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Corrupt entities which acquire donated clothes then sell them in bulk still want your clothes. My high school friend's mom had a "business" where she would buy
by rdtsc 9y ago
Corrupt entities which acquire donated clothes then sell them in bulk still want your clothes.
My high school friend's mom had a "business" where she would buy truckloads of used clothes, some donated to go to Eastern Europe, some "diverted" from Africa and she would resell them to smaller distributors, who would setup shops in local markets or just on street corners. Compared to other people I knew they were fairly "successful" based on revenue from that "business".
I am sure people in abject poverty could use clothes. The problem is that it's not the lack of clothes, it's corruption why they don't have access to them. Same goes for food as well.
One a different note, try going to a local thrift store in a nicer part of town, I had luck finding nice used clothes there.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> One a different note, try going to a local thrift store in a nicer part of town, I had luck finding nice used clothes there. Goodwill does pretty good even in bad parts of town, because unlike independents where the store is also often the sole permanent donation center, Goodwill often operated separate donation centers, generally in more affluent areas, recognizing that supply and demand for used clothes are often not geographically aligned.
- mcguire 9y agoIIUC, all of Goodwill's donations go to regional warehouses for cleaning and sorting.
- cyberpunk0 9y agoPeople praise Goodwill a lot here but I can't really condone their business practices and exploitation of handicapped workers
- HeyLaughingBoy 9y agoWhy is "business" and "successful" in quotes. It seems like a perfectly valid business operation to me.
- mcphage 9y ago> It seems like a perfectly valid business operation to me. If they take clothes that were donated to a particular cause, and then resell them instead, that's not a valid business operation. That's a scam.
- vpribish 9y agobut the charity that took the donation decided the best use was to sell them and use the cash for their activities. This is exactly what money and commerce are for. Would it be better for the charity to be less efficient and do less for their cause?
- rdtsc 9y agoThey were stolen or probably marked as "distributed to the needy" on paper and then shoved into truck or I heard a large cargo plane and flown to Eastern Europe to be sold on the street.
- HeyLaughingBoy 9y agoOh. I assumed the "some donated to..." meant she donated some of what she bought to Eastern European charities.
- mcphage 9y agoIt was "donated to go to...", so I think the eastern Europe was the intention of the original donor. But I could be mistaken.
- rdtsc 9y agoIt was a scam, exactly.
- astura 9y agoIm assuming they weren't stealing so I assume either the charity sold it to her in bulk. It's not a "scam" if the charity decided the best way to put the donations to use was through her business.
- vpribish 9y agoI don't see the corruption here - unless the charity doesn't use the funds they raise for their stated cause.
- rdtsc 9y agoIt is not a charity. It is someone stealing the clothes and selling them.