I just picked up a once-used 3-gallon Le Creueset pot for $7.50.

[Richard Steele]

I know it was only used once, because the person who used it once
didn't bother to peel the price tag off the bottom
before they put it on the stove, and most of that tag is still there.

I've been working 6 weeks as an "Assistant Manager" at a Thrift Store,
and I gotta tell ya: It's every bit as wonderdful as I ever imagined.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. 3 gallons? As in 12 qt?

Is it enamel on steel 12 qt or the enameled cast iron 13-1/4 qt?

The steel has a street price, new, of about a hundred bucks.

The cast iron has a list price of about $550 and a street price of around $400.

Either way, you got a hell of a good deal if the thing is that big. Good on you!

[Richard Steele]

5. 3 gallons as in " It's real big and the original label is thin charcoal"

To be honest, I think it may have been some sort of "Factory Second";
just about all I can make out on the carbonized price-tag on the bottom
are the words "Compare to:"

That's not a phrase that would appear on any ordinary price tag
when an item like this was being sold through the outlets who
sell things like this. The fact that it has a big tag on the bottom
in the first place is a sign that it "isn't quite right". It was sold
through some discount store somewhere.

Anyway, when I dangle it gently from one finger and rap it HARD
with my knuckle, it doesn't RING like steel, it "thunks" like cast iron.

Frankly, I don't care whether it's "worth" $50 or $500,
it's a damn fine cooking utensil that I obtained for $7.50
that I will use often until the day I die.

As you said: anyway you look at it, I got a heck of a deal.

[eleny]

2. Wow!

I'm so glad for you. And do tell us about your good finds over time.

Lots of people think that running a San Francisco cable car is a romantic job. But for us thrift hounds, this is the best kind of story.

Congrats.

[grasswire]

3. Are you allowed to set things aside for yourself to buy?

How does that work? I've had some suspicions and heard some stories about what goes on in some places.

I get a little thrill just thinking about unpacking boxes of donations. Whee!

[Richard Steele]

4. We can set things aside all we want, provided we pay the same price anyone else would.

We're all assigned different things to sort & price in the back room.
Since they're grooming me to be a full Manager, they're rotating
me through every position, so I'll eventually be able to fill in
for any other emloyee at a moment's notice. (I'm doing BOOKS this week)

The rule is, if you see something you want in a box of donations,
you can take it to the appropriate workstation and leave a note on it
saying something like "Please let me know when you price this. Richard".
And then a day or two later it will be sitting at your workstation with
a price tag on it.

We cannot put tags on things we want for ourselves. Since I'm doing "books"
at the moment, if a book I wanted to buy crossed my table, I would have
to ask my Manager to come over and put a price on it.

To be honest, we probably pay a bit more for the things we set aside
for ourselves, just because we know someone wants it.
A good 2/3rds of everything we take in sits on the shelves for 3 weeks
and then goes to a landfill to make room for the incoming donations.

The woman who priced that pot didn't recognize the brand name,
but she thought the stick-on label looked CHEAP (it really does)
and it has scorching from the burnt label on the bottom.
So she was gonna price it at $3.99.

I told her "This is a good quality item, and I want it", so she
marked it "way up" to $9.99, knowing that my Employee Discount
would take 25% off the price.

So...Yes, we do sometimes buy the best stuff for ourselves,
but we really go out of our way to avoid any "appearance of impropriety"
when we do it.

I myself have some personal rules that I follow.
I collect & wear "vintage menswear" like millionaires collect & drive
vintage automobiles.

At this moment, there's a mint-condition Hickey-Freeman suit on the rack...
Deep-blue herringbone fabric; fits me like a glove that wants to be more than just "friends".

That's a $2000 suit, hanging there priced at $29.99...
And I'm gonna let it hang there so our customers have a chance to buy it,
because that's just the way I roll.

If it's going into the scrap bin 3 weeks from now, then I'll take it home,
but I'm gonna let everyone else have a chance first.

[grasswire]

7. the stuff goes into LANDFILL???

Geezus.

Why don't they offer it for free to low-income people before doing that?!

Do you think that's common practice?

[Richard Steele]

8. WE -DO- give it free to low-income people, and we ship TONS of it every week to the 3rd-world..

Even so, there's just so much more of it than you would ever imagine...

The USA is a "consumer economy"; there aren't enough cargo planes
in the WORLD to carry all the perfectly useable stuff that we throw away
every damned day.

Have you ever actually seen two thousand pounds of T-shirts all in one pile?
I see that EVERY SINGLE DAY.
And We're just one small store in a small city in a rural State.

[Vinca]

6. Yesterday I was in the local thrift store and a woman brought

in an interesting piece of pottery as a donation. I would have bought it in a nanosecond, but it went into the break room, set aside for one of the employees. It really pissed me off.