Savers - Crystal Lake, Illinois

TM D.

I hadn’t been to this Savers in years but found myself in the area and figured I would drop in. I’m glad I did. It has become one of my favorite thrift stops. The staff is incredibly friendly. I agree with some of the comments about items being overpriced. BUT, every Monday is 1/2 off. The line can be out the door and the store packed but if you have had your eye on something that was a little expensive for you, this is a great way to get it. I have not shopped for clothing here, I primarily come for holiday decor, housewares, and furniture. That said, teenage daughter has scored some great clothing items and even brand new shoes. She bought a brand new roller suitcase for $29. I have quickly browsed toys and was thrilled to find a huge plastic bin filled with lincoln logs for $9.99. I can’t tell you how many cute trays, candle holders, flower pots, kitchen items, picture frames, signs, artwork…. (I could go on and on) that I have found and loved. I’ve included a few pics from today’s trip. If you scan the QR code on your receipt and take a survey you get a $2 coupon.

Lindsay K.

prices are wild. found this knit top that has an old second-hand price tag of 50 cents that they left on, but are charging 6.50 for it. again… Wild! and gross!

T P.

This Savers was well stocked and not too busy on a Sunday afternoon. It seemed larger than other locations in the area. It was very clean and the bathroom required a code to enter. We found a couple of deals to take home with us. Most of the store is clothing, like all savers locations. This location had a ton of flower pots and various outdoor/garden decorations.

Good P.

I have no reason not to give this a 5 stars. It is a very large thrift store doing what it can to survive in this economy. The other big-name donation based stores like Goodwill and Salvation Army have online stores where they sell most of their better items with an auction style just like eBay. This is the wave of the future.

Many thrift stores use eBay to value items because they want to make more money to support the business and its staff. I do not know if the people I saw working were volunteers or paid staff, but they were doing a great job. It was two younger girls that would take these red carts filled with items and move them around the store, and fill the shelves with what each cart had on it. They cleared out 4 or 5 of these carts, and by the time I got back to that area, they had another 4 or 5 carts in front of them. They were working hard and fast, and I could tell they were committed to getting items on the shelf out as quickly as possible.

I have to commend all employees who work in these stores paid or not because many customers are pretty disrespectful with moving things and just trashing the shelves. As I'm shopping, I will routinely move items around and clean up the area that I'm thrifting in and, at the very least, put things back and straighten things up. They deserve some compassion and support for what they do. If you ever had a garage sale, you know that people just move things around, open things and not put them back in the box, etc.. you're constantly cleaning and fixing up your tables. Imagine that on a much larger scale!

In regards to pricing, the days are long gone that everything on the shelves is a deal! Those days are over. Estate sales, garage sales, and thrift stores are pricing things higher and wanting to make the most money they can for what they do.

I speak from experience and sell well over 1000+ items a year on eBay and have been thrifting and doing secondhand sales for over 30 years. There are items to find in these stores. You just have to adjust your resale thinking and step out of the areas that maybe you are comfortable selling in.

I bet some days the stress level of workers is off the chart. We all just need to be more compassionate and understanding of each others lives.

A few other key things were self-checkout and a drive up donation area, which had plenty of people to take things out of your car.

Narwhal

Savers, I love you but I don't what you are doing with these prices sometimes, hahaha. Seriously though this is my favorite thrift store, each time I come I find something to fall in love with. Attached a few pictures of my favorite recent finds.

Greg R.

This store is a joke!! Anyone reading this review please do what a lot of us have already done and STOP donating to this place and tell your friends and family to do the same. Without OUR donations they will all learn a valuable lesson when they're all looking for new jobs because they won't have anything to outrageously price. Go up the street a few blocks north to able light thrift store or take it to Goodwill that is a non profit store unlike this one that uses epilepsy foundation to get people to donate only to charge ridiculous prices which epilepsy foundation only sees a very small percentage since savers is a for profit company. They're trying to use eBay prices for their free items, but if you're going to pay eBay prices you're better off buying it on eBay that gives you a 30 day money back guarantee!!

James

Savers has become a place for eBay reselling. They get some of the best things (clothes and other items) for reselling, so people line up before opening and stay there until closing because of the profit that can be made reselling on eBay. As a result of so many people doing this, Savers has raised the prices because they know people will pay the price as long as they can make ANY profit on the items they buy.

This means any regular customers have to suffer the consequences of these higher prices. To get around this, the regulars have resorted to ONLY shopping on Mondays because everything in the store is half off. On Mondays, the store opens at 9, but you should ideally show up around 8:15-8:30 to get a good spot in line to not wait an extra 15 minutes waiting to enter the store.

And even still, it's an extremely competitive environment, and it doesn't even feel like a thrift store any more. It feels like a competition to get the most items for the cheapest as fast as possible, and it's really a free for all of the eBay resellers and regular customers to get anything they can get their hands on. I wouldn't recommend shopping here unless you have a lot of time and money on your hands. Go check out the other thrift stores in the area instead.

Melody L.

We go to savers often. Usually on Monday. We also donate many things there. Every time we donate, there is a young man there that is incredibly rude. He is heavy set, has longer curly hair and generally is wearing head phones. He acts put out every time I pull up. He complains about everything. One time I came with totes filled with clothes. He told me that he will unload the totes into bags “this time” but that they only have so many resources and I should leave the totes as well so he doesn’t have to unload everything, Or that I brought to many things at once. If I pull up 10 minutes before closing, he wants me to know that they are closing soon so he hopes I don’t have too many things. I have never once had a good interaction with this young man. He literally complains every time and tells me what I should do different next time. I have a large family. We donate often here and we spend a lot of money here. This guy should not work here. He is lazy and inconsiderate of others. He treats donors with complete disregard and disrespect.