The Good Will of Goodwill

I am a Goodwill Industries shopper.  I like that they help provide jobs and services for the disadvantaged and in the process, I can find great stuff for VERY reasonable prices.  I am such a fan that it is common for my family to visit the local Goodwill store when we are vacationing or visiting out of town.  While visiting Hawaii we found some great shirts for $1.50 limiting our need to buy the tourist shirts for $15.00.

It is understandable not everyone shares my enthusiasm but those who do understand me completely.  With this in mind when I discover a store that is run well I can't say enough good things about it.  My favorite store is in Wisconsin where my parents live.  Pants (jeans) are sized and sorted accordingly.  This may seem negligible but it can save much time, each visit, being able to locate a specific size.  Shirts are sorted by color, another time saving advantage.  They also put regional items, i.e. UW and Packer merchandise in a separate area.

All this work is called MERCHANDISING and is paid for through higher prices.  (You may have noticed in outlet stores, true outlets, the merchandising is left behind and all goods are chaotically placed on racks to sift through.)  Goodwill proves a store can do decent merchandising and still keep costs down.  I believe it has more to do with good management.

On our summer travels I found another Goodwill store that rivals my Wisconsin favorite.  It is located in Galveston, Texas within sight of the sea wall.  This store exhibited the aforementioned qualities and more.  It was a larger store with more goods, clean, organized and a bargain shoppers mecca. 

I didn't have the space to carry home as much as I would like to have purchased but I want to give a shout out (I found a clerk and gushed my admiration on site) to the management of that store and the region, if the credit is due that far up the management chain. 

In these economic hard times Goodwill Industries provides an opportunity for everyone to benefit and those stores that provide a wonderful atmosphere in which to shop only makes the economic hard times a bit more bearable.  I would like to encourage you to shop at Goodwill to find a bargain, save a buck and help those less fortunate than yourself.  It's just good business.