A Lot of Good — Local services in Upland

Oh my! The store name is, unfortunately, a complete misnomer!

How much “good” comes from chasing customers in the parking lot by an owner/proprietor/manager who gathered two men to to accompany her and threaten the couple she perceives is stealing CDs—even though they answered yes to each of her multiple questions about whether they had returned them—and then yelling at the young woman, and I quote, “YOU’RE UGLY! WHEN YOU CAME IN, I THOUGHT YOU WERE CUTE, BUT YOU’RE UGLY! YOU’RE UGLY! YOU’RE UGLY!” And, let me tell you… this is not her first rodeo because I’ve experienced the rude, unprofessional attitude by the Woman in Charge, Nearly Every Time.

Yikes! Is this what we want when we go shopping? I doubt it…

We love thrifting, and getting a bargain is thrilling. But when I go into this store there are no bargains, no I-can’t-believe-I-found-this-at-a-thrift-store moments. Others may find something worth their time, but it hasn’t been my experience. A nothing-special chain belt for $14? That’s my vibe, but not my kind of deal. So minus the verbal abuse or rude behavior by the Woman in Charge, I still wouldn’t be motivated to return.

The store has a great location on the corner of Foothill Blvd and Central Ave, good parking and a convenient drive through for donations, which is handy and sorta innovative. Plenty of kids’ stuff. Lots of large windows through which you can “window shop” during off hours. Or maybe you just want to peek at what’s inside to decide whether it’s worth your time to shop there. That’s good stuff. For me, I’d rather just put the place in my rear view window and head south or west. I think other places will bring the thrill you’d expect from going thrifting. I just can’t recommend this store.

For me, good thrifting is further west on Foothill to ACTS with its friendly and fun staff and amazing discounts, plus their loyalty program. Or you can head from this thrift south on Central to Holt then west to Quality or Great Deals thrift stores within a block of each other. Store displays are minimal because they have rapid turnover, which encourages me to shop there more frequently, and they have better deals, including SUPER discounts! I mean, 75% of anyone? Some of employees have worked there for years and I’ve even become pals with some of them. You know, this is the kind of stuff you expect at thrifts, right? You can also check out all them through Facebook or Instagram. Get on their “mailing” lists for additional deals and surprise super-finds like a Gucci dress, or robot assemblage.

So for the fine print, I’ve modified my review in response to the founder’s comments and I stand by my revised review. Yes, investigate my complaint, but keep in mind someone who behaves this extremely has a...

This happened today. November 11th, 2023. Went to drop off some donations. Parked my truck in parking lot and walked over with some items. Man stopped me and told me that I had to pull my truck over to the tent and they would take my items. I .... was ..... already ..... THERE. I chose not to argue. Asked him if he could take those. He said 'no' they were not re-sellable. This I understood. However, I chose not to give them the other items which were still in the truck. If I had to get in my vehicle, which was literally 25 feet away, and drive over ..... because I could not walk over and hand the items to them ...... I will donate them to a store which is more appreciative.

But wait .... there's more. I went into the store. Saw some Christmas lights I was interested in so went to test them using an extension cord into which something else was already plugged in. Young man came up to me and said that I could not test items in the store. He said that if I purchased them and they did not work, I had seven days to return the items. Told him that this made NO sense. How is that convenient to the customer ???? I let him know that I recognized that these were not his rules. He then said his manager would get very upset if he permitted this to occur. (The same thing happened to me the previous week. So I simply took the items to another area in the store and quietly tested them.)

If this is the same manager I had seen interact with a customer a few months ago I am not surprised. She was rude and accusatory to this lady who wanted to purchase golf clubs.

I have NEVER had such an experience while purchasing electrical items. Each thrift store I go to have an area with an outlet which is used to test items. They have a Ground Fault outlet (GFCI) to prevent a circuit breaker from popping should there be a defect with the item's power. Easy and very inexpensive to install. Again ... convenient to the customer.

Bottom line ..... their customer service needs significant improvement. Difficult to support their cause going forward. Other places in which I can shop.

BTW .... if someone in charge wants to discuss these issues with me, go ahead and respond with a name. I will be happy...

A 5 star turned one star with this experience: selling broken goods (i.e. defective products) that are dangerous and can cause great injury but wouldn't be able to be known by the consumer unless it's used and too late (and not be able to say anything, as it would be a concussion - how convenient). The owners also know about such defects on their products and refuse to put signs up for them. Then when I say to, they give a disgusted look and say they'll 'do it later'. Yet they have time to tell me about how the whole store is about giving money to those in the hospital.

In my head, I was like 'let me get this straight - you want someone to potentially go to the hospital by being injured by one of your products with enormous medical bills (in the $100k's) just so you can give said hospital a few dollars from the $25 item. Yep, that makes perfect sense (sarcasm)."

Then the kicker is they kept telling me how busy they were (but not busy enough to get me or someone else injured) and then when I finally complained enough - then there were 7 people just staring at me. Really? You're 'too busy' but can stand around staring me? ok (sarcasm again).

Not going to lie, they have really great stuff, antiques and all, but the few dollars I save isn't worth the $100k+ medical bills and winding up in the hospital I might suffer in the ironic plot twist that all this money is for getting people out of one. No thank you - not touching this place with a 10 foot pole again. I'm not going to any place trying to kill me and no one trying to do anything about it, not caring, and just staring at me, hoping...