though I will not be back, I will still give a second star, since the selection and prices were quite reasonable. I think this is more than fair, considering that I do not think people should go to this Value World location.

I will not be going back to this Value...

BAIT AND SWITCH SALES! So I receive a text from Value World saying there was a sale for 40% off, all locations. So I drive 45 mins to shop. I buy a lot of stuff thinking I will be getting 40% off. They tell me "White tags excluded". The entire store was white tags. I asked where the colored tags are? They say there are a few in the women's section. So I pull up the text I got for the sale, not one word about white tags excluded. And the manager Dee was extremely rude and unprofessional. She pointed to some sign by the door, and I said I drove 45 mins to get here because the text said there was a sale. She was like "I dont know what to tell you" and just walked away. I went ahead and paid full price and realized I should have had $54 discount. The very next day, I receive another text for the same sale, this one said "white tags excluded". So I called corporate and actually spoke with the lady that sent out the text and she confirmed she made a mistake on the first text that went out. And all I ended up getting was a "Sorry about that. Here make sure you sign up for email notifications". Needless to say, I will never trust another text from Value World and its not likely I will ever shop there again.

In response to the reply below......... After realizing I over paid by $54 for someone else's mistake and speaking with a close friend that also went there for the sale and the same thing happened to her, I felt the "Oop's sorry about that" Was unacceptable. There were a lot of people affected by that mistake. I seen people in line ahead of me having the same confusion. And this is not the first time these mistakes have happened. The customers that shop here are low income and your inventory is donated. My last google review had 9k views and I'm going to report...

Well, another 50% off deal at Value World on 3/23/21. This time I went to the one in Pontiac. There wasn't a lot of people shopping when I arrived at 2pm. But by the time I checked out they seemed to be a bit busier. I was there about 1 1/2 hrs shopping. I have been to this location many times before. Sorry to say it's not my favorite one :( They seem to have the highest mark up at this location. It's a 2nd hand store, why don't they have prices that reflect that? I know they probably mark it up to accommodate the upcoming sales. I feel it's way overpriced for what you get when there is no coupon. Just my opinion. They don't have enough employees working while running the half off special. If they did, I didn't see anyone other than the cashier! I waited in line for 35 minutes. They had one cashier for checking out. I felt bad for her. While I was waiting, the manager was called up front. She walked past the entire line, helped the cashier with something then went in the back room/office. Omg! What is more important in the back than the MANY people in line? She was then called back up front for another issue with the cashier. Finally, she jumped on a register. All of us standing in line could not believe it! Why didn't she do that the first time! I will only go here during half off sales. Hopefully they will staff the store better with anticipation of the sale. I know some of the employees work hard, and they have been through a few management changes. But they still need managers that see the big picture....