Every donation that comes through the doors at AMVETS in Erie is sorted before it ever reaches the sales floor. Shoppers may be focused on finding the perfect thrift‑store gem, but employees are also thinking about what happens to the items that don’t sell.
“Normally what we do is we just recycle those,” said Emilee Bisbee, a sales associate at AMVETS Erie. “We like to actually give them away to homeless shelters a lot with our blankets and quilts, things like that we don’t use.”
Items that are stained, ripped or too damaged to be sold never make it to the racks. Instead, many are donated to local shelters so they can still help someone in need…