EDMONDS — Business is brisk at the new Edmonds Goodwill thrift store location. The 16,700 square feet is packed with merchandise – jewelry, designer purses, artwork, unique golf clubs, gently used furniture, crystal goblets, a decorative animal horn.
Even Goodwill’s own reusable shopping bags send the message that this is not the Goodwill of days gone by with dingy lighting, narrow aisles, merchandise in mayhem and the pervasive scent of previously worn clothing.
Merchandise is displayed with flair. Departments are designated so shoppers can pinpoint a particular area of interest. Displays are changed daily to keep things fresh. There are special sales every month.
“Our shoppers like the treasure hunt,” said Joann Conrad, the store’s manager. “They may come in looking for a replacement for a broken pot lid or a Halloween costume. What they find is a specialty boutique, a new store to shop and a new way to shop.”
Conrad previously managed the Lynnwood Goodwill location that posted more than $3 million in sales last year.
“This store is smaller than Lynnwood, but we have a roomier feel with wider aisles,” Conrad said. “We have created a clean, bright and cheery store and we are happy how well received we have been in the community.”
The store opened Dec. 1 to a crowd lined up at the door. “Customers had been asking for an Edmonds location,” Conrad said.
The store’s location makes it a prime spot for shoppers as well as those who are donating items.
“Being right on the way to the ferry, it is easy to drop off donations,” Conrad said. “We are easy to get to from the freeway and our best customers shop the Lynnwood, Shoreline and new Edmonds stores.”
Donations made to the location are sorted and priced for sale at the Edmonds store. Some collectables are sent to the online auction arm (www.shopgoodwill.com) of Goodwill Industries, a national nonprofit focused on job training with 2,400 retail locations nationwide.
The Edmonds store also is an electronic waste recycler, where televisions, computers, printers and monitors can be dropped off for recycling. Conrad says that her store collects more than a dozen pallets of these items every week.
The Edmonds Goodwill employs 47 people. Some of those employees come to the location from Goodwill’s job training program. Others are Edmonds residents and area students.
Three of the store’s workers are from Goodwill’s retail training program where they were given free instruction about customer service, merchandising and computer skills, including operating the cash registers. The group then helps trainee graduates find jobs and follow their career paths.
“All the wonderful things that happen in the store translate to the program,” said Katherine Boury, communications manager for Seattle Goodwill.
The Edmonds store has one employee who started out as a cashier four years ago. He worked his way up and now prices donations for sale.
Goodwill Edmonds
WHERE: 10117 Edmonds Way
PHONE: 425-977-2090
HOURS: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday
DONATIONS: 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday
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