It’s always exciting when a customer emails or calls me to share one of their great Goodwill finds. It’s even more exciting when a great Goodwill find walks right into my office.
Last week one of our account executives, Jan, came by for a meeting. When she walked into my office holding a Goodwill bag, I was intrigued. I asked Jan what she had in the bag and she proceeded to show me the great Goodwill find she had just picked up. It was an adorable white belt with a news print looking pattern all over it. It was the perfect accesory for someone who works in the media. I immediately made Jan model it and informed her that I would be writing a blog post about her. She happily obliged.
Over the next few days, I received several emails from Jan describing all the cute outfits she had already created with her new belt. Now that was $1.50 well spent.
A few weeks ago, I was visiting the Goodwill store in Reidsville. I was taking pictures of various items for What is it? Wednesday when a shopper stopped to ask what I was doing. I explained to him the concept behind What is it? Wednesday and encouraged him to check out our blog.
Almost immediately, he shared his “cool Goodwill find” for the day with me and even agreed to let me photograph him for the blog. He found an original promotional record of Italian Guitars. The record was in pristine condition and the cover was hand-made, complete with colored pencil artwork. He assured me that this record had probably traveled a few miles since he couldn’t think of a radio station in this area that would have a promotional record like this on hand.
After chatting about the promotional record, he also told me about some other great items he had come across in the past. Then a passing shopper chimed in to share her “cool find” story. And then another one told us her story. It was then that I realized what is so special about Goodwill. Aside from finding good deals and helping support our mission, people enjoy shopping Goodwill for the thrill of the hunt. On any given day you never know what you’ll come across.
If you have a “cool find” story that you’d like to share, leave us a comment. We’d be excited to feature you in an upcoming blog entry. And if you don’t have a story to share yet, find the nearest Goodwill store and get to shopping. Your cool find is out there just waiting to be discovered.
Filed under: Retail and Donations | Tags: gifts, shopping tips, Stores, thrifty finds, Valentine's Day
I should start this post off by saying that I will spend Valentine’s Day with my boyfriend for the first time this year. That is to say that, in the last five years, I have not given him a single Valentine. However, I do plenty of nice things for him throughout the year, so I think I’m qualified to give a little bit of Valentine’s advice.
The key to making a holiday like this special is putting a lot of thought and time (not necessarily money) into your gift. You can get a great start at Goodwill. Nothing spells romance like flowers and candles. If you get your vase at Goodwill, you’ll have plenty of money leftover to pick up a bouquet at the farmer’s market (get some food while you’re there for a home-cooked, romantic dinner). Goodwill also has lots of votive candle holders to choose from and, with the money you save, you can get some really fancy fragrant candles.
Another way to turn up the romance is to give a gift that symbolizes your feelings for each other. For example, if you’re ready to take your relationship to the next level, you could get your sweetheart this toothbrush holder with a new toothbrush in it for him (or her) to keep at your place.
If you’re spending Valentine’s Day with your girlfriends, you can pick up some great chick flicks at Goodwill. These VHS tapes were all only a dollar each — that’s much less than a rental and you’ll want to watch these classics over and over.
Whether you’re looking for a creative gift, holiday decorations, an outfit for a date, or a romantic movie or book to snuggle up with, you can find what you need at Goodwill!
Filed under: Retail and Donations | Tags: shopping tips, Stores, thrifty finds
When I moved to Greensboro from Chicago, I woke up very confused one January morning. The temperature was just above freezing, a comfortable winter day by Midwestern standards, but the roads were covered in salt, the grocery store parking lots were packed, and there was a battery shortage at the corner store. What’s going on? I wondered. Three years later, I’m in line with everyone else, stocking up on groceries, wine, DVDs, and cozy blankets.
With a winter storm on its way, you’ll want to stock up on all sorts of things and what better place to do it than Goodwill? Whether you’re going to be hitting the sledding hills with your kids or snuggling up by the fire with your sweetheart, you can save money at Goodwill on all your essential supplies.
Look for these Goodwill items to help get you through the wintry weekend:
- Hats, scarves, gloves, and boots to keep you warm and dry
- Mugs for your hot chocolate
- Movies and books to entertain you
- Pots and pans to simmer your soup
- Games for family fun
- Couch or arm chair to snuggle up on
Let us know about your best finds and how it helped you survive the storm!
Personally, I’m not impressed with The Pepsi Challenge. I can identify a Coke by the sound and smell before it even touches my lips. That skill has prevented a lot of unpleasant first sips in restaurants where they substitute Pepsi for Coke without asking.
