Thrift with us!

I had never been to a Goodwill Outlet and was unsure of what to expect. Goodwill Outlet stores serve as the liquidation centers for their retail stores. Goodwill moves merchandise to the outlets when it doesn’t sell within six weeks. What intrigued me about the Goodwill was that instead of paying per item customers pay per pound. The Goodwill Outlet serves as a last effort to turn a profit before dealing with the costs of disposal.

When I got to the Outlet I had to wait outside the store for about 40 minutes. They admitted shoppers based on the number of shopping carts, so as soon as someone left with a shopping cart, a single person could go in. They limited it to one person per shopping cart to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The warehouse was very large, and there was an overwhelming amount of large blue bins full to the brim. I immediately started by digging through the bins which were filled with not just clothing but books and household goods. I would definitely recommend bringing gloves, because there was a lot of used underwear, and broken things at the bottom.

After 15 minutes of digging, there was a sudden change in the atmosphere, as many of the shoppers rushed to where the staff was rolling old bins away. There was a lot of pressure to secure a new spot along yellow lines, where the staff places the new bins. As they came rolling out, there was a lot of cart-hogging and bin hoarding. I felt like there were many professional thrifters frantically looking for items worth reselling. These shoppers were border-line cutthroat!

While shopping, I put every item that caught my eye in a cart as soon as I saw them, and then, in the end, I sifted through it and made my final decision. After pushing and digging through the bins for over an hour, it was finally time to check out. I was surprised that my cart with over 10 items of clothing, and even a dish rack, was less than $20. Overall I had a lot of fun shopping at the Goodwill Outlet, however, it felt like less of a shopping environment and more like a hoarding environment. In my opinion, the deals are worth the hustle.

And finally, if I could offer one piece of advice to future Outlet shoppers, I would say be prepared and willing to dig for hours. The reward of finding a vintage pair of jeans for less than a dollar is while worth the hunt. You can definitely find some good things if you are willing to get dirty and embrace the experience.

To see if there's a Goodwill Outlet store near you, use the store locator at the top of the Goodwill website. Just check the "outlet" box and enter your ZIP code or city and state.