By Ms Frugal Ears: who writes about frugal and simple living, parenting and low-cost recipes. She is a compulsive op-shopper, even when trying to declutter and embrace mindful minimalism.
I love op-shopping. Okay, perhaps I am a bit obsessed. And I
have always wondered how charity shops manage the sheer bulk of donations
that come in. How do they stock a store so that everything is neat and ordered?
How do they price items? So I was thrilled to participate in a
behind-the-scenes tour of the Mitchell Distribution Centre of the St Vincent de
Paul Society (Vinnies) along with fellow I Op Therefore I Am member The Shopping Sherpa.
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
Our tour guide was Gary Crowder, Area Manager for the
Mitchell Distribution Centre and Dickson Centre; which encompasses the full
time management of the warehouse. He didn't look like he worked in an op-shop. Well,
I don’t know what I expected but I am used to being greeted by kind older
ladies.
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
Gary is ex-military, a snappy dresser and clearly good with logistics. When
we saw the scale of the operation, we realized why his ex-military skills must
come in handy.
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
Vinnies Mitchell handles three units: a retail shop, a sorting
facility and a service unit. The Mitchell facility is responsible for sorting
donations for five Canberra stores to include Mitchell. Belconnen and
Tuggeranong stores do a certain amount of self-sorting, but none of the other
stores have the facilities to process all donations themselves. Vinnies trucks
visit the stores on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and service the general
public on Tuesday and Thursdays.
First step on our tour was a walk through the retail shop. I
found it hard to move through the retail shop without pausing to look at
things. I wanted to try on the jewellery, flick through the women’s clothing
rack, search for craft items and books and check out the children’s wear. Oh,
that vintage fake-fur coat! That Tupperware butter dish! The children’s DVDs! This
instinctive need to touch things and take them home only intensified when we
visited the stock out the back. ‘Just pretend it is like a museum,’ whispered
Anna-Maria. ‘No touching.’
You may not realise that there is a retail outlet in
Mitchell. I didn't actually know there was one before our visit. It is hidden in
a side street behind some adult establishments, one street back from the Salvos
op shop. For several years it was not open to the public, operating only as a
sorting facility and warehouse, but it re-opened for business a few years ago.
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
The sorting centre receives bags containing up to 15 kg in unsorted
donations from its stores. These are stored at a shed on its premises until the
bags are sorted (more on that to come). Vinnies Mitchell workers are able to
sort between 100 and 120 bags per day. They also receive other donations from
drop-off bins and centres, including at the Mitchell centre itself.
Wearing gloves (cloth or vinyl gloves – not latex as some
people have allergies), workers open up a bag and then sort into three piles: A-grade
(shop stock), B-grade and items unusable (rubbish). Vinnies has a ‘ban list’ of
products that it is prohibited from selling, or that it is unable to sell (e.g.
it does not sell electronic items). Most items are good quality, but some bags
contain soiled or dangerous items. Vinnies policy is that if the bag smells
funny or does not look safe, dispose of it. Safety of worker is paramount.
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
A-grade items are placed in either a blue or a white laundry basket,
depending on whether the items are suitable for winter or summer clothing. When
they are full, the A-grade baskets are then taken to another section of the sorting
area, where they are sorted into labelled boxes.
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
I was amazed at the effort Vinnies
put into packaging items according to category, for example men’s ties, women’s
belts, women’s vests, women’s dresses, children’s toys and so on. This system
means that it is easy for shops to place an order when they are low on a
certain type of item: for example they can request more women’s summer t-shirts
and a box is easily located and sent to them.
B-grade items include clothing that is faded or needs minor
repairs, or other items in less than top condition. These items are on-sold in
bulk bales to textile companies.
What does Vinnies Mitchell receive the most of in donations? A
large proportion of items—up to 85%—consist of women’s clothes. It receives
much less menswear and there is always a demand for good quality men’s
clothing. “Men in Canberra tend to wear tailored suits, and then wear them
until they are nearly worn out,” explained Gary. “We get a lot of suit jackets
that we can sell, but there are not nearly as many pants. And there is not much
in the way of casual wear, either.”
