Savers

Savers Value Village Inc. headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, U.S., is a publicly held, for-profit thrift store retailer offering second hand merchandise, with supermajority ownership by private equity firm Ares Management.[1] An international company, Savers has more than 315 locations throughout the United States of America, Canada, and Australia, and receives its merchandise by paying money to non-profit organizations for donated clothing and household items. Savers is known as Value Village in the Pacific Northwest, the Baltimore metropolitan area, and most of Canada, and Village des Valeurs in Quebec. Chicago stores and some locations in the Washington, DC metropolitan area are under the name Unique.[2] In Australia and other regions of the U.S., the stores share the corporation's name.

This article is about the U.S.-based international thrift store chain. For the U.K. discount store chain, see Savers (UK retailer). For other uses, see saver (disambiguation).
Savers Value Village Inc.
TypePublic
IndustryRetail
Founded1954 (1954)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
HeadquartersBellevue, Washington, U.S.
Key people
  • Mark Walsh
  • (CEO)
ProductsSecond-hand clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, electronics, toys, and housewares
Websitehttp://www.savers.com
Savers in Boston, Massachusetts
A Value Village in Bloor Street, Toronto, Canada
Value Village interior

Business operations

Savers' business model involves partnership with local non-profits and purchasing and reselling donated items. The non-profits collect and deliver donated goods to Savers, which pays them for the items at a bulk rate regardless of whether they ever make it to the sales floor. As of 2011, the company had paid $1.1 billion to approximately 130 nonprofit partners, and as of 2012, had 315 stores worldwide and reached $1 billion in revenue.[3][4]

Items deemed resellable are displayed for purchase in stores. Savers also has a recycling program and attempts to recycle any reusable items that cannot be sold at the stores, as well as any items that do not sell over a period of time to make room for fresh merchandise. Savers has buyers for its recyclables throughout the world and attempts to keep as much donated product out of the waste stream as possible. In Minnesota, Savers pays non-profit partners $0.053 per pound of clothing, $0.035 per pound of homewares, $0.02 per pound of books and $0.02 per pound of large items (e.g. furniture).[5] By the end of 2018, the company had discontinued the use of plastic bags in its stores.[6]

According to Diabetes Canada, it has had a reusable goods donation program with Value Village where donations of clothing and small household items generate $5,000,000 CAD annually to support diabetes research.[7]

Ownership history

The company was founded in 1954 in San Francisco, California.

Berkshire Partners bought a 50% stake in the company in 2000.[8] Freeman Spogli & Co. became the majority owner in 2006.[9] Leonard Green & Partners and TPG Capital bought out Freeman's shares in 2012.[10]

In March 2019, Savers reached a restructuring agreement to hand ownership of the company over to private equity firms Ares Management and Crescent Capital Group.[11] Ares acquired Crescent's stake in 2021 and took the company public in a June 29, 2023 initial public offering, retaining an 88% ownership stake.[12][1]

Controversy

In May 2015, the Minnesota Attorney General filed suit[13] claiming that Savers was misleading the public, paying only a very small percentage to the non-profit charities which partner with the company. Savers settled in June 2015, increasing transparency and paying $300,000 to each of its partner charities in Minnesota to compensate for fundraising disruptions. In the same year, the Attorney General filed suit[14] against the Epilepsy Foundation for failing to monitor Savers for compliance with their partnership contract. Money raised through their partnership with Savers accounted for 38-50% of the Epilepsy Foundation’s revenue.[15]

In November 2019 King County Superior Court Judge Roger Rogoff ruled that the corporation had misled the public into believing the organization was a charity, but the ruling was overturned in August 2021 by a Washington state appeals court.[16] The Washington state Supreme Court furthered ruled that the Washington state Attorney General's Office violated the corporation's First Amendment rights.[17] Subsequently, King County Superior Court Judge David Whedbee ruled that the state of Washington had to pay the corporation's legal expenses due to the Attorney General's Office aggressive litigation.

Safety concerns

In December 2018, a family in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Canada reported their six-year-old son found a hypodermic needle and two partially-used tubes of glue in a used Mouse Trap board game they had bought from a Value Village in Coquitlam, British Columbia.[18][19]

In October 2019, a man reported getting a needlestick injury when he tried on a boot at a Value Village (in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada) and was told he would need blood tests including for HIV and hepatitis.[20]

References
  1. N S, Sri Hari; Nishant, Niket (2023-06-29). "Thrift store operator Savers valued at nearly $4 billion in market debut". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  2. "Thrift & Second-Hand Store Locator | Donation Locations | Savers, Value Village, and Unique". stores.savers.com. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
  3. "Retail chain joining thrift store scene For-profit Savers poses competition to Goodwill, Salvation Army outlets". The Buffalo News. February 6, 2011.
  4. "Thrift store wars heat up with new players in St. Louis market," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 9, 2013.
  5. "Disclosures". www.savers.com. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  6. "Out of the bag: Grocers prepare for potential plastic ban". Spokane Journal of Business. January 31, 2019.
  7. "Donate clothing & more". Diabetes Canada. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  8. Investor buys Value Village stake
  9. Freeman Spogli Spends $550 Million on Savers
  10. Freeman Passes Savers Inc. On to TPG, Leonard Green in $1.6B-Plus Deal
  11. Doherty, Katherine (28 March 2019). "PE Firms Crescent, Ares Take Over Savers Thrift Chain in Restructuring". Bloomberg.com. Bloomber LP. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  12. Savers Inc. (2021-05-25). "Savers Enters into Agreement to Receive Increased Investment from Ares Management" (Press release). Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  13. "May 21, 2015 Press Release | The Office of Attorney General Lori Swanson". www.ag.state.mn.us. Archived from the original on 2015-05-25.
  14. "Minnesota sues epilepsy group over Savers thrift store ties | MPR News".
  15. "Savers stores settles Minnesota attorney general lawsuit, will modify donations practices". Star Tribune. June 25, 2015.
  16. "Court overturns deceptive practices ruling against Value Village". 17 August 2021.
  17. "State's 'aggressive litigation' against Value Village may end with WA AG paying up to $5.7M in fees". 20 August 2023.
  18. Agahi, Emad (December 3, 2018). "'It's incomprehensible': 6-year-old finds needle inside Value Village board game". Canada. CTV News. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  19. Lazaruk, Susan (December 4, 2018). "Parents incensed after son, 6, finds syringe, toxic glue in thrift store board game". Local news. Vancouver Sun. Postmedia Network Inc. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  20. Lazatin, Emily; Little, Simon (October 23, 2019). "'I just froze': Man warns others after finding syringe in boot at B.C. Value Village". Vancouver. Global News. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
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