Culling

There are two kinds of thrift store workers--those who throw things away, probably with relish, and those who can't bear to throw things away, even if they’re worthless. I am the former, and Ass't Man was the latter. Most of the volunteers who stock shelves also don't like to throw things out, even if they are clearly garbage.

All retail needs to cull, rotate, and refresh stock, and maybe thrift stores more than most. With so many unique items, many already a bit iffy--and often with no protective packaging (or with thrift-store customers feeling free to remove anyway)--thrift easily becomes a heap of junk.

We've been using printed price tags for more than a year now.
The tags come in four colors--the idea being, in weekly rotation each color tag goes on sale, and the next week it gets pulled and tossed. If items haven't sold in four weeks, they mostly aren't gonna. (Exceptions for very expensive items, furniture, and books. These get white tags.) 
Manageress strictly follows this system in her area--CLOTHES.
BUT... Ass't Man didn't enforce it in his areas--housewares and electronics (anything with a plug, from popcorn poppers to record players) and media.

I'm constantly pulling books, as I judge is needed. I just put all cookbooks on sale for 49 cents each, since the shelves have been taken over by titles such as 1990 Best of Southern Cooking, Low-Fat Crock Pot Recipes, and The Presbyterian Church Cookie Jar.

I cull my Toys section almost every day, since kids (and some adults) open bags and pull toys apart, breaking them or scattering parts. 
Toys never last more than a week or two, so though I use the color tags, the system is mostly irrelevant.

Yesterday, I took it on myself to clear all of Ass't Man's former sales sections, which hadn't been done since he left a month ago––or thoroughly before that, either.
For two-and-a-half hours I threw things away.

The picture-frame section was the worst, being actually dangerous with broken glass and splintered empty frames. Also I threw out decorative frames for World's Greatest Golfer (these don't sell); heaps of old photo albums with plastic sleeves, titled "Grandma's Brag Book". Shouldn't even be put out. Faded prints in scratched plexiglass frames.

(I bought the one good album with archival paper for myself.
I'd pulled out my photos after Jody W. died, to find one of her, and I decided that THIS WINTER I will finally put them in albums again.
I'd taken my old albums apart years ago to cull and re-do them.
I did cull them––last spring when I was house sitting for four months--but I never remounted them. Mostly because it was painful to spend so much time with the past, now that it is so very past.
Having a fresh album will be motivation, I think.)

What else did I throw out?
Anything with handwritten price tags, which means they’re more than a year old. 

Chipped or cracked china. Decorative china plates that had been on display so long they had gathered dust.
Tea cups with no saucers. Saucers with no tea cups. Tea pots with no lids. Water bottles with no lids.
Scratched, stained or faded plastic-ware, including ice cube trays with mysterious sediment stuck in their bottoms.

Single drinking & wine glasses with no mates.
Champagne flutes personalized with marriage dates and names. Mugs with promotional logos, such as you'd get if you went to pharmaceutical conferences.

Woven baskets with broken slats. Craft materials with no packaging. Loose yarn.
Ugly, misshapen statues of children and puppies that have been on the shelf since last February.
A basket of wax-covered pine cones with dust stuck on.
Candle holders with melted wick in the bottom. These don't sell.
Most anything with a country cottage theme. Ditto.
Happy New Year paper hats.

MORE MEDIA. (Asst Man was a record collector. Some record collectors are organizers. He was not that kind.) Chet Atkins audiocassettes, Perry Como Xmas albums, High School Band recordings. A box of LP records that smelled of mildew.

Single vacuum-cleaner bags. Plastic plant pots with dirt in the bottom.
Golf balls.
Functional objects that you know are missing parts.
Functional objects that you don't know but suspect are missing a part without which they will not operate.
Parts rattling around on their own. Rusted things.
Broken lamps.

Everything Halloween.