Salvation Army

To whom this may concern, I hesitated to write this letter because I still am afraid, however it needs to be brought to someone’s attention, even if nothing is done. On March 5th at approx. 7:15pm, I went to the salvation army after work to drop off three boxes of donations at the front door. I have done this previously on two or three occasions recently, as I have moved and live in a smaller place. Most of the items I donated were items I purchased at the Salvation Army, some with the price still on them. I am a 62-year-old woman and have lived in Montana since I was sixteen years old. I have for decades shopped and donated to the Salvation Army, my favorite thrift store in the entire valley. However, this opinion has changed as of March 5th When I went to donate in front of the store and was treated like a criminal. Due to the back part of the Salvation Army being dark I did not feel comfortable donating there, so I left the items at the front door. A man approached me, and I was very scared as I did not know who he was because he never introduced himself, instead he put his flashlight in front of me and stated, “Mam, you cannot put your items here, you need to do it when we are open. Which was fine, so I said alright “I am sorry I did not know. This man said, “Yeah everyone claims they don’t know.” This person continued saying over and over that I would be arrested and fined if I ever donated when the store is not open. This was uncalled for, and he became more and more verbally aggressive and rude, even though I had already stated that I was sorry and would not do it again. He ordered me to take back the items I donated, which I did without hesitation on my part, I picked up my belongings. However, the verbal abuse proceeded this man telling me I will be arrested for trespassing if I ever do it again, and that I will be fined. He said this to me at least 6 or more times. He also took down my license plate number. I did not protest I simply did as he asked, and it was unnecessary to continue to threaten me. He was rude and aggressively speaking to me. At no time did he explain to me why I could not leave the items to be donated other than to say I had to do it when the store was open. I will NEVER donate another thing to the Salvation Army ever again. After this incident, I went into the salvation army to see if the items I had recently previously donated were up for sale. And indeed, my donated items are listed in your store, and that is hypocritical. How ironic that you are selling the items that I have donated but are threatening me with jail and a fine for trespassing. You are profiting off me and at the same time threatening me with jail for trespassing. I have spent over the years thousands of dollars to the salvation army, and I won’t ever be doing that again. I will never donate again to your organization again, for your employee acting extremely unchristian to me. All he had to do was explain your policy and that would have been fine. That is not what he did. He was rude, condescending, aggressive and threatening. His behavior was unacceptable. He at no time introduced himself to me, which would have been the right thing to do.

This is my favorite thrift store in Kalispell. I always find something whenever I come in here, that is why it is so dangerous when I do! It is hard to leave sometimes because you can find so many good finds all at once and it can be overwhelming.
I have gotten plenty of furniture at this location as well as clothing and household items. I will continue to shop at this location for a number of things because of the size of the store and how helpful the people who work there are.

KalispelI, Montana seems to have three main industries: fishing tourism, gambling casinos, and thrift stores –tons of them for such a small and remote town in northwest Montana.
We had just arrived in town in August, and it was 90 degrees, and my wife was sweating like a pig in her long pants, preparing for hiking in colder temperatures in nearby Glacier National Park.
We check into the Super 8 motel, and across the highway is the mother of all Salvation Army stores, as large as a supermarket! The wife needs some shorts pronto, before she keels over from the heat.
We walk or rather run across the 5 lane highway, dodging the 25 mph traffic and past the huge parking lot in front, and get in just before they close at 5pm. Wife purchases 2 pairs of shorts, and we get booted out of there before she can try them on.
Wife tries them on in our motel, and we return the shorts the next day. No refund, but we get a store credit. Not knowing if and when we would be back in Kalispell, we shop around.
Wednesday Kids clothes 50% off, but our kids are beyond that age. Furniture and lamps 25% off –not carrying that stuff back on the plane. Green clothes tagged 50% off. $ 5 minimum for credit card purchases. $ 25 purchase gets you a $ 5 coupon.
This store has everything. Clothes galore, shoes galore, mainly women’s clothes. Looks like Imelda Marcos’ estate dumped all 700 pairs of her high heels here!
Almost no men’s clothes or shoes, so I checked out the women’s sandals, and didn’t see any, just regular women’s shoes. No woman is giving up their sandals in this 90 degree heat!
Tons of golf clubs and golf bags, ski boots –didn’t see any skis. Ski boots in August?! No guns, but I did see a crossbow for sale. No fishing rods, and no cowboy boots. I guess folks here keep them for life.
They even have a story time 10:30 — 2:30pm every Wednesday in the gazebo for the little demons. 4 hours of free baby sitting –can’t beat that!
Small section of books in the back, and I grab a few paperbacks for one way reading on the airline trip back home.
Wouldn’t you know it, but its Tuesday, and we miss the Monday books 50% off, but cash in on the Seniors 25% off.
Cashier gives us the discount without batting an eye. You know you are getting old, when they don’t check your driver license for the senior discount!

First thing if you don’t live in Whitefish or Kalispell or the close approximate areas you CANNOT write a check!!! My friend who has shopped there for years, wrote checks there as I was with her there last May and she did. Well this time as we were checking out, big line behind us, NO you can’t write a check because you live 60 miles away! SERIOUSLY!!!
I had cash for her but really?
Ok now that I had to warn anyone who may not have cash and finds all the great stuff I did beware.
Let me begin. Clothes galore and racks and racks of jeans!!! Found lots of really nice ones!!!
Nice vintage dishes, linens and glassware to my surprise. Good amount of small appliances and cookware.
Good amount of furniture and a really nice display case of costume jewelry.
And if you spend over $ 25 you get a $ 5 off coupon for your next visit.
I would of given them 5 stars except for the male manager embarrassing my friend in line about her check!!!