31 Jan News from Experienced Goods: Ruff Stuff (Feb 2023)

Sometimes I am at a loss trying to explain my job to other people.  “I work in a thrift store” sounds straightforward enough, but does not come close to what we actually do at Experienced Goods. To work in the clothing department, I have to be a fashion connoisseur, a textiles expert, skilled at quick decision making, eagle-eyed when it comes to seeing stains, holes and other flaws, up on the latest trends and aware of what our customers do and don’t tend to buy.  In addition I have to be physically fit enough to lift heavy bags of donations or salvage, stand on my feet for most of the day, toggle between working in the sorting room and helping out on the sales floor and put on my customer service hat when interacting with shoppers and donors. All of us are involved in processing an extremely broad spectrum of donations and making the sales floor look and feel inviting and fresh.  

Sometimes creating that freshness involves exploding (a little) ways of doing things that have been in place for a long time and augmenting them with “thinking outside the box” ideas.  Recently, Assistant Manager Eric had the brilliant idea of culling some of the clothing items we put in the salvage pile, putting them in a big dump table shoppers can rummage through, and selling them for $2 a piece. These are textiles that, as he put it, we might look at while sorting and say, “Wow, that’s so cool, but it’s stained/torn/pilled/worn out. I hate to throw it in the salvage bin, but I can’t justify putting it on the rack at the regular clothing price.” These might be items someone could repair and wear, or that have a stain that could be artfully covered over with a funky patch. They could be made of a luxurious fiber like cashmere or silk that could be incorporated into a craft project or repurposed into something else, like a handbag or belt, or cut into strips for rug making. For the fashion adventurous, they could herald the beginning of the latest style trend. (Remember when pre-ripped jeans started showing up in high-end stores?) Not only does this generate more income for the store and for Brattleboro Area Hospice, it keeps textiles out of the waste stream that can eventually end up at the landfill. We are calling this experiment Ruff Stuff, and customers are loving it. In addition to reducing waste, we like to think we might be stimulating people’s latent creativity; waking up the crafty beast, as it were. Plus, there’s something  exciting about digging through a big pile of stuff. It’s tactile, visual, full of potential, literally mining for buried treasure. I feel like it engages the little kid in me who longs to make a mess, defying my mother’s edict to keep my clothes neatly folded.  

To that end and as always, we urge everyone to continue to donate to Experienced Goods and to support Brattleboro Area Hospice. Remember that all of what you see in our store comes from local donations and represents the generosity of people who live in the area.  We are eager to receive your donations at our wonderful new store at 80 Flat Street, where there’s lots of free parking and it’s easy to drop off goods.  We will happily come out to your car and help you transport your donations to the store, and can provide you with a tax receipt if you wish.  Our donation hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10 am – 3 pm. 

Even as snow storms roll through our area and we grumble about shoveling out yet another time, spring is not far away, at least on the calendar.  Get a jump on spring cleaning and bring all that extra stuff to Experienced Goods.  Think how good you’ll feel when the seasons change and the only thing on your agenda is a nice long walk in the warm spring sunshine!

~Jennie Reichman