[Tfug] WorldCare suggestions?

[Bexley Hall]

Hi, Marco,

--- On Tue, 3/3/09, Marco Savo <savomarco at gmail.com> wrote:

> Well, maybe better organization? I went to buy the "Sun Monitor"
> posted here, and when I went in no one knows that they have these
> monitors to sell.

You will note in the original post that you *had* to "ask
for Joe".  At any time, there are upwards of 250,000 pounds
of goods in the facility.  And, probably 6 or 7 *volunteers*
managing it all.

Those people change from day to day.  And, each deals with
only a certain portion of the "collection".  E.g., if you
were to ask Joe if they have a Heparin pump that you could
buy/borrow, he would stare at you with a blank expression
(since Joe isn't involved in handling any of the medical
supplies).  Likewise, if you ask someone in the *store*
about something that is *not* in the store, you are likely
to get the same blank stare.

[Go to Home Depot and ask the guy in the plumbing department
if they carry clutch head screws; chances are he won't be
able to answer you -- nor will the guy in the hardware
department be able to tell you if they have closet flanges]

> Another time I asked for a cd/dvd writer, they told me they
> have some but they should be tested, that I should come back
> the next week. The next week I went back, and one woman told
> me in an unpleasant way that if I want a cd
> or dvd writer to go to bestbuy.com, they won't sell me
> one, they sell the whole computer.

And, I'm willing to bet that the woman was in the middle of
trying to do three things at once... answer your question,
supervise some juveniles "doing time" on probation (this is
a full-time job as these folks tend to need to be prodded
to do *anything*), answer the phones, etc.

Remember, WC isn't a store, its a charitable organization.
Their goal is not to sell things but, rather, to *give*
them to people/organizations in need.  The store exists 
just to help pay for the electricity/heat. As such, there
isn't much effort put into selling items that aren't
*easy* to sell.  More esoteric items tend to get sold by a
broker to folks who know exactly what they are looking
for and the risks of "buying used".

In the past, I have tried to list many oddball things
that I thought folks (here) might have a use for.  The
results were discouraging.  So, now most of those things
go straight into the "metal recycling" bin, etc.

Approximately 3 tons of materials gets recycled there,
*daily*.  So, it doesn't pay to hold onto items that
won't sell quickly, if at all!  If a home can be found
for them at some other charitable organization, great!
If not, they are recycled for their component parts.

> I'm not going there anymore

If you want a "real store", you're much better off going
to a real store!  :>  If you like more unusual things and
don't want to be digging deep into your pockets just to
*play* with them, you might try the biweekly UofA auctions
(though you will find that to be a huge time-sink).  You
might also check out PCR (?  I think I have misremembered
that  :< ) at Park & 22nd -- they are organized  more like a
regular store.

--don