The Salvation Army

It’s a Salvation Army, so tempering one’s expectations accordingly, this is a decent one of those them thar things. It’s not as bright and clean as the Albany Goodwill store but it’s a step up from a few of the other even grungier thrifts in the area.
Plus side:
— larger store location than your typical thrift store
— fairly regular turnover of stock, new things coming in
— easy drop off in the back
— clean enough inside and clean stock, relative to the genre
— huge selection of clothes, and shirts organized by color, the way I like it
Minus side:
— 85% of this store is clothing; I tend to shop at the thrift stores for other things, so I found it a bit disappointing in this regard
— as ever, almost no boys’ clothing (order of size of stock: women’s, men’s, girls, infants, boys)
— they are doing an absolutely unforgivably bad job of keeping the trash from the donation center out of the woodlands/​wetlands immediately behind the store. I realize this is a low-​end store in a low-​rent district, and a lot of people dump stuff at a place like this, but even so the amount of filth in the back is amazing. I don’t cotton by the reuse-​recycle-​rehabilitate mantra so much if it comes at the cost of this amount of tonnage of outright garbage dumping.

Although this Salvation Army store is a bit outdated-​looking on the outside, inside it looks like it’s doing fairly well. Things tend to move fairly well from incoming items to outgoing items (after sale). With markdowns going on almost continuously (thanks to tag colors which change daily and weekly), means this location can get decent quality clothing for a lot less than at the original place of purchase. Some of the items even have their original tags (a genuine plus in most-people’s books)… I do have to travel a bit (30 – 40 minutes), but it’s well worth it! The problem is, there isn’t enough parking for most handicap people (with true handicap tags) to suit everyone’s needs.
Bathrooms? This business tends to make people believe the words «What are bathrooms in this place?» They tell us they have none available for anyone, but for a place to be open BY LAW, they MUST have a bathroom. Without them (and without a respectable almost always business open nearby) makes coming here with a full bladder or digestive tract (or those who feel like they need to throw up), very very uncomfortable.
Well, this place isn’t one of the world’s cleanest Salvation Army locations, but they do come around eventually and clean up the dropped items on the floor. (Thereby, that’s why that big shoe stain might very well be on that dress or shirt).
Experience goes to show you, with a place such as this, you can find things that aren’t available anymore. I was surprised many years ago, when I found one pair of adult blanket sleepers (from Target) inside-​and Target stopped selling these-​so these were quite rare. Unfortunately, they weren’t anyone in my family’s size, otherwise I would have bought it no matter the cost.

Drop Off: Always quick and easy. There is a section for clothes and another section for everything else. There are usually friendly people out side willing to help you incase you need to get something signed but if not just walk inside and they will help you out.
Shopping: pretty good, I’ve found some good couches and chairs, and the clothing is sorted really well but I’ve never found anything too great. Theres a decent selection, but over all this is a fairly small salvation army, it does have a fair selection though.