The Salvation Army

This is a review for their pickup/​donations process, which is coordinated out of this store; not the store itself.
I was in the midst of planning a move to Europe, and knowing that I’d need to get rid of almost all my furniture (and many smaller items), went online to schedule a pickup. I went through all their steps to inventory goods, and picked the first available pickup date: more than two weeks out. I planned (stupidly, it seems) my entire timeline around this date, so that I wouldn’t have to deal with random Craigslisters dropping by to take things piecemeal.
Well that pickup was today. The driver showed up in an enormous truck, and after a valiant try, determined he couldn’t get up the slight incline of my driveway. I have a flight tomorrow and suddenly had a house full of… everything.
The driver explained that they had ten of these trucks and at least five times a week, he personally runs into this problem. He called dispatch and explained the situation and told me to drop his name if I go there, and «they’ll take everything.»
They did. After I spent several hundred dollars hiring someone else on a moment’s notice to haul it there.
TL;DR: If you’re hoping for these guys to pick up a load from your house, be VERY certain that they can access it in a very large truck. I’ve never run across a truck that has had trouble with my driveway until today. Crazy-​annoying to wind up paying a bunch of money to give away furniture.

I was looking for glassware. Their selection was very limited. Not worth a special trip.

I was visiting San Francisco and stumbled upon the absolute best SA ever, I am a Thrift store junkie and fanatic from Venice Ca. but the ones in Los Angeles mostly suck, this place had such great stuff but you have to be willing to look for it, and there was the coolest dude at the check out, I can’t remember his name, He was a so cool ‘big dude, cool hair and a true Rock’n’roller! And be cautioned about they’re …‘Boutique Room’… its absolute crap and way to expensive, What a joke, just like the Salvation Army in Santa Monica. But I can’t wait to explore it again whenever I make it back there! You should see the stuff I scored on!

I never thought I would ever step into the Salvation Army Thrift Store in search of a table lamp. I am on the prowl and somewhat finicky as to what I want in a table lamp for the bedroom. The selection of lamps was better here than at the Goodwill. They even had some decent pieces of household furniture, curio cabinets, china cabinets, etc. Used clothes, cd, dvd, books, etc., were plentiful.
The first gentleman who assisted me was very courteous, friendly and helpful. I saw one lamp that I liked, but I did not want to touch it. It was on a glass table that wasn’t too stable. (Me don’t wanna break anything in the store.) He stopped what he was doing to show me the lamp. Well, there were two drawbacks with the lamp. One of the prongs on the plug was bent and there was no metal plate on the bottom — nice to look at, but no dice. Little did I know he had already left for the day and I could not find anybody else to assist me.
Ambiance: large thrift shop with anything and everything a person might want and/​or need. It was a relaxed atmosphere, especially when they got old school Motown hits going on… Supremes, Four Tops, Temptations… hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!!!
Customer service: much better than Goodwill; employees were nicer.
I was about to leave the store empty handed. However, a quick glance to the right resulted in what I was looking for in a lamp. It tickled my fancy… aha, I said to myself. I was gonna get it, no matter the cost. It had a nice lampshade and the base was oak with glass panel and a pair of night lights. The cord was in excellent condition and the prongs on the plug were straight. I snatched it right up and proclaimed it as mine. Price tag: $ 25.99 before my discount. Final cost: $ 19.50. It’s a bargain. I’m so glad I stopped in and found my lamp. Thanks, Salvation Army and the manager, for putting a smile on my face. It made my day, and I did not have to search further.

I have been to this place twice and each time I got a headache while I was here.
Cons
1. It smells as if they spray something that makes people tardy and sick temporarily.
2. Employees seem like they hate their job.
3. Unorganized items.
Pros
1. Their furniture section is pretty good.

Agree w/​Tommy P. I’ve been coming to this Sal’s for Years. What’s happened? It’s dirty and everything looks like garbage. A few years ago the shoes were organized in bins above the clothing racks. That was a great idea! The shoes are still in the bins but they’re just thrown in, no organization at all. All the housewares are piled onto the shelves, I didn’t even want to pick through them, they looked so uninviting. Dirty, that’s the impression now, very dirty. Too bad. I’ve always thought the S.A. was a great charity.

Don’t waste your time with donation pick ups. I scheduled a pick up a month and a half ago for this last week, hauled everything out, only to have them call me the day of the pick up that they had to reschedule. So I haul everything back inside. Come the rescheduled pick up day I haul everything back into the porch, it’s getting late so I call, «someone will be there by 5». Come home to a note stating I need to call to reschedule my pick up. Call to reschedule my pick up and they don’t have anything available for 2 months. Adiós Salvation Army!

