Moving the Price Needle

Inflation is real in Thrift

During this time of inflation, thrift merchants must keep up. Especially when it comes to pricing. 

In traditional retail an invoice from a supplier or manufacturer shows up, the cost is higher and the retailer raises prices accordingly. In thrift, there isn’t an invoice. It comes in and goes to the sales floor. There isn’t a regular check and balance for current market values.

Even thrift goods values change along with the rest of the market. 

Any non-profit thrift operator has a responsibility to get good value from donated goods while providing the same to shoppers. That doesn’t mean selling things today for what they sold for a year or more ago. 

This amazing invention they call the internet makes it easy to stay on top of current prices in the market.

Sometimes it’s a big jump on a high ticket item, more often than not it’s fifty cents here, a buck there that makes the difference. 

The challenge can be changing habits. Experienced staff that is used to pricing common goods one way may not automatically understand that the value of those items, even used, has gone up. It’s a mindset change that takes some work. 

Thrift retail pricing is dynamic, smart merchants keep up. 

A few donated items we have changed recently.

Spray paint — We received a nice donation of new current brand name aerosol spray paint. We have sold them for $3 each whenever they come in. This time we charged $3.50. They are selling just as fast as they ever did. The 100 or so we received will net us an extra $50 by raising the price that little bit. I believe we could have gone to $4 and still sold them all. 

New in-the-box donated goods — The common wisdom has been to sell these things for about half of full retail. We are moving to price between two-thirds and three-quarters of full retail. It’s early on this one, but it seems to be working. In one example, a large power tool that sells new for about $500, we would have sold for $250. We put it out for $400, it sold on the first day on the sales floor. We didn’t work any harder to make that extra $150, we just priced closer to the market.

Furniture — This is a pretty subjective area. Condition, age, and style, all come into play. I’ve challenged staff to go up ten to twenty percent above what they are used to selling things for. Especially on the better more popular items. The price sold per item is up and pieces are moving as fast as ever. 

In the thrifted home center industry, there are even supply chain issues to consider. We have a donation of about 400 sheets of styrofoam 4' X8' insulation sheets. I checked online at Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards. The three closest stores had a total of 67 in stock. Somehow a ReStore has the corner on the market at the moment. In this case, we are pricing about 75% of retail. Even that’s a bargain because it’s in short supply. It’s tempting to go “full retail” but that isn’t who we are. 

It’s about the same amount of work to get something from the donation door to the sales floor whatever it’s priced for. Getting more value from that effort is the secret sauce. 

It boils down to one thing: Follow the market. 

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Tim Gebauer - Thrift Retailer