Weird thrift store experience this weekend.... Pal Mickey.

[CathrynRose]

Jim and I were bumming around this weekend and just driving....

We ended up (for anyone familiar with the Chicago Area) in Aurora, IL...in a kind of 'shady' area.... but they have a ginourmous thrift store, and Jim and I are jonesin' for Garage Sale Season to start...

So, it was a no-name thrift store, super disorganized, in Aurora, Il...

I get in there and they have a PILE a HUGE PILE of brand new (looking)Pal Mickeys... Im like "no way!" and I go and pick one up and he's empty?? His parts have all been removed...

HOw would this thrift store end up with a HUGE pile of gutted Pal Mickey's - all new?

Weird right?

 

[Aidensmom]

What the heck do people do with Mickey's gutted parts?

 

[daisyduck123]

Did you ask the employee where they got the Pal Mickeys???

 

[CathrynRose]

Did you ask the employee where they got the Pal Mickeys???

They did not speak English. I was in a hispanic neighborhood.

I think thats what freaked me out the most. This wasnt like a Salvation Army or a Good Will - it just said THRIFT STORE outside, and it was just a cement floor joint...very disorganized, nothing...... I dunno.

And in a shady neighborhood of Aurora, IL??

 

[CathrynRose]

I did get a cool totally retro Disney shirt!!! Shall I post a pic?

 

[Becky2005]

Interesting!

I don't know exactly where this thrift store is but I definately know where Aurora is.

Kind of bizarre that there were a bunch of gutted Pal Mickey's.

I would definitely be perplexed myself.

 

[KerriSue]

I did get a cool totally retro Disney shirt!!! Shall I post a pic?

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Sometimes freight companies donate product that they damage in shipment to thrift stores (or operate their own thrift stores themselves). They have to render it unreturnable to the original vendor before they are allowed to donate the product. Technically it's supposed to go to a non resale type place like a shelter.

 

[Mermaid02]

A pile of disemboweled Pal Mickeys??? I would find that slightly disturbing. Think Elizabeth Walton in "The Homecoming" receiving her doll......

 

[Cindy B]

I bet that the shipment was damaged and the vendor returned the electronics for refund/or spare parts for something else. The inner parts have GPS capabilities, so I wonder if some people are juicing up thier car with Pal Mickey parts.

That wouldn't suprise me with the guts taken out. People take weird stuff to the Goodwill and even stranger things happen to objects at the thrift store.

I also shop at a Hispanic neighborhood thrift store. I can ask how much is this and where is (insert clothing item) in store. If they even give me the price in Spanish at the register, I can understand them. They start saying the price in Spanish and they stop--just about to start in English and I tell them its ok I understand them.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I bet that the shipment was damaged and the vendor returned the electronics for refund/or spare parts for something else. The inner parts have GPS capabilities, so I wonder if some people are juicing up thier car with Pal Mickey parts.

All I can think of is somebody using their GPS and it starts talking like Mickey Mouse saying things like, "pass the castle and wave to Cinderella, now take a left of Mott Street and look over at the Jungle Cruise for any stray alligators"

 

[siouxi31]

Another theory as to why they are disemboweled could be due to preventing black marketing of stolen goods.

I work for a shipping company and while we do not handle Disney cargo, some of our high theft risk customers such as Nike ship their left and right shoes separately. If a thief gets ahold of a container of shoes, they'll only have either all left shoes or all right shoes which would keep them off the black market.

Once a thief learns who the cargo is consigned to such as Disney, Nike, Abercrombie, etc. It makes it a high theft risk.

So, they could be shipping the innards in one container and the body in another to have it assembled here in the US. A container of body cavities could have been stolen and the thief would have found out that they are useless.

 

[cardaway]

Likely the work of Wayne and Garth.

 

[hellokitty86]

I did get a cool totally retro Disney shirt!!! Shall I post a pic?

I would like to see it!

 

[Tinkerbell_Girl]

OMG Cat! Poor Pal Mickey!

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Sometimes freight companies donate product that they damage in shipment to thrift stores (or operate their own thrift stores themselves). They have to render it unreturnable to the original vendor before they are allowed to donate the product. Technically it's supposed to go to a non resale type place like a shelter.

YUP! Dh works in a warehouse adn when the people that load the trucks damage something The product is useless. So it does get donated somewhere! DH does HVAC, but many times the trucks that carry their product have other things in them and they have been given boxes of all kinds of wierd things if they were damaged!

 

[Steffi]

Maybe they killed the Mickeys and used the guts to turn a bunch of carnival animals into "pals".

Imagine one of those giant flowered dog things with the little plastic tongues telling you how long the wait is for IASW.

 

[sPaRkLeSpAz]

Whoa! Poor pal Mickey's. .

I love shopping at thrift stores though! You never know what you'll find.

 

[CathrynRose]

Likely the work of Wayne and Garth.

SHHHWING!

 

[julsmom]

How much were they selling them for?

Post a pic of your shirt!!