The Goodwill Challenge is much more difficult. You can find the same brands and styles at Goodwill that you can find in any major retailer. The difference? At Goodwill, the clothes are gently used and cost a fraction of the price. In fact, it would be so difficult to identify a Goodwill item in a lineup next to new items that I’m not even going to ask you to do that.
Here’s what we’re asking you to do: wear one Goodwill item every day next week. It could be a shirt, pants, jacket, accessory, etc. Then tweet about it and mention @TriadGoodwill. For every day that you tweet, you’ll be entered into our drawing for a Cheesecakes by Alex gift certificate.
Details:
- Monday – Friday, 11/16 – 11/20
- Wear an article of clothing from Goodwill
- Tweet about it and mention @TriadGoodwill
- Each tweet will equal one entry into a drawing (limited to one entry per person, per day)
- The winner will be drawn and announced on Friday at 3:00pm
- The winner will receive a $20 gift certificate to Cheesecakes by Alex
- Goodwill employees may participate, but may not win
Go shopping! Get dressed! Tweet! Take The Goodwill Challenge!
Filed under: Retail and Donations | Tags: jackets, rain coats, thrifty finds
In case you haven’t been outside for the last two days, let me be the one to fill you in. It’s been raining… a lot. Like epic flood rain. But like I said if you’ve even so much as looked outside in the last 48 hours then you already knew this.
This is the kind of rain that you don’t mess around with. Yesterday morning when I got ready to take my dogs for their morning walk I thought “Oh it’s not raining that hard”. I put on my typical walk-the-dogs-in-the-morning outfit which consists of whatever I’m going to wear to work plus old tennis shoes. (Don’t judge the outfit. It was 6:00am afterall.) And, since it “wasn’t raining that hard”, I decided to throw on my windbreaker. Bad, bad idea. After taking the short cut back home because my shoes were flooded, I realized that it was in fact raining hard. I had to change my outfit to a less soaking wet one and re-blow dry my hair.
The point of the whole story is that when it rains like this you have to be prepared. But since epic rain storms like this are few and far between you don’t want to spend tons of money purchasing all the gear that it takes to stay dry. Luckily Goodwill’s got you covered — get it covered…like covered from the rain. Ok never mind.
I went by the Eugene Street Store this morning to see what kind of rain gear was available and the first thing that caught my eye was this awesome belted full length rain coat. It not only caught my eye cause it’s thick and belted and has maroon detailing…it’s also full length! And full length would have been nice when I was getting the legs of my nice dress pants all wet while walking my dogs. The best thing about this rain coat is that it costs only $14.
Now I know that full length rain coats might not be everyone’s style but I can’t think of anyone who chooses to not stay dry. So I sought out a nice alternative. This blue jacket is hooded and lined so it will keep you warm and dry. Plus it’s easy to throw on over pretty much anything. It is probably something I should have tucked away for those early morning walks. And this jacket is only $5.
The moral of the story is that you can find all the things you need to stay dry by looking at your local Goodwill. And you won’t spend a lot of money on stuff that’s just going to end up soaked. Aside from jackets and rain coats, Goodwill also has umbrellas and rain boots. So before the next flood or snow storm or pretty much any drastic change of weather head to the Goodwill nearest you and pick up your essential gear.
Filed under: Retail and Donations | Tags: shopping tips, Stores, thrifty finds
The Eugene Street Goodwill Store may look the same from the outside, but you’ll notice a difference as soon as you walk through the door. The store was closed for four weeks for remodeling and, when it reopened on October 14, shoppers couldn’t wait to get through the door to see the new store. What did they see? Let me take you on a virtual tour.
Welcome to Goodwill! Come on in! When you walk in the front door, you find yourself standing in the Boutique. As you browse the round racks, you see that the Boutique is fully stocked with brand new clothing, which makes it easy to find the color and size you’re looking for. Each item is individually priced with an easy to read tag.
Turn to your right and you see the entrance to Computer Junction. As you walk through the door, you see flat screen monitors, towers, cables, keyboards and our friendly computer technicians. Go ahead and ask them you’re toughest question — they’re geeky enough to know the answer and cool enough to explain it to you.
Okay, tear yourself away from the computers and head back into the store. As you walk toward the back, you see the same color-coded racks that you see in every Goodwill. But don’t dive in yet, I still have one more thing to show you!
Walk all the way to the back and take a right. As you walk into the furniture section, it seems very, very different. You can’t quite put your finger on it. New shelves? Larger area? Green accent wall? That’s it! Where there used to be a fence separating the store from the warehouse, there is now an honest to goodness wall. It’s been a whirlwind of a tour — go ahead and take a seat on that couch over there.
To see more of the newly remodeled Goodwill store, visit our Flickr page or come on down to 1235 South Eugene Street in Greensboro.