I don’t know what happened to this Salvation Army, but I’d look forward to coming out of my way here every weekend. They USED to have great stuff, heard there’s a new Manager and I gotta say, this person sucks with incoming inventory! There ain’t jack!
You couldn’t find a jewel here if your life depended on it! Terrible inventory, bone dry, picked out and high prices. I used to be a regular customer, but now I won’t be back. This place sucks and it’s set no hopes for any other ones around here. What gives?!

I have been a long time faithful Salvation Army store shopper, Recently their prices at Salvation Army store in Oakland have been getting much higher, and the quality o the items has been going down. In addition the 25−50% off sale days have dwindled with the increase on price tags and increase in the minimum wages they pay
For Example, I looked at a gently used purse in their Boutique today and it was $ 75, for Tiginello brand. I believe the Macys reducede prices could beat that on a sale day! Another example was a short jacket for 15.99 and a dress for 12.99 in the main store.
That said, I realize that they get a huge volume of donations, and have no control over the quality BUT they do have control over sales, prices and customer satisfaction.
I am disappointed in these changes and my fellow shoppers have concurred with me.
The staff are nice now, and feel sorry for the customers.
I am hopeful to see some positive changes in the near future, back to the way it was a few months ago.
The economy needs to see this!

This is for the donation pick-​up process ONLY.
We have a pine entertainment console that’s still in good condition, and wanted to donate it. Salvation Army was the first place on my mind & the donation p/​u service I thought would be so convenient.
I went on-​line, scheduled a date, and when prompted for special instructions/​comments, I noted that it would take 2 strong people to move this down our apt. stairs. Done!
We emptied it all out this morning, our tiny apt living room looks like a tornado now.
Today they show up, 2 guys. According the main guy, the other guy was a volunteer, and therefore, «I can’t allow him to lift anything». Are you kidding me?
The volunteer had a dolly in hand, looked strong. What’s the point in him then?
I said, «you both could easily take this down those stairs now».
Nope. Wasn’t going to happen.
He said that if I could get it down the stairs, and in the front driveway, then he could come & pick it up. Uh, I’m 6 mos pregnant, my husband is at work, our neighbor is disabled… there’s 2 strong guys standing in front of me who are capable! Also, I didn’t want to point out that he’d STILL need the volunteer to get it into the truck. I asked if I could make that somehow happen today, would he come back. He said no, but within the next couple of days. (Except that the next couple of days is a holiday, then the weekend, and this appointment took a month to make).
He gave me his dispatch #.
I told him I’d find someone else to donate it to.
I’ll never use their service ever again.
Let this be fair warning, that when you schedule a pick up for something heavy, that takes more then one person to pick up, you may very well get totally screwed.

Omg! This place is trash, and has lazy, inattentive, and rude staff. The woman named Sharon (manager) is a straight BITCH, and super rude and arrogant for someone who’s nothing but a low paid worker at the Salvation Army. I made a trip down to the store at the request of a close friend of mine because she didn’t want to have to drive out of her way again just to have to deal with Sharon. I walked into the store to find out if they had any dryers for sale since my friend told me they tend to receive new shipments of washers and dryers in the middle of every week. I walked back where they normally are, and I didn’t see any machines, so I walk up to the counter where Sharon is. Mind you, I’m less than 10 feet away from her. I could see that she knew I was there, but wasn’t making the slightest bit of effort to acknowledge my presence at the counter. There were no customers in line, and she was just standing there doing nothing more than putting stickers in a book. I nicely said, «excuse me»…NOTHING. I say «excuse me» again a little louder this time. STILL NOTHING. At that point, I could clearly see that I was being blatantly ignored, which pissed me off. Then, I walked closer and got directly in front of her face and said «EXCUSE ME»…at which point she could no longer pretend not to hear me. Then I proceeded to ask her if she had anymore dryers in the back. Her response: «Only what’s back in that area… I don’t see any». So, that being said, I will not be returning for any reason whatsoever. I had some things I was going to donate there soon, but based on my and my friend’s experiences along with other horrifying reviews I’ve seen on this site… I’ll be sending my donations elsewhere. Patronize this place at your own risk.

I’ve gotten a lot of great stuff here, but be careful. I sat my FAVORITE sweater down on the floor in the dressing room the other day, only to realize later that I had DROPPED IT IN A PUDDLE OF PEE! No joke.
Friday I went to peruse the treasures, and found some cool stuff, but then, as I handed the cashier my card, she notices it’s cracked. She then proceeds to show me just how cracked the card is by stretching it out between her thumb and forefinger, saying «Do you know it’s broke?» Livid, I say yes, I do. Frankly I haven’t fixed it because my bank is a small credit union that takes like two weeks to send a new ATM card. So thanks for almost breaking it, lady.
And the proper verb is «broken.»

Lurveeee this place. I was lucky and came on a Saturday which was the 50% off day. Got a Cache blazer, H&M printed sunglasses and some boots for 9.50 total. I love thrifting! I always finds some goods here and I will definitely be back!

