Local News Matters Bay Area: San Jose thrift shop turns vintage finds into funding for historic preservation efforts. “Housed in a 5,000-square-foot warehouse, the Found SJ Rummage & Reuse Hub provides a second life for items while supporting the efforts of the Preservation Action Council of San Jose. The nonprofit works to safeguard San Jose’s cultural heritage and unique buildings, and […]

How a thrifting tycoon took over Goodwill in the Bay Area from an Arizona throne ("The Bay Area stores’ merger into the Arizona-Maryland operation formed the largest Goodwill organization in the world.")

My wife and others, including the person quoted in the article, have been aware of the declining quality of Goodwill items in the Bay Area for a while, and a worker confirmed to her last year that the whole operation had been bought by Arizona.

Now the news is out.

The strategy is to take the most valuable items and sell them online, then convince you to pay $6 dollars for something second hand that cost $3 dollars new from Shein (which is made of 100% Polyester btw, which is textile-speak for "plastic").

If you want something good, don't go to "Good"will.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/bay-area-goodwill-arizona-22075698.php

#thrifting #ThriftStores #SanFrancisco #Goodwill #Arizona #clothing

Here's the final CD and DVD haul from today's outing to 3 different thrift stores.

#Thrifting #ThriftStores #ThriftHaul #CD #CDs #DVD #DVDs #Physicalmedia

The Problem With #Secondhand #Clothing;
Research suggests that we’ve lost the plot on the point of #thriftstores

https://slate.com/business/2026/01/thrifting-haul-shein-fast-fashion-environmental-harms.html

I was thinking this morning, there should be more things like Goodwill, more thrift stores like that everywhere, for even LESS things going to landfills. Just people getting together, even as a trade or barter system, things like flea markets or garage sales-- people do some of this already.

Reusing things is so important, and repair, when possible-- I've been seeing some cool self-repair fix-it meetups on here, too.

As I was talking to my wife about it, and I remembered this screenshot (I think about it a lot) that's attached below, that I saved from a Wired piece (right after the death of Twitter: https://archive.ph/YSCR9) about billionaires not knowing how to 'monetize' smaller groups of happier people, as we keep our tech, some try to fix their own stuff, etc. About how it's not enough to 'build a town square' on. Which is hilarious and ironic.

Billionaires don't give a FUCK about creating a 'town square'. They don't care about people, about us, about the rest of the 99%. They want to extract value until they can't, at whatever cost.

So reuse, keep things, fix things, as much as possible. That's the way of the future. Not these fuckin billionaires and their shitty corporations.

#repair #SelfRepair #RightToRepair #reuse #FixIt #DIY #DIYRepair #thrift #ThriftStores #FuckBillionaires