We ventured through another ‘do not enter’ door into the
inner sanctum of the sorting facility. Here there were tall pallet racks filled
with large sacks of unsorted items, piles of books, tins of jewellery, and odds
and ends.
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
All items sold have to comply with Australian legislation. For
example, if an items is faulty then a customer can return it and request a
refund. And DVDs can only be sold with the correct Australian classification.
Many of the classifications have changed—for example there is now a MA15+
category—so Vinnes has a volunteer who comes in during the week to
search the DVD titles online and label them with new classification stickers.
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| Photo by Ms Frugal Ears |
I noticed a pile of crutches and walkers stored on the mezzanine
level of the warehouse. Gary explained that they provide these items to customers
if they ask; they do not display them as they find that some people purchase
and then resell for profit.
We thought we’d seen everything, but there was more. Gary
took us out the back and into a large shed, where sacks of unsorted material
received from Vinnies stores were kept. The shed houses anywhere between 2,500 and
3,000 unsorted bags at any time. “My aim is to ensure we have at least one and
a half months worth of goods to stock Vinnies stores in storage, in case
donations dry up for any reason” said Gary. The forklift drivers had a system
for sorting the goods so that they are stored chronologically.
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
And finally, there was a warehouse across the road. The
warehouse held boxes of goods that had been labelled and packaged in the sorting
centre.
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
Beside the roller door was an order that had already been prepared for
the Vinnies Phillip store. Once a store orders what it needs, warehouse workers
locate the relevant boxes in the warehouse and then make a stack of them, ready
to load onto the truck and transport.
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| Photo by Ms Frugal Ears |
The warehouse also contained some furniture. We admired a
funky green-and-black-striped retro sofa, and a brown hipster-style sofa.
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| Photo by Ms Frugal Ears |
But this
furniture was not destined for Vinnies stores. “Around 80% of our furniture
goes to people in need,” said Gary. “Homelessness is a real problem in
Canberra. And since most of the people we gift furniture to live in small
apartments, it’s a challenge to find items that are small enough to fit.” Vinnies
buys new foam mattresses to go with the beds it gives these people, to ensure that
the bedding is hygienic and safe.
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| Photo by Ms Frugal Ears |
The thing that impressed me the most about Vinnies Mitchell
Distribution Centre was the commitment to quality. Items were treated
respectfully, and a lot of care went into the sorting process. Gary emphasised
that Vinnies always welcomed quality donations; and an issue for them was the
cost of dealing with poor quality or damaged items. He tactfully avoided discussing
the direct cost to Vinnies of dealing with rubbish that had been dumped, but
from his anecdotes that was clearly a problem especially with some of the bins
near suburban retail stores. Vinnies Mitchell has a massive skip bin out the
back, which it used for the large volume of damaged goods or items it was
unable to sell that it received.
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| Photo by The Shopping Sherpa |
As to how volunteers price items, Gary admitted it was a bit
random. It is difficult for the volunteers to know what the items they are
pricing sold for new in the shops. That said, Vinnies had some basic guidelines
based on the type of item they are pricing.
And if you think that staff and volunteers out the back get
the first pick of the best stuff at bargain prices, think again. Vinnies has
strict policies to ensure that managers monitor and approve purchases by staff,
and that the items are being sold to them at the same price they would be sold
to the general public. And Gary said that Vinnies workers were buying what you
or I would buy – mid-range clothing mainly. There are still plenty of bargains
to be enjoyed by everyone.
Speaking of bargains, Vinnies Mitchell will be holding its
annual Monster Warehouse Sale from 6 to 8 November.
Vinnies
Mitchell is located at 10 Buckland Street in Mitchell, and is open Monday to
Friday 9 am to 4 pm and Saturday 10 am to 3 pm.
