#Goodwill outlet series#
#Goodwill outlet free#

This is one of the reasons it becomes a time sink.

To make things more confusion, the bins are a free-for-all and things get moved between bins so people can see what’s in them better. While the bins are generally grouped by type (shoes, clothes, books) with each in their own section of the room, there is no rhyme or reason beyond that. As in… the first person with their hands on the item gets it. Some Goodwill Outlet stores have lines painted on the ground that cannot be crossed until the employee says okay. When they are first rolled onto the sales floor, nobody is allowed to touch anything until the last cart in the row is rolled into place and the wheels locked. If you decide to go, there are a couple things you need to know. Not so much for the dirt, but because I once reached for something and cut my hand on some broken glass. I actually keep a pair of gardening gloves in the van in case I plan to be digging through the bins a lot. But no different than a regular Goodwill or thrift store, you’ll want to wash your hands after leaving. In that window of time, those bins become a mixture of discarded pieces, dumped out contents and chaos. There is usually a section for larger items such as furniture, but beyond that, everything is stored in bins that are rolled onto the sales floor then removed after a designated amount of time.

#Goodwill outlet free#

They keep the floors clean and free of clutter, but that’s about it. It’s clean and it’s messy all at the same time if that makes any sense. In case you find yourself curious about why we got lost in the black hole that is a Goodwill Outlet, here’s how it works. Several hours later, we realized we were STILL there. It was chaos.Ĭhaos that somehow managed to siphon time. There were no shelves, no price tags and no sense of order. When we walked in, we were shocked at what we discovered. We couldn’t have been further from the truth. We figured it would be just another Goodwill utilizing a different marketing tactic by calling itself an Outlet. They’re filled with items that didn’t sell at a garage sale or that an owner donated because they were not in style, didn’t fit or were no longer needed. We kind of laughed because in our minds all Goodwills are outlet stores in a sense. During a summer trip in 2013, we did this near Nashville and a Goodwill Outlet popped up on the list.

While en route to visit family in another state, on our way to a gaming convention or simply traveling for fun, we will load up the map on our iPhone and search “Goodwill near me” or “Thrift stores near me”. It was only a handful of years ago that we discovered another resource for this thrifty behavior: Goodwill Outlet.Īs you have probably read, we regularly seek out thrift stores when we travel. We’ve been scouring garage sales, flea markets, auctions and thrift stores for pretty much as long as we’ve been married. Scott has been been dedicated for about three years to sharing these (mostly) awesome discoveries, but we’re not new to this.

#Goodwill outlet series#

If you’ve been to our site for over a week, you hopefully have stumbled across our regular Sunday “Thrift Treasure” series devoted to showcasing the awesome games we find at thrift stores.