My Local Goodwill

I love Goodwill. Within a 20 mile radius of my home, there are 5 Goodwills (and at least another two if you add 5 miles to the radius!)

I've found so many treasures there and truly, it is one of my favorite places to shop. I'd even venture to say, that at least 1/2 of the girls' clothing is from Goodwill. So, there. I've made my point, I love Goodwill.

So, imagine my surprise (of late) when I began noticing small increases in prices at the Goodwill in my town. It started off hardly even detectable, but then it became out and out blatant!

So much so, that the Target leftovers, that our local Target donates to Goodwill, were marked HIGHER at Goodwill, than what Target was selling them for in their dollar bin! Can you believe it? And in most cases, the red Target tag was still clearly visible on the item showing the super reduced Target price. Logic tells me, that if Target can't sell it for $1.49, the Goodwill ain't gonna sell it for $1.99. Righto?

The clothing has been pretty much standardized pricing across the board... but I've noticed that Goodwill 'reserves the right' to place a "boutique" price tag on (used) clothing when a brand name clothing item is donated. I've seen boutique prices on Gymboree clothing, even if it had a stain or was faded beyond recognition.

Our Goodwill is under new management and all of these price increases have come under this new woman's management. And every time I go in there, I see the same ol' stuff just sitting there, week after week. I've just about stopped going to that one all together since I have not been able to find a deal there. I imagine she sits in her office all day long surfing eBay to see what this stuff goes for online. But, the difference is, that if I wanted to buy it off eBay, I would!

And finally, one more story that is worth telling about price gouging at GW. I saw a pair of actual Crocs shoes priced at $19.99. You can buy them new for $29.00 at most department stores and you can even buy them for $19.99 at the outlet mall in the next town. Yes, I thought that was high for a pair of rubber shoes. But, that's not the best part. The best part, was that right next the pair of Crocs, was the Wal-Mart brand of moc-crocs for $19.99 as well! You can buy them new at WM for less than $9.00.

So, as you can imagine, I'm heartbroken that my local Goodwill would rather hurt the community than help it. I think I'll take my next round of Goodwill donations to the neighboring town's Goodwill. At least there, they don't price gouge.