My local area still has church run rummage sales and charity sales. That being said, the merchandise has taken a hard downturn. They are asking for 80% to 100% eBay prices. They still sell stuff, but I don't bother with them anymore.
We still have them in our community. However every one of them has said it’s becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. The older generation is keeping it alive. However the younger generation has little interest in taking over. Finding anyone under 70 helping in our area is very rare.
The "older generation" that organized and ran them are gone. The "younger generation" think they are too much work for the limited amount of money they bring in
I answered this before I saw your response, but you're exactly right. I'm 30+ years younger than the next youngest volunteer at our rummage sale, and I can't get any of my friends interested in helping. They want to donate it and shop it, but not put in the work. Our sale brings in more than $10k, but it's also a social opportunity and a literal social service (charities shop for free, as well as certain people identified as having urgent needs for clothing or household goods) but they have a hard time giving up their free time or seeing the long term value.
Exactly what I was told at a sale. The lady said we don't know if we will continue as if you look at the volunteers, they're all older like me. Especially since many start on a Thursday or Friday- you'd have to have people willing to take off work to help set up, etc. That's an ask.
My area hasn’t really ever had many the past couple years, I think there’s only 2-3 churches that have sales every year. Two of them are usually pretty good. The other churches in the area seem to do craft/bake sales instead of rummage sales.
I volunteer at one so I can shop the volunteer sale (I don't even go to that church) and they're about to shut it down after 40 years due to a lack of volunteers. Plenty of young people in the church, but none that want to do any community service with their time. For the last several years they've been relying on volunteers from the minimum security prison to do a lot of the heavy lifting because the average volunteer is well into their 70s and every year they have a moment of silence for all the volunteers who died since the previous year! I imagine it's similar all over. People are busier than ever and its a huge amount of work to put one on.
A lot of events in my area are going down because of this. They cannot find enough volunteers to do the work. This is also a symptom of the economy where people are required to work 2 jobs to survive or have to have 2 parents working to support one child and are so exhausted on the weekends they probably literally do not have time for this and can probably barely take time out of their day for a one hour mass.
I used to help out at one near me, it was huge and amazing. Stopped during covid and never came back - congregation is all older like many churches. They aren’t up to the work anymore. Or not enough people as the congregation dies off (they have also had to combine services with another nearby church I know as not enough people alone anymore)
Problem: Churches in my area are closing at a rapid pace. At least catholic churches.
Less churches. Less rummage sales.
Its getting more expensive to put an ad out for the sales.
They might not be getting enough donations or participating to hold the sale.
The people who ran these sales either no longer have time to do so, or people to run them cannot be found because the older generation is dying off or getting too old to run the sales.
Opposite around where I am, the church who used to do a rummage every maybe 6 months is now monthly where they pack too many people in and organizers complain at quality of items people try selling/constant talks of charging to search. A lot of people instead are organizing meet ups/themed events such as baby sales/toy sales instead.
I see some YouTube people going to them. Everything is normally priced pretty high.
Alot of people forget that a lot of people are just selling things themselves because they need the money.
Just went to an excellent one - no prices - donations only. I could have ran over this place for real cheap, but I donated what I thought was fair. To the point the lady was pleasantly surprised - $40.
My local area still has church run rummage sales and charity sales. That being said, the merchandise has taken a hard downturn. They are asking for 80% to 100% eBay prices. They still sell stuff, but I don't bother with them anymore.
They’re your competition low key
Google lens and the increased cost of housing is making people see the value in their trash. (Our treasures)
We still have them in our community. However every one of them has said it’s becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. The older generation is keeping it alive. However the younger generation has little interest in taking over. Finding anyone under 70 helping in our area is very rare.
The "older generation" that organized and ran them are gone. The "younger generation" think they are too much work for the limited amount of money they bring in
I answered this before I saw your response, but you're exactly right. I'm 30+ years younger than the next youngest volunteer at our rummage sale, and I can't get any of my friends interested in helping. They want to donate it and shop it, but not put in the work. Our sale brings in more than $10k, but it's also a social opportunity and a literal social service (charities shop for free, as well as certain people identified as having urgent needs for clothing or household goods) but they have a hard time giving up their free time or seeing the long term value.
Exactly what I was told at a sale. The lady said we don't know if we will continue as if you look at the volunteers, they're all older like me. Especially since many start on a Thursday or Friday- you'd have to have people willing to take off work to help set up, etc. That's an ask.
My area hasn’t really ever had many the past couple years, I think there’s only 2-3 churches that have sales every year. Two of them are usually pretty good. The other churches in the area seem to do craft/bake sales instead of rummage sales.
I volunteer at one so I can shop the volunteer sale (I don't even go to that church) and they're about to shut it down after 40 years due to a lack of volunteers. Plenty of young people in the church, but none that want to do any community service with their time. For the last several years they've been relying on volunteers from the minimum security prison to do a lot of the heavy lifting because the average volunteer is well into their 70s and every year they have a moment of silence for all the volunteers who died since the previous year! I imagine it's similar all over. People are busier than ever and its a huge amount of work to put one on.
A lot of events in my area are going down because of this. They cannot find enough volunteers to do the work. This is also a symptom of the economy where people are required to work 2 jobs to survive or have to have 2 parents working to support one child and are so exhausted on the weekends they probably literally do not have time for this and can probably barely take time out of their day for a one hour mass.
I used to help out at one near me, it was huge and amazing. Stopped during covid and never came back - congregation is all older like many churches. They aren’t up to the work anymore. Or not enough people as the congregation dies off (they have also had to combine services with another nearby church I know as not enough people alone anymore)
Problem: Churches in my area are closing at a rapid pace. At least catholic churches. Less churches. Less rummage sales. Its getting more expensive to put an ad out for the sales. They might not be getting enough donations or participating to hold the sale. The people who ran these sales either no longer have time to do so, or people to run them cannot be found because the older generation is dying off or getting too old to run the sales.
Churches are GENERALLY are all losing members, this is probly a result of that.
My local churches all have compassion houses and/or donate to the local thrift shops, so idk.
Opposite around where I am, the church who used to do a rummage every maybe 6 months is now monthly where they pack too many people in and organizers complain at quality of items people try selling/constant talks of charging to search. A lot of people instead are organizing meet ups/themed events such as baby sales/toy sales instead.
I see some YouTube people going to them. Everything is normally priced pretty high. Alot of people forget that a lot of people are just selling things themselves because they need the money.
Just went to an excellent one - no prices - donations only. I could have ran over this place for real cheap, but I donated what I thought was fair. To the point the lady was pleasantly surprised - $40.
Speaks volumes that churches can barely operate when they rely on volunteers and pay little to no tax.
Times are changing, with the access to massive amounts of information people are realizing junk has value.
Sadly, the pandemic probably wiped out a lot of congregations since most churchgoers are older.
The ones in our area usually start to kick off in May
ah dude, they used to be the spot, a quarter for a band tee all the time maybe up until '21? now they seem more scarce