While browsing the goods at a Value Village store in Toronto, Evan Boyce spotted something he didn’t expect: A used vase for sale with a Value Village price tag of $8.99. Then he realized the original price tag was still on — and to buy it at a Dollarama store would have cost only $3.
“Three times what it would have cost brand new …It’s pretty ridiculous, right? Just kind of feels like a rip off to be honest,” said Boyce, a 30-year-old who works for a renewable energy company.
Customer Evan Boyce spotted this used vase in Toronto with a Value Village price tag of $8.99, three times what it would have cost new at Dollarama. (Submitted by Evan Boyce)
For years, many Canadians have relied on Value Village to buy used goods for cheaper than other retailers. It’s one of the biggest and most popular thrift store chains in the country. Now some customers are accusing the company of massive markups on their items.
Massive markups
The examples of questionable pricing at Value Village have been piling up for months. In Courtenay, B.C., one shopper found kids shoes priced at $6.49, while the original tag said $3. A used book at a store in Winnipeg was being sold for double what it would have cost at its previous retailer.
Kids shoes – new at Dollarama for $3<br><br>Value Village: “let’s charge more than double” <a href=”https://t.co/rim894g2XA”>pic.twitter.com/rim894g2XA</a>
Boyce voiced what many customers have been asking: “Most of what they have is donated. Why is there the need to mark it up so much?”
Shoppers have also recently called out the pricing practices of Goodwill and Salvation Army, which are non-profit organizations.
Value Village is a for-profit business owned by parent company Savers Value Village. U.S. private equity firm Ares Management is a majority shareholder, and helped take the company public last year.
The business model is pretty simple: All of its inventory comes from secondhand donations, some of which are collected by non-profit partners including Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Kidney Foundation. Value Village pays those partners a flat rate for the goods which the company says amounts to millions of dollars every year.
Value Village then sells those goods for a profit. The company now has more than 300 stores in the U.S. and Canada which brought in $1.5 billion US in sales in 2023.
Customers feel duped
The Value Village brand could suffer as a result of this recent backlash. Consumers mentally organize retailers into certain categories, explained Matthew Philp, a marketing professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. They expect thrift stores to be cheaper than regular stores, with the second-hand items sold there to be discounted because they are used.
Philp suggested questionable pricing like this can throw everything off for consumers. “It kind of breaks what we know to be true and how we think the world should work, and that’s just jarring,” he said.
A used mug found at Value Village is priced at $3.99, while the original Dollarama price tag shows $1.50. (Laura MacNaughton/CBC News)
Businesses all have different, complex pricing strategies, and there are few occasions where markups are against the rules. But Philp said companies can walk a fine line, as customers who feel duped by a retailer are less likely to return.
“We’re going to be a lot more cautious next time we buy.”
Buyer beware
As thrift store haul videos on Youtube and TikTok explode, the popularity of thrifting seems to be surging. Consumers are making an effort to shop more sustainably.
Many are also trying to save money as the cost of living soars. “It’s driving more traffic to the thrift economy, the second-hand economy,” said Kerry Taylor, a B.C.-based personal finance expert. “We all want to find the cool stuff for less.”
WATCH | Has Value Village lost its value?
Value Village called out for massive markups
22 hours ago
Duration 2:01
Deal hunters shopping at Value Village are calling out the second-hand retailer for charging prices way beyond what they say could be bought new elsewhere.
But in that kind of environment, Taylor said consumers need to be more price-conscious, perhaps doing more research online or committing to shopping around. “If you see something that doesn’t look like a good price, it’s easy to walk on and find something else new.”
Value Village responds
Value Village says thousands of items come through each of its stores every week, and that staff try to price products accurately.
“Customers should feel free to chat with a store manager if they think that an item has been inadvertently mispriced so we can quickly address it,” said Sara Gaugl, director of marketing at Savers, the store’s parent company. “We’d be more than happy to take a second look.”
Outside the Value Village in Toronto, shoppers like Daniel Milford-Warren say they’ll still hunt for a bargain.
“They’re going to try and maximize as much money from you as they can and it’s up to us to keep our money.”
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
