SECONDHAND NATION

Reader Requests: Spring Fever Edition

It's hitting 30 degrees here in Minnesota.  Which means I'm infected with spring fever and am fitting to burn all my wretched foul weather gear in a witches' pyre on my front lawn. 

A couple of requests, though.  Send me an email or leave a comment about any of the following:

Seed Starters!  I'm extremely interested in hearing from people who are starting seeds indoors.  What's your process and methods?  What kinds of plants do you start indoors?  What equipment do you use, if any?  And what have been the results?

Home Yogurt Makers!  Bring it!  Which model do you use?  Do you use an appliance or a different set of equipment?  Any recipes you'd like to share?

Thrifters!  What's the best thing you've ever bought secondhand? Send me the story of the item and photos if you've got them.

Thanks in advance!

Thrift Store Employee Burnout, Part II: Coping

 

This is my fourth tour as a thrift store employee.  I have worked, on and off, for the same nonprofit store since 2001.  I have been a cashier and floor clerk, a supervisor, a donations processor and a specialty donations processor (books).

I have come to the store willingly three times, seeking work.  Except for my current tenure, when my help was solicited.  Their book pricer had quit and they found themselves swamped to the ceiling with books. 

Would I, could I, for 9 bucks a hour, for 10 hours a week, work for them again?

I ask you - what lover of books would turn this opportunity down, arising, as it did, during a particularly arid time in my writing career?  You get to paw through books, throw away all the brittle, yellowed Leon Uris and James Michener paperbacks, run your mitts over the latest and greatest volumes, come home every shift laden with books for everyone in the family. 

No customer service.  No cleaning the bathroom.  No counting cash.  Just you and the books and an unheated storage bin, sorting, pricing, and keeping a mental inventory of how many copies of the more popular and nauseating titles we have on hand (The Left Behind series, Jan Karon, everything Oprah ever breathed on).

What's not to love, huh?

This freelance shit has ruined me for working retail.  Much like thrift stores have ruined me for shopping retail.  I don't want to work 20 hours to make what I can make in two hours. 

Yes, I understand that writing isn't as reliable.  But I'm in the throes of planning my break-up, and this my friend, is the key to surviving any uncomfortable job situation you find yourself in:  plotting your eventual departure provides a deep and cozy nook for your sanity to rest while you total up all the financial mis-steps doing such work creates.

As a professional writer with a passion for thrift culture, I told myself this job was my hands-on research, my behind-the-scenes, first-hand reporting. 

Unfortunately, it has become, like most jobs, a boring commute and a piddly paycheck. 

So I'm telling myself that once I snag a copy of Sally Schneider's The Improvisational Cook, Hertzberg & Francois' Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and the latest Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach (have I mentioned how much I adored Atonement?  It utterly destroys your soul, in a good way), I am so putting in my notice.

Reuseable Shopping Totes Now at My Target

FINALLY.

I dunno how long they've been available where you live, but I just found these charming little bags, tucked behind the dollar junk display at my local Target, so I picked up three of them.  Apparently they are being disseminated across the country from the West Coast, where they debuted in response to laws in California banning plastic bags.   

How long have I been bitching about this, here and in those customer surveys printed on the receipts?

Of course, my critique of Target won't stop.  I love shopping there too much to quit my petty carping.  Whether it's complaining about their phony "farm" or their lack of information regarding the origins of their "organic" fruit or how they stink up their store with a nasty Starbucks - like any good naggy spouse, I'll be there to grind them down with constant reminders of how they could improve, if they really really wanted to. 

That's really a good model for consumers.  Instead of an entitled, glossy-handbag-wielding princess, perhaps the face we present to Target should be more of a grouchy old wife, ready to poke the produce and sniff at the meat and clout them over the head with our pocketbooks if they try any funny stuff, like trying to take our money, which of course, they are.