At the Mercer Island Thrift Shop, we proudly offer a curated selection of goods in ideal condition for sale. Your generous donations continue to keep our inventory flowing, yet we receive many more items than we can sell ourselves – some items simply don’t fit what our customers are looking for, or exceed the amount of inventory we can process. Here’s more on this process and what’s changing:  

When items are donated to us, they are sorted by dedicated volunteers who determine what items should be put out on the floor or listed online. Items that don’t fit our small shop’s inventory needs, have imperfections, or are hard to clean, are sold in bulk to a partner organization who can sell or repurpose them. Sometimes, we receive items that are soiled or unusable and we must dispose of them to the landfill at an expense.  

On average, we’ve wholesaled 37,000 pounds per month of items we cannot sell ourselves to Goodwill which are sorted and sold through their retail stores. Goodwill recently implemented changes where they are no longer purchasing bulk items from other organizations, meaning our partnership has come to an end. We are now searching for additional options to sort through and maximize the impact of all donated items while keeping our shop from overflowing. 

What does this mean for you? We are asking the community to be extra-mindful when donating items to us. Please only donate goods that are clean, functional, and fit the quality standards you have come to expect when shopping at the Thrift Shop. Please avoid adding items that are heavily worn, broken, or need to be recycled or disposed of (scratched Teflon pans, stained clothing, deeply scuffed shoes, for example). This helps us ensure we can maximize your donations to benefit Youth and Family Services and avoid hefty disposal fees for items we simply can’t sell. 

Some items that we could use at this time are back-to-school goods (coats and backpacks in good condition), fall sports gear (outgrown cleats or clothes, sport bags) and Halloween items (costumes and decor). 

We also need to reduce our donation hours until we can get another partner on board. We will only accept donations Sunday through Thursday from 8:00am to 10:00am through the end of September. We are also unable to accept large-volume donations, such as estate donations, during this time.  

We are thankful for the many high-quality items our community continues to donate which keep our shelves full and shoppers happy. You can learn more about donations on our website: https://www.mercerislandthrift.org/items-we-accept  

Thank you for donating and shopping with us!