The Salvation Army Thrift Store Glenville, NY — Local services in Town of Glenville

After having supported numerous Salvation Army locations through monetary and material donations over the years, I am extremely unhappy with the way I was treated this evening by a woman who stated she was the manager of the Glenville, NY store.

My daughter and I were shopping this evening. She picked out two items. The shirt she picked didn’t have a tag, while the tag fell off the $2.99 metallic 80s style belt she selected.

They have a policy that any item without a tag needs to be reprocessed, but the person who does the reprocessing was not present.

Since I work across the street, I asked if they could hold the items for me after they were reprocessed. I would have been there by 1:30p tomorrow. The manager’s answer was no.

I asked if we could pay for just the belt since we had the tag that had fallen off. She rudely pointed to each word on their policy sheet at the register which states that MISSING tags would not be honored. The belt’s tag, however, was not missing. It hadn’t been fastened properly and had come off and we presented it to her.

I admitted that my child fiddled with the tag and apologized for my daughter having accidentally removed the tag while she was holding the belt. While we were looking at other items, my daughter and I were talking. I had explained to her that I had a belt just like it when I was her age. It made her very happy to think that she was buying something similar. So I could leave with the belt, I offered to pay $10 for it, more than double the highest price item on the rack. The manager refused.

After going back and forth, in anger she told me to just take the belt. I couldn’t take the item without paying for it & offered again to pay $10 for the $2.99 belt. Angrily, again, she told me to just make a donation to their kettle. So I took out my checkbook to write a check and she told me their donations are cash or credit card only.

During the entire exchange, the woman never looked at me. She rudely pointed to each word on her handwritten sign. She spoke with me as if she thought I was trying to swindle her, raised her voice with me, and walked away when I responded in kind.

I did not want an item I didn’t pay for. I understood that the items had to be reprocessed. I showed the cashier - and attempted to show the manager - that I work across the street and asked only that they hold the $2.99 belt for me until my lunch break at 1:30 tomorrow. I do not feel that was an unreasonable request or that her agitated response was justified.

Because of her tone, we left without the belt or shirt. The store didn’t get our sale, didn’t get our donation, and will no longer receive any donations from us, either directly or indirectly through other organizations that are collecting from them. Had she treated me like a person, instead of an annoyance, I am sure we could have come to an agreement that was satisfactory for both of us and she could have maintained her...

Do not bother going here. I’m not sure what is going on at this store, maybe they’re pulling all their inventory for e-commerce or something, but there is nothing worthwhile here. Many of the shelves are empty (despite donations being at all time highs) and the things on the shelves were literally garbage, I would have probably thrown 75% of what I saw there straight into the trash. Either looked like it came from the dollar store, or dirty, or broken. We’re talking old scratched Teflon pans, dolls with eyes missing, broken frames, worn and pilling clothes. The glassware section was only the cheapest items, things I would be concerned about using due to materials (lead) etc. I can’t even fathom who is making the intake/sorting decisions. I saw one thing I considered getting- one of those clear glass round Pyrex Tupperware, but it was only the bottom of the Tupperware, no lid, and it was marked $7.99! You can buy them new and in tact for less than that. What is happening...

Every time I come to drop off donations (at the correct time and day) they have some excuse as to why they cant take it. They should allow donations to be dropped off even without the assigned employee to that there, especially if the person is SUPPOSED to be there by 10am and it’s past that time. I plan around that time to come by and yet Im still met by an excuse. Would NOT recommend bringing donations here.

To clarify: the issue was NOT that the items brought were not in good condition for donation as mentioned in the store’s response. I’ve brought items before and nobody ever corroborates if they’re good to donate or should be disposed- they simply have me place it in a...