I’m off ops. Op Shops that is. They’re a joke. Steve and I went to the Salvos in Tempe today, searching for a front-loader washing machine. Yep. Living here for over a month now, washing machine free. Picture that charming little laundry pile. So, sick of waiting on ebay 5-day auctions, getting outbid at the last second by some insane washing machine fetishist, we decided to just try our luck finding a second hand one.

…No luck. But I did find a beautiful red velvet lounge set and gigantic ornate mirror, however I was pretty digusted to see the hefty price of $450 for the mirror (and, granted, a large set of matching drawers), and $450 for EACH couch, plus $295 for the chair. Now I know that’s probably a pretty standard, probably even quite a reasonable price for vintage dealers. But this is SALVOS. They’re supposed to be supplying disadvantaged people with access to nice things which they couldn’t usually afford, right? Not catering for some Yuppie Mc Money Bags scrooge. And they get everything they sell for free anyway! And most people working there are volunteers! And really, I doubt the rent’s very high in a location like “Tempe Tip”. What overheads are these people labouring under?

I know the money all (hopefully) goes back to charity in the end, but I still think it’s a pretty sad state of affairs when even the Salvos have become too expensive for disadvantaged (can I… can I say poor?) people to shop at.

You’ve changed, op shops. You’ve changed.