Greedy Donator

With every change of the season, I look forward to cleaning out my closet. I LOVE to purge. I get rid of old clothes I've never worn, jeans that have shrunk, and just stuff I don't need. So with spring approaching, I found it time to purge. 

In Little Rock, I would collect all of my items, mostly clothing, and contact ARC to pick it up. I just put my bags curbside, and they toted them off and left me with a nice tax-deductible note. Simple and easy, and everyone won. 

Now that we're in Memphis, I decided to try another route for my first closet purging: Consignment. I have a friend, you know who you are, who always reaps the benefits of consignment selling. She's always making money selling her stuff. 

So I Googled consignment shops in Memphis. There was one that popped up several times, and I visited their web site. They said that they accept clothing for younger adults from brands like GAP, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Ann Taylor, etc. They also said that they pay you cash on the spot. Right there. No waiting 90 days to see if your stuff sells. Awesome. 

The site also listed two locations, and that both locations don't always accept the same thing. I chose the location in the "nicer" part of town, assured that those people would want my old stuff; most of which had nothing wrong with it other than it was old, a little worn, and I was tired of it. 

So I struck out to visit this pay-you-cash clothing store. I was a ways from my house, but I made the commitment to going. I arrived and things looked good so far. The place was large, had mostly cute, if not too young, stuff and there were normal people inside. There was a couple in front of me who was being handed a wad of twenty dollar bills. A wad may be over stating it, but there were several twenties. 

I handed her my three bags of clothing, filled out their little form, and was told it would be an hour wait before she handed me a wad of twenties. Well, it would take me most of that time to go home, so I spent an hour driving around shopping. I reminded myself that I had made this trip to make money, not spend it, so I managed to just browse. 

An hour later, I returned to the store where they were just finishing filtering through my bags. I could tell this because my three bags were sitting on the counter. Success, I thought! Here comes my wad-o-cash. 

The woman reported to me that they weren't able to accept all of my clothing, but for the pieces they could buy, she could offer me two ninety five. $295.00, I thought? Awesome. A definite haul.

I said okay, and as she opened the cash drawer and reached for the quarters, I realized she meant $2.95. And, I realized that the three bags of clothing on the counter were going home with me. 

I took my change....literally...and exited the store. As I was packing my bags back into my trunk, I decided I was not going to take this. 

I drove two blocks to the Goodwill Donation Center, which I had seen while driving around for an hour and pulled in. Jeff greeted me at the door with a smile. Took my bags from me, wrote me a receipt, which I will be directing to my tax guy in a year, and thanked me repeatedly for my donation. 

This is more like it, I thought. 

Then, he handed me two coupons, each for a three-piece chicken strips pack at Chick-Fil-A. 

So not only did Jeff not judge me, rifle through my clothes or send my clothing back, he gave me free food. I'm also pretty sure that 2 three-piece chicken strips packs are worth more than $2.95. 

Because of this, I will continue donating my clothing, writting it off and getting free food. 

Take that consignment shop!