Deseret Rent-a-Blues

I feel like this blog is just becoming my personal soap box, but here I go again anyway. So on Saturday I cleaned up my room and bathroom and cleaned out my closet as well. I ended up with a garbage bag of clothes and shoes that I no longer want and have plans to take to the local thrift store, the Deseret Industries. This is a local chain of thrift stores that are largely managed by the mentally disabled and handicapped to give them an income. Well, I sort of got busy watching football and getting ready for Halloween parties that night, so I didn’t make it to the thrift store on Saturday. My plan was to drop off my bag on my way home from church, since there is a DI close to my home. When I got there, I noticed a rent-a-cop sitting in his car in the drop off area and signs that said, “No Donations Today”. Not wanting to make a scene on a Sunday afternoon, I just went home with the intention of dropping by with my bag on my way home one night this week. The other night I got around to doing it on my way home, but I don’t usually make it home until late, and the other night was no different. I think it was about 8:30pm or 9:00pm. Again, I pulled up to the drop off zone, and again there was a rent-a-cop sitting in his car working his way through a book of Sudoku. I didn’t want to come back a third time, so I got out of my car so I could get my bag out of my back seat and throw it in the donation bin. But the second my left foot hit the asphalt this rent-a-cop was all over me with his clenched fists and flared nostrils. Not wanting to get hit in the face with an overreacted blast of mace, I got back in my car and left. Apparently, you can only donate during business hours, and I’m at work during business hours, so I’m stuck with this bag of old clothes in my back seat.

Everyone has their procedures to follow, I get it, but this is the DI, a thrift store full of stuff that no one will pay more than a dollar per item for anyway. At a dollar per item, I was dropping off about $10 worth of old dress shoes and pants that didn’t fit right. What are they afraid of? Will some homeless guy come by and pick through my bag and take a pair of pants and cut their gross sales by a dollar? Hello, that’s a dollar! And besides, it’s a Not-for-profit, that dollar goes towards paying for salaries anyway and the pants would probably be purchased by the same guy. Will that dollar they don’t get from my pair of pants inhibit them from making payroll? If not, their product will end up in the same hands. Fire the rent-a-cop; let people steal a pair of pants once in a while, and you’ll come out ahead in the end. And besides, you have fewer products to sell when you dissuade donations, right? I also thought that they may be concerned that someone would come by and vandalize the donations. If so, who cares! How often could that possibly happen; once a month? When it does happen, just throw my bag of clothes in the dumpster. I know I would have if I could have found one somewhere between the DI and my home the other night. I couldn’t, so now I’m stuck with this bag in my car. I’m sure not going to take a day off so I can make it to the DI during business hours. Does anyone know of a thrift store that isn’t crawling with rent-a-cops?