Filed under: General | Tags: Costumes, Halloween, shopping tips, thrifty finds
I trick-or-treated every Halloween, just like all the other kids. Unlike all the other kids, I never had a store-bought costume. I never wanted to be Rainbow Bright or a Care Bear or Cinderella — I thought those one-piece polyester costumes were dumb. They didn’t look at all like the real thing. But as the youngest of six kids, I could be anything my sisters had already been — cheerleader, Indian, fairy princess, scarecrow. When I got to college and got to make my own costume, I was pumped.
I had recently ruined a load of laundry by washing it with crayons (apparently I had stuffed some of the kids’ crayons into my pocket from my hostess job at Applebee’s), so I ironed some more crayon shavings onto a pair of khakis and a t-shirt. I added candy letters to the shirt, stuck candles on a plate for a hat, and voila! I was a birthday cake. This was my first costume creation and my first college party. It was a big deal. Of course, five minutes after I walked into the party, one person tried to eat the candy off my shirt while someone else lit the candles on my hat. It was a disaster.
So it might not surprise you that I took a seven-year hiatus from Halloween. Last year I came back in full force with my first couple costume. My boyfriend and I were going to a neighborhood party, so he dressed as our crazy neighbor and I dressed as our apartment building. Who knows how we came up with that idea, but the resemblance was striking. (You’ll have to trust me on the resemblance of the crazy neighbor.) The denim jacket and the yellow t-shirt came from Goodwill.
I can’t tell you what we’re going to be this year (it’s even more genius than last year!), but I can tell you that we’ll get all the elements from Goodwill. If you’re just going to ruin a t-shirt by painting it, cutting it, or sewing a bunch of stuff to it, why buy new?
Filed under: Retail and Donations | Tags: Cowboy Boots, Dresses, skirts, thrifty finds
I was recently in Nashville where I was peer-pressured into getting a pair of cowboy boots. A downtown store had an incredible sale (buy one pair, get two free) and I had two friends who “needed” cowboy boots (both men, by the way). What these men didn’t realize was that this would snowball into all the skinny jeans, dresses, skirts, and tights I would need to wear with the boots. I don’t care how cheap your boots are, that adds up!
I, of course, headed to Goodwill. While skinny jeans haven’t made their way into our donation centers yet, Goodwill is my number one spot for dresses. Why? I generally buy dresses to wear for a special occasion or for one season, so I don’t want to spend a lot of money on something I’m only going to wear a few times. Also, if other people’s dress buying and wearing habits are similar to mine, then they are donating dresses after only a few wears. So I can get a good deal on an item in great condition. Last night I got two things to wear with my boots.
The first was a jean skirt in good condition from the Gap. Tammy and I had just been talking about the ideal jean skirt — pencil skirt just above the knee — and how we see women wearing them, but never see them in stores. I can’t believe we hadn’t thought to search the racks at Goodwill. Denim skirts at the Gap are usually about $50, but I got it at Goodwill for $3.75.
The second was a red, black, and white patterned dress in excellent condition from Express. I hesitate to say that this dress is plaid. Maybe if Picasso had his way with plaid, it would look like this. The dress is a teensy bit too big, but that leaves plenty of room to layer it over a black v-neck this fall. (Is that whole thing actually stylish? It doesn’t matter, I’m still doing it.) I’m sure this dress would sell for around $50 at Express, but I got it practically new at Goodwill for $5.
I got all this at the High Point Road Goodwill Store. To find a store near you, visit our website.
Like most people, I decided to take a little trip to the beach over Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately my beach trip didn’t include much actual beach time. I traveled to Virginia Beach, VA this weekend to run in the Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon. Though it would have been great to stay for the whole weekend and enjoy a little sun and surf, my prior plans didn’t permit me to stay for more than a day.
Things got when I received a call from my mom on Saturday informing me that my PawPaw (my grandfather on my Dad’s side) was not doing well. This had been the case for a while now but things had taken a turn for the worst. Since getting home quickly wasn’t really an option, I decided something else had to be done to honor my PawPaw.
That’s where Goodwill saved the day. I wanted to dedicate my race that day to my PawPaw. I could have printed something on paper and safety pinned it to my shirt but my hotel wasn’t fully prepared to handle that request. So I opted for the next best thing. I bought a permanent marker to write on my shirt. But then I realized that the spandex material of my running shirt was not the best canvas. Then I had a brilliant idea. I found the nearest Goodwill store (at Woodtide Shopping Center) in Virginia Beach and bought myself a nice white tank top for a few dollars. In the end the white tank top was the perfect canvas for my message to my PawPaw. And I owe many thanks to that Goodwill for saving the day.
