You Were Quite a Lady, Sally Ann

[jamesq]

On Sunday I did some chores. One of those was to get rid of all the clothing I've outgrown (or is that ingrown - they don't fit because I've shrunk). I stuffed the old clothes into some old knapsacks and other containers as I have this bizarre need to make everything I take something "donate-able". I dropped it all off at the Salvation Army bin at the Dalhousie Co-op. It didn't actually go into the bin because it was full to overflowing and there were mounds of clothing bags and other sundries piled up beside the bin. I added my contribution to the mess as best I could without making it worse.

Alls well that end's well right?

Today I walked to work. Coincidentally I walked right by the Sally Ann bin. The pile was still there, but it seemed messier. Also several items of the mess looked familiar. Some asshole had rifled through everything (including my former stuff) The goal, as near as I could figure out from less then a minute of observation, was to take one of the bags that I had contributed.

This vaguely pisses me off. On the one hand, I was effectively throwing it away - or at least pushing it into a system where someone who wants it could have it. On the other, it is being used.

Now that I think about it, it's less what was valued and taken and more what was not valued and left behind that I'm pissed about. I mean, if someone wants a black bag that badly, go ahead and take it, but try to clean up after yourself. My other stuff was unceremoniously dumped onto the pile.

It also seems unfair to those people who go to the thrift stores themselves. They did everything right, but no matter how early or often they go, they'll never get "the good stuff". Queue jumpers have beaten them to it.

I've always shook my head at the people who, I imagined, dumped there crap at these bins. Now I think they put it all into bags and took it there properly, only to have it tossed by scavengers.

Comments

[catalytic.livejournal.com]

As a security guard I had to deal with the people who do that, and deal with them too often. They were persistent, too. I'd chase them away and half an hour later they'd be back.

Pricks.

Sad but true

[nosarious.livejournal.com]

One of the side effects of our Governments balancing the budget has been a reduction of the amount of money given to charities. As such the charities have to cut their own costs, and one of those costs that gets cut is the pickup from used bins. Just like Goodwill will no longer do pickups (as I found out, with several bags of clothing which no longer fits... from over the past decade or so)

It's sad that people can't clean up after themselves. There are several thrift stores in Edmonton who have just stopped using the bins. Especially in the Whyte Avenue area. People would drop stuff off in good faith, the homeless would go through and take what they wanted, leaving a mess, and then take it to pawn shops to make a quick buck...

Now they all have a policy that donations must be made during business hours. The short-sighted view of the scavengers and the messy result of their rooting around in the bins is conditioning the stores to not provide a service. Convenience is lost all around.

As a side note, if you happen to notice that a bin is not being emptied on a regular basis, give the Salvation Army a call and let them know it is full. Heck, make a suggestion to them that they put a phone number on the bin asking people to call and let them know it is full. You might only be able to leave a message, but at least it lets you participate in the cleaning up of the mess before it gets too bad.