I hate this place.
There was feces everywhere. Human feces on the wall in the restroom, rat feces on the ground outside, and I got shat on by a pigeon.
Plus there’s absolutely nothing awesome in here.

This is a huge Salvation Army! I could spend hours here. But being that this thrift store is in Oakland which has been known for having lots of crime, I would never go here alone. Anyhow, this store mostly consists of clothing and furniture for sale. There is a boutique section that sells higher end clothing, collectibles and jewelry. The sales here are always great. I have found some good deals! It is too bad that this Salvation Army store is located in the center of crime stricken, Oakland, it is surprisingly one of the nicest thrift shops I have ever been to.
Pros:
–this is a huge thrift store with a boutique
–great sales often
–lots of merchandise esp. clothing
–nice, helpful staff
–well organized and clean store
Cons:
–this thrift store is located in crime stricken Oakland

This place has slim pickings but if you go through every rack you’ll find some gems. That’s what thrift shopping is all about, right? (However, you may get pooped on by one of the notorious Oakland Chinatown pigeons while exiting. That really happened.)

This is a fantastic Salvation Army — nicely organized and full of great bargains. You can drop off loads of donations around the back (don’t get into the Webster Tube by mistake!) — and if you have furniture, try to get there before 4pm — if you are after 4pm and the guys at the loading dock look like they had a rough day, a couple cans of Rockstar or maybe some banh mi or burritos might ease your post-​deadline drop off — those guys work hard and don’t always get their lunch/​dinner breaks!

Oh snap. Who needs Ikea when you can do Salvation Army instead? A tip from the East Bay Express «Best of…» led me to this unasssuming Chinatown location, where $ 150 bought me:
One luxuriously comfy silver-​sage loveseat with five matching pillows, ($ 100)
And two classy glass coffee tables. ($ 25 per.)
My only tip? Stay focused while you’re in there, because the furniture moves fast. Your fellow customers will clean the floor in the time that you leisurely browse the store. (Brand new Ikea furniture is the first to go.) However, the back room stays stocked with plenty of beautiful, steam-​cleaned treasures… So if you’re beaten to the checkout line today, check in tomorrow for more crème de la crème deals.
When you’ve finished choosing your living room set and are settling into the early stages of worrying about how to truck 100 lbs of furniture home, Salvation Army will offer the perfect hookup. One call to Charles, and within hours, your furniture will be nicely situated in your living room, for a set price of $ 40.
Bottom Line: Best deal EVER.

I’ve lived in the East Bay for over 25 years now and have always know about this SA location; if I or my family isn’t dropping off something at their super-​convenient pick-​up area at the back of the store on 6^th street, I occasionally peruse their stock and maybe even buy something. I’d never gotten much from this store but decided to check it out again. Unfortunately, the SA store is just as underwhelming, and, I daresay, as disappointing as I remember.
The clothes are pretty depressing and not at all good, not even by ironic, hipster standards. There are a lot of mall-​brands on the racks including Gap, Old Navy and The Limited. This is like the final resting place of the same, vanilla-​flavored clothing you find at chain stores and in malls. I don’t know about the men’s section, but the women’s and kid’s sections suck. I found a few J. Crew, button-​down shirts but they were clearly some of the crappier styles.
The one bright spot here is probably the furniture and housewares section. On the day I went, there was a large, aqua-​blue leather sectional! I wasn’t in the market for furniture nor do I like sectionals but it looked just kitschy enough to be cool. I also found a few plate sets but, alas, my home is swimming with plates.
I did find four, unopened packages of absorbent bed liners. Bed liners are those blue, plastic and cotton pads that you put under sick or elderly people to soak up the odd liquid evacuation. I immediately zeroed in on these for my dogs – at night, we keep them in so they have to pee on pee pads and these were perfect! Pee pee pads are usually pretty pricey so I was über happy when I got 48 pads for about $ 8.40! The cheapest pee pee pads I’ve found are about 25 cents each; these come out at 17 cents per piece!
A note about the parking: it’s mostly street, metered parking, which is difficult (you’ll be circling the block for a while). There is a «garage» across the street but that’s for the Orient Market. While that garage isn’t limited to shoppers at the Orient Market, there are only 20 spots (for real) and you have to buy $ 20 worth of merchandise to get free parking. Otherwise, it’s $ 2.
If you come to this SA looking for clothes, don’t hold your breath. But keep your mind open – you just might find something you didn’t expect.

I usually have good experience with these folks but yesterday made me mad.
I dropped off a TV, there were three guys there standing around yakking. I brought the TV up to them, they didn’t even say hello they didn’t take the tv from me just looked at me and kept on talking I had to leave the donation on the street 12″ in front of them. No thank you, no nothing complete A#*holes.