Sacks Thrift Store: We’re Donating to Death

When someone says 'they're full', you don't force them to have another burger. Sacks Thrift Store in downtown Bozeman is currently at capacity with signs all over their outside donation shed. Yet lazy people are still piling crap outside their doors in the after hours. Not cool.

Well intentioned or not, the donations that are just dumped on their doorstep are not helpful at all right now. It's very simple: Sacks Thrift Store is currently over-flowing with donations and have asked for a TEMPORARY pause in people dropping stuff off. We really need to honor their wishes right now.

Sacks Thrift Store is a very special place. Not only is it a long-standing downtown business but it is a huge supporter of the Bozeman Help Center, Inc.. It's a non-profit, making it crucial that it operates as efficiently as possible. The less efficient, the less money they can funnel to the Help Center to support the programs:

• 24-Hour Crisis, Suicide & Resource Lines
• Sexual Assault Counseling Center
• Child Advocacy Center
• Hearts & Homes Family Resource Center

We're doing this wrong. By piling stuff at their front door after hours when they have clearly stated they're full, we're negating any benefit the donation might have. It costs money to sort donations. It costs money to store donations. And it certainly costs money to throw away some of the crap I've seen people leave there in the off-hours.

You can certainly argue that 'too many donations' is a good problem to have. But it's not, really. It's temporarily burdensome for employees on every level. How hard is it to store your clean, quality donations for a while until things level off a bit?

Especially in the last 18 months, so many folks have Marie Kondo'd their life, creating an avalanche of donations. Sounds great, but along with the really great bags of clothes that no longer fit us...let's face it: there's the never-ending parade of non-sellable garbage people dump there instead of throwing away themselves. It needs to get better.

Our studios are right across the street from Sacks. I see the piles every morning and it breaks my heart. Most of it looks like it should be thrown away and I know that an employee has to spend the time and effort going through less than stellar donations that they currently don't even have room to store.

Your high quality donations are incredibly valuable to Sacks. (But for the time being, hang on to them. They're out of storage space.) We know what's good and what's not. We need to be cognizant of what this business is and help them succeed...not waste their valuable time and space.

Sacks Thrift Store is far too important for us to trash their margins. As a community, we need to abide by their donation wishes and keep the donations clean and high quality. The more money they make, the more money there is to support the Help Center.