These are unhappy days for thrift retailer document bin divers in South Florida.
The area’s main thrift retailer chains are cashing in on the vinyl resurgence, leaving weekend collectors to pay extra for used data by way of the chains’ on-line websites or discover various marketplaces.
For years, Gulfstream Goodwill, a division of Goodwill Industries Worldwide serving Palm Seaside, Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee and Indian River counties, carried used data. Not anymore.
Since March, data have been lacking from the charity’s 25 thrift retailer places. As an alternative, donations of data, books, CDs and DVDs are despatched to an internet distributor referred to as ThriftBooks.com.
The brand new association helps Gulfstream Goodwill concentrate on its mission of offering job alternatives and coaching to members of the disabled neighborhood, the chain says.
In the meantime, shops operated by Goodwill South Florida in Broward and Miami-Dade counties lately doubled their costs from $1 to $2 for castoff titles that includes acts like Johnny Mathis, Mantovani, Perry Como and Eddie Arnold.
Information used to overflow from the cabinets of the Salvation Military retailer on Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Requested concerning the current absence of vinyl cq remark=”from cabinets that overflowed with them not way back” ], a clerk defined that donated data have been being offered by way of the shop’s public sale web site subsequent door as a substitute of being put out for retail buyers.
A number of weeks later, a small assortment of data and CDs reappeared inside the shop, however few have been by recognizable artists.
Vinyl’s ups and downs
Bin diving in South Florida thrift shops wasn’t all the time such a fruitless endeavor.
Thrift shops carried undesirable vinyl data for many years after shoppers started changing them with compact discs (CDs) within the Eighties.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in spring 2020, many South Florida residents used the time to declutter their houses and ship stacks of media to their neighborhood thrift outlets, which promptly put them out for resale.
Collections of vinyl data that includes pop and rock acts from the Nineteen Sixties onward have been straightforward to seek out. Clear, scratch-free copies of acts like Crosby Stills Nash & Younger, Sure, Moody Blues, Chicago, Eagles, Allman Brothers, Willie Nelson, Donna Summer time, Steely Dan and Teena Marie have been widespread, in addition to bountiful piles of once-popular CDs, rendered out of date to many shoppers by streaming music apps.
Over the following two years, the renewed reputation of vinyl introduced extra document shoppers into the shops. Offers grew to become more durable to seek out.
Retailer operators observed and commenced diverting titles with acquainted names to their on-line divisions, the place they may fetch rather more cash.
In October 2022, Goodwill South Florida joined the nonprofit GoodwillFinds.com, an internet “recommerce” web site that sells objects cherry-picked from native donations.
The location’s music part shows “bundles” of used data and CDs for costs far above $1, with a buyer-beware rationalization that the objects is perhaps soiled or scratched. Not way back, many of the supplied titles might be discovered for $1 every inside Goodwill shops.
On Friday, the positioning supplied a set of three data — two by Supertramp and one by Foreigner — for $24.99.
Used, well-worn copies of Elton John’s Caribou and Goodbye Yellow Brick Street — with the previous proprietor’s title scrawled throughout the covers — have been supplied for $34.99.
Two Grand Funk Railroad data have been on sale for $24.99. Used copies of Jimi Hendrix’s Smash Hits and Steely Dan’s Can’t Purchase A Thrill have been obtainable for $19.99 every. That’s nearly as a lot as these titles price new.
And a set of 11 data that included two Captain and Tennille titles. a KC and the Sunshine Band providing, Neil Diamond’s Gold and Jonathan Livingston Seagull soundtrack, The fifth Dimension’s Love’s Strains and Rhymes, and Olivia Newton John’s If You Love Me, Let Me Know, might be yours for $44.55.
Music isn’t the one merchandise offered on the positioning. Classic clothes, housewares, electronics, jewellery, toys and collectables are additionally supplied for costs lower than what they price new, however greater than what they price in-store.
Goodwill South Florida officers couldn’t be reached for remark.
Gulfstream Goodwill, to the north, has been diverting books to ThriftBooks for greater than 5 years, in accordance with a press release by the group. “The funds generated by way of our partnership with ThriftBooks play a significant position in supporting our mission of offering important help and companies to people in want,” the assertion quoted Gulfstream Goodwill president Keith Kennedy as saying.
For its half, ThriftBooks, a for-profit firm, distributes books to underserved faculties nationwide. Kennedy stated. It’s also working with Gulfstream Goodwill to inventory a library at Goodwill’s Profession Academy of the Palm Seashores constitution college, he added.
In March, the partnership was expanded past simply books, he stated.
“In response to staffing shortages and elevated transportation prices, we determined in March to associate with ThriftBooks to obtain ALL media donations, together with books, data, and DVDs, thereby eradicating them from our shops,” Kennedy stated.
“This collaboration not solely streamlines our operations but additionally permits us to prioritize the objects that present probably the most important profit to our group and the communities we serve.”
South Florida patrons, in the meantime, must go to their neighborhood document shops if they need something produced over the previous 60 years.
At We Obtained the Beats on Oakland Park Boulevard, costs begin at $3 for used vinyl data.
Gross sales affiliate Man Mazza says clients aren’t complaining a few lack of selections at thrift shops. “I don’t ask them in the event that they go to thrift shops, though I’m positive a few of them do,” he stated Friday. “Most individuals who are available in right here know what they’re on the lookout for.”
Ron Hurtibise covers enterprise and shopper points for the South Florida Solar Sentinel. He will be reached by telephone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by e-mail at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
