RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Good thrift stores, I think Fred Grandy runs this organization still.

I was employed by goodwill store in Western Chicago Suburbs and I can also atest to the fact that donations brought into these stores are mostly thrown out and good items are taken off the shelves and thrown in the back to be put in the garbage for more stuff.They also treat there employees like crap.In the back where the stuff is unpackaged there is no saftey to protect the workers hands from the sometimes harmful fecal/urine stained items and broken glasses.Plus, they dont train or treat any person with a disablility with respect or train them. I have a mental disability and they just shipped me out with no concern. I was promised breaks and worked a 9 hour shift with no break.I also know that they have employees clean out the bathrooms with no proper gloves ect and those employees are then put out on the floor handling items.This place is horrid and I dont recommend anyone donate to them("dont let the donors see you throwin stuff out or breaking it when they pull up") and everything is overpriced.There is no good mission that its going to and the guy who created goodwill is probualy turning in his grave.

i currently work for goodwill and no i don't have have any dissabilaties and i'm not mentally ill. i am the person who straightens the store and stocks shelves and i just thought i'd let the very ignorant person who wrote that comment in on a little secret... we're not all retards. i really didn't appreciate that anyway as for everything else your right. i'm a little upset today because i just checked my bank account and found that there's no christmas bonus for this year. i really needed that extra little bit just to pay rent this month but it looks like rent and christmas are not in goodwill's vocabulary. i've been working for goodwill industries for 20 months now and it's just not paying the bills. everyday feels like a sin when perfectly good donations are thrown out just because we have to much of something or when a stupid bag comes in and is priced for $300.00. or when theft is a major issue but upper management just lets it occur even when it does affect your personal paycheck. i don't know how other stores might hire in but at mine there are very well rounded employees. it doesn't change anything though, you're still treated like you're 13 or less. overall i think i'm really getting sick of the company. the managers think it's ok for an employee to have to touch human urine."I don't know why you're worried it's only pee. Just wash your hands well after you sort through the bags", says the manager. the things i've heard and seen there could go on for days and when i finally quit working there i'm goingg to tell it all. if anyone else would like to shed some light on goodwill's interesting little secrets just keep posting to this website. i'll keep an eye out for you.

They help good people... but im sure someone gets rich from running the organization.

I suppose this outfit is fine as long as administrative costs are not too high. I haven't heard one way or the other.

I love goodwill. You can get brand name idems like: Abercrombie and Fitch, Aeropostle, American Eagle, Old Navy, and many nore, for really cheep.
I love to go there, its my favorite place to shop. I can get 10 shirts there, for the price of one at some other store. You can really find treasures there. Most of the clothes are in great condition there. I rearly find anything stained or ripped there. AND
Since you grow up so fast, you only wear clothes for a year or two, so why pay high prices for a shirt you will wear once.
I can get a shirt there for $2.00 - $3.00 there.
I also recycle everything I possibly can.

So, why not get cheep, high quality clothes insted of expensive, high quality clothes?
plus, you will help recycle to save the earth.

GLAD TO HAVE FOUND THIS SITE....MY LOCAL " GOODWILL" IS A JOKE. ASIDE FROM CHARGING PRICES THAT ARE CLOSE TO RETAIL, I HAVE PHOTOGRAPHED THEIR DUMPSTER, WHICH WILL BE IN THIS WEEKS PAPER..... PEOPLE DONATE THINKING THAT ITEMS (ones i shot) mainly brand new childrens toys, with tags and nooooo stains, tossed in the dumbster. HMMMMM NON PROFIT, WONDER WHAT THE CEOS OR PRESIDENT OR WHOM EVER RUNS THE LOCAL GOODWILLS TAKE HOME EACH YEAR???? NOW IF THEY DID NOT WANT TO SELL PERFECTLY GOOD TOYS, GAMES ETC. PLACE IT ASIDE AND CALL A CHURCH OR BETTER STILL HAVE A FOR FREE BIN. RECENTLY SALVATION ARMY WAS IN THE PAPER FOR REFUSING TO ACCEPT TWO COUCHES BECAUSE THE MGR CLAIMED THEY HAD STAINS, SHE MUSTA NEVER HEARD OF SHOUT ETC. I WANTED TO EXPOSE HER FOR OVER TWO YRS, SOMEONE BEAT ME TO THE PUNCH. NOW THE STORE IS PRETTY EMPTY THESE DAYS. ALSO SEE MGRS HOARDING QUALITY ITEMS TO LOAD UP FOR THEMSELVES AFTER WARDS. GOD FORBID YOU HAVE ONLY 5 BUCKS FOR A PAIR OF JEANS PRICED AT 8 DOLLARS....OR A HOMELESS PERSON ASKING FOR A WINTER COAT.... NO MOOLA, FREEZE. AAAAAAA SITE WILL HIP LOCAL FOLKS TO HAVE A LOOK HERE BEFORE DONATING ANYTHING. MY HANDY DIGITAL OT SOME RATHER GREAT SHOTS AND THE FULL MOON ASSISTED AS WELL. PEACE OUT...EVERYONE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK IN EXPOSING THESE SO CALLED NON PROFIT ORGS. MAINLY SAL ARMY AND GOODWILL. MANY NON PROFIT SMALLER COMPANIES DO SERVE THE PUBLIC AND ARE DEDICATED TO THEIR CAUSE AND NOT BACKDOOR PROFITS AND TAX BREAKS

