Barkin’ Basement

Stopped in with a thrift-happy teen. We ended up with a bag of clothes that they held overnight because their card reader wasn’t working and I had no cash. She found some great stuff! The staff member recommended the Queen City Flea Market, but the clothes here were much better! All proceeds go to a no-kill shelter. Great experience.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I collected a ton of great new and gently used toys, as well as housewares, and loaded my SUV to capacity. I called to ensure they were accepting donations, as it was a solid 2 hour drive from my home in DC. A gentleman answered the phone and explained that the weekend wasn’t good for him to accept donations, so I agreed to do the drive and donations the following weekend. Fast forward to the following weekend, and I was approximately 10 minutes away (after a 2 hour drive) at 3:45pm (realizing that they closed at 4 on Sundays rather than 5pm) and called ahead. The same gentleman chastised me and said he was closing up early as there hadn’t been a customer in an hour and a half. He was closing and wouldn’t be there in 10 minutes to accept my donations. He couldn’t have cared less about my drive, my donations, or frankly, the purpose of this shop (to support the animal welfare efforts of Allegany County). Words really can’t describe how disheartened I was that this rude man was representing any organization, let alone an animal welfare organization. I hope that a board member sees this review and reconsiders the staffing at this shop. If he was able to drive me away without donating, despite a 4-hour round trip drive, I wonder how many other donors he has driven away too?

This store has a wonderful mission of using proceeds to help animals! We were visiting Cumberland from Pittsburgh and stopped in today. I found a nice short-sleeve shirt for work. Only $1.50! I gave him $2 and told him to keep the change and then dropped a few more singles into a donation bin to further support their mission. My partner bought a nice pair of pants for work for $2.50. I had a nice brief conversation with the clerk (who I think was an unpaid volunteer, actually) and another customer when they found out we were from Pittsburgh about sports fanbases in the local areas. It’s a shame half of Downtown Cumberland is vacant, but stores like this are wonderful!

Lots of clothes and knickknacks. Nonprofit for animals. Great place.

Great place