The Salvation Army Oshawa Community & Family Services - Oshawa, Ontario

James C.

It's hard to get food from the food bank. I'm down to one meal a day I used to go this place but now I can not. It seems to be full right on the first. Salvation Army only helps its own people.

Laura R.

Where to start…

1. Staff was gossiping amongst one another and customers about a woman whom is homeless. Using first names and identifying

2. Store vouchers cannot be used on white tagged items ( more then half of the clothing is white tagged ) when asked why the staff said “ name brand items cannot be given out to vulnerable individuals and families as we have to many people coming from cornerstone and as you could imagine we wouldn’t make any money this way.
Sooo homeless and low income individuals aren’t allowed donated brand name clothing?

3. Coming into a thrift shop asking for help when your down , for basic NEEDS from a Christian based business, when your already feeling embarrassed and shy to ask for help and made to feel like your not good enough or that you should settle for stained ripped worn out clothing ? Horrible experience and quite honestly heartbreaking!!

Victoria

Customer Service: The petite middle-aged woman with short-hair is a very friendly cashier. I find her a pleasure to deal with. The production staff and floor manager seem unapproachable. Their delivery service is very good and fairly priced, we had an appliance delivered and the men who delivered provided us with great service.

Price: I've often joked that the prices seem to vary depending on whether the staff got to eat lunch that day (or were in a good mood or not). Because I have found similar, if not identical items priced vastly different. Today was no different with baskets. In the past I've found furniture and decorations and craft stencils ($2 vs $0.10).

Good deals here: Gently used shoes, appliances, hardware, home organization/storage items, costume jewelry, pictures, craft supplies, lamps, candleholders, party supplies / seasonal items, new mattresses, bed-frames, many (not all), furniture pieces.

Just Okay or Not Worth It: Most off-brand children's clothes can be bought for the same price or better new, especially if you shop sales. If it has a label/brand name even if it's pilling or stained, or fraying it's usually overpriced. Most larger decor items are priced a bit high and I can't be the only one who thinks this because I'm a regular and there are items I still see there for weeks and months when I go in. I wouldn't buy most linens here either considering you can get things like drapes new for the same price or lower especially if you shop liquidation stores. I don't buy any items that are in sets that they have parted out as individual items. For instance, a set of three wooden candle holders or a trio of kitchy porch decor items. I would buy it as a set, but individually priced, is too steep / and or I don't want to buy something I know is incomplete.

Layout: The store is kept fairly organized, as far as a thrift store could be. However, the clothes are often organized by colour, and not size or even style sometimes which can make it hard to find the right size. There's also not a lot of room to walk among the clothes racks. Sometimes the prices on items, such as large vases are inconvenient to read because they'll put the stickers on the bottom of tall glass vases, then put those high up on the shelf behind smaller breakable items. Most of the time I don't bother looking at them because of that even though I'm in the market for one.

Overall, it's a good store. You will often find something worth bringing home for a decent price. It's worth a look if you go downtown and are into thrifting and yardsales.

Jacob W.

I was downtown for one of my lectures without a mask and needed one to enter , I went here and offered to pay for any spare mask they had and they just gave me a few for free, nice people good doing good work

D G.

Please update your hours on Google. It says on Google you open at 10am but the sign on your front door says 11am.

Please and thank you.

Alyssa C.

Went here today and they told there is no food bank help today like what the hell specify your online hours properly if there is no help on Thursdays they should tell us instead of saying your open

Linda G.

would like to drop off extra food we have including some frozen meals on Wheels . will you take them ?

Richard

Food was old , the food was semi rotten , gave out very little , for a family of 3 wasn’t close to enough to live on , sad help !