I used to work at a Goodwill store for about a year and a half and I can tell you that the longer I worked there, the worse I thought if this place. The employees are treated like dirt and although some may be 20+ years old, they are treated as if they were 13. You RARELY get raises and when you do, they suck. The turnover rate is horrendous - people get fired all the time. They have this point system where you get fired once you're out of points, from calling off of work or coming in late. I personally have known people who lost their final points because of the following reasons: someone lost their license and had a difficult time getting to work on time, someone had severe bronchitis and missed a week of work, someone's mother was in critical condition in the hospital and he pretty much chose seeing his mother over coming in for work that weekend, someone else lost their job for putting a hole in a wall with a forklift but the hole was there before he got hired...there are many other people that get fired for stupid reasons. They also supposedly recycle - yeah right. They throw out so much stuff it's unbelievable. Employees themselves have in fact taken peoples' donations and taken them directly to the trash compactor and that was the end of that. This happens on a daily basis. When stuff does not get sold, it gets thrown out. If employees don't feel like putting newly priced donations onto the shelves, it gets thrown out. Sometimes employees will even break donated items just for fun before throwing them out. Another thing, all this crap about training people in need of skills is just that...crap. The only employees who have any kind of mental disability are the people who straigten clothes in the store all day and get carts from outside. They also get paid the lowest wages in the entire store. I think that that's hardly giving them any useful skills in the real world. Seriously though, next time you think about donating your stuff to Goodwill thinking you're doing something good for someone, think again. PLEASE take your stuff to somewhere that needs it, such as a homeless shelter. Better yet, instead of letting Goodwill "sell" (throw out) your crap, just sell it on eBay. That way, you know someone who might have wanted your stuff actually has it and is not being pushed into some landfill. Boycott this place at all costs.

It depends on who's in charge. I've known some that still adhere to the original tone and some who do every little dirty underhanded thing you can think of, including but not limited to, stealing from homeless people, taking home goods before higher officials can catch them, keeping garages filled with drop offs and later, having yard sales at the expense of the under priviliged, and even abusing the employees. I've turned one in to the authorities. No problem!

This is an organization that had pure intentions in it's beginning, but is sliding downhill faster as years go by. At one time, it was an organization that helped people in need. Today, I honestly couldn't tell you what their intentions are, but I'm willing to bet $$$ has something to do with it.

I worked at Goodwill (in NC) for 2 years. People honestly do not know what goes on in these stores. We have consumers (which are mentally/physically disabled employees that are paid a special wage which is much lower than the $7.00) and they are put in and pushed to work harder than a person making twice the pay. To me, it was sickening. I actually went to the Vice-President and asked him about it, and was given the These people are learning a trade speech. I still view it more as a taking advantage of someone type position. Because they sure didn't learn anything about working in the real world. Take that with employee theft, horrible customers, low wages, bad neighborhoods, late hours, robberies, and constant harassment from management, and you will see that this is a horrible place to work. It was the last place I worked before I started writing my book on corruption in non-profits. For research I worked at 3 different Organizations/stores. Goodwill was by far the worst. On a scale of 1 to 10 I give my experience a negative 5.

The Goodwill in Hazeldell Washington made untrained employees clean up the mess after a drug addict (presumably) used their fitting room to shoot up, leaving the needle in the middle of the main store and blood all over the fitting room. They then immediately opened the fitting room to the public. This particular Goodwill store has the worst track record for treating their employees unfairly and with unbeleivable contempt. Their utter disregard for their employees' safety (and the public's) is consistent with their general policy of controlling their staff through fear and intimidation. This store also cut many employees hours just low enough to deny them the insurance package they were promised when they were hired. This is an evil store, full of unhappy people being treated like dirt on a daily basis. The store number is 360-576-9916. Call and share your view of their behavior if you have a spare moment PLEASE! (Goodwill upper management in Portland could care less about all this...)

I just had a very disagreeable experience with the Goodwill San Francisco store at Geary near Hyde Streets. Inspired by someone in my building who was having a moving sale, I decided to do some weeding out of things I haven't used in a while and take them to Goodwill. This time when I started to take things out of my cart to put into their indoor bin, some guy came up to me and said he wanted to see what I had. He grabbed two jackets that were on the top and said they were dirty. They were NOT dirty -- they might have had ring-around-the-collar stains on them, but they were not "dirty." I thought Goodwill routinely dry-cleaned donated clothing items! Okay, so for some reason he considered these two very good, warm jackets "dirty." But THEN he just dismissed me totally, saying he didn't want **any** of it, without knowing about ANY of the other stuff I had crammed into this cart -- out of the goodness of my heart -- to donate to this very ungrateful charity, who, by the way, I have also bought from many times in the past. Never again will I attempt to do either, and you can bet I am going to tell everyone I possibly can about this experience. This guy did not have any idea what other items (definitely not all clothing, and the other clothing was also clean) I had in the cart, yet he rudely said they didn't want any of it -- without taking the time to look at any of the rest of it. How rude and unprofessional can one get?! This is the last time these people will ever get anything from me as a donation, nor will I ever buy anything from them again -- even though I used to and used to think this was a good store. With the kind of people that are working in that particular store, and with those negative, dismissive attitudes (as in your junk is not good enough for us), they should be boycotted. I will from now on donate my used items to my neighborhood laundromat, in front of a thrift store, or to a certain local AIDS Emergency Fund sidewalk sale held annually. I think Goodwill should, if they are going to be so PICKY about the kind of items they accept -- at least tell innocent donators where they CAN take the items, or take said items and give them to another agency THEMSELVES, one who is inclined to try to do something to help the homeless, etc. They should not be dismissively RUDE and just assume that ALL the items a person is trying to donate is automatically JUNK and will not SELL in their oh-so-high-class store, but should politely take the items a person has been so kind as to donate, politely thank the donator, look over the things later, and decide which they can or cannot use -- without just telling a person, in effect, that they don't want ANY of their donations -- especially when, in my case, this guy had no idea of the other items that were in my cart that I had gone to the trouble to take all the way down to their store, a walk of approximately a half mile. This store should be boycotted and put out of business. No one should donate to someone who is so ungrateful as to turn away free donations without even looking at them. They should take a cue from a certain small thrift store I know about. If the proprietors feel they cannot sell an item, they put a "free box" out in front of their shop and let people walking by help themselves. There are many low-income and homeless in our big cities. If someone goes to the trouble to take usable goods to a thrift store as large as Goodwill, who previously has been known for accepting donations, they should not be routinely dismissed without their items even being looked over. I do not understand this attitude. So maybe some items that people have donated are not, in Goodwill's opinion, able to be sold, but that does not mean ALL donated items are automatically junk items that will not sell. I mean, was this dude psychic -- could he see through the paper shopping bags in my cart and tell without a doubt that I was donating junk that would not sell? Even if I WAS donating only unusable junk, it is certainly not good for future business to treat a potential donor in such a rude manner. I certainly did not want to lug all this stuff back home again and throw it in the trash, when there were at least some items of warm, clean clothing in here, in good condition, that could have been used by SOMEone. These people have the wrong attitude -- a very negative attitude -- towards people who are kind enough to go to the trouble to bring in donations!! If the store cannot use the items, they should just pass them on to another organization who CAN possibly sort them out and use them, or just have a "free box" so that needy folks can pick out what they think they might be able to use. How does a potential donor know for sure what will sell in a thrift store? I think it says a lot that people still attempt to give usable items TO thrift stores, often going out of their way to do so, instead of just chucking everything in the garbage can!