By Mavis Butterfield on - 25 Comments
Thrift store shopping is multifaceted. Not only do you have your regular thrift stores, but you have the thrift store’s thrift store, like the Goodwill Outlet Store. It’s basically where all your non-sold or non sell-able thrift store castoffs land.
Recently I went shopping at a Goodwill Outlet Store and had quite the experience. It was kind of a frenzied mad house for the run-of-the-mill shopper like me, just there to find a few items. But I learned a thing or two, got some great tips from the few kind fellow shoppers I encountered {most of them are border-line cut throat!}, and am now fully prepared if ever decide to go back. If you are thinking of stopping by a Goodwill Outlet Store, heeding these tips might help you have a more successful trip!
Change Your Expectations: I thought the outlet store would be a cheaper version of the Goodwill with just a bit more junk. Boy was I wrong. It’s basically a store full of bins. Lots of bins with lots of junk. No shelves to go strolling by, calmly looking for bargains. For the most part, people are there to stock up on cheap stuff and resell it online. People walk in, shove mass quantities of stuff in carts as fast as they can and THEN stand off to the side and sort them. Think Black Friday, all day, every day. It was madness. And messy. And germy. And chaos. People were not there to make friends; they’d probably run you down with a cart if they thought you were taking one of their potential bargains. It was less of a shopping environment than a hoarding environment. Walk in knowing that and you’ll be better off.
Wear the Proper Attire: Gloves. You must have gloves! You’ll be digging through some perfectly fine merchandise mixed in with some really questionable stuff. Do not touch that with bare hands! Also, the store itself is dirty, so I’d recommend wearing grubby clothes you don’t mind grime on.
Watch Your Cart Like a Hawk: I saw customers shopping not only from the bins, but from other customer’s carts when they had their back turned. Do not leave your cart or there’s a good chance someone will make it their cart!
Don’t Carry a Purse: Keeping track of your cart and shopping for deals is enough to worry about. Wear a fanny pack or tuck your wallet into a zippered pocket and head to the outlet without your purse. Even if people don’t have sticky fingers, purses galore are sold there and yours may be mistaken for a great find!
Skip the Cart: Unless you are going for a big haul like a TV, furniture, etc. or you plan on loading a cart to the brim, skip the cart altogether and bring in some big bags of your own to fill. Then you won’t even have to worry about keeping an eye on your cart.
Leave Your Kids at Home: The outlet store is no place for kids. It’s madness, and I can’t imagine trying to navigate it and keep track of your children. Plus, I’ve heard Goodwill employees will actually kick you out if your kids don’t stay by your side! This is one shopping to trip to do without them.
Shop Back to Front: I noticed everyone else doing the opposite, so if you skip the bins at the entry and head straight to the back, you might find it’s less crazy {this only rings true if you are there right when they open}.
Know the Schedule: Avoid the first Saturday of the month {in many locations, this day of the week might be different} because that’s when they have a blowout sale and the already crazy cheap stuff is marked down even further. I’d avoid that Saturday like the plague. Also, learn the bin rotation schedule at your store. The bins are changed out at routine times during the day, so if you hit it right, you can dig through an old bin and then its replacement all in one trip!
Clear Your Calendar: Plan to spend a few hours in the store. There’s no way to hit an outlet store in a few minutes. It’s not that type of store. So block out an afternoon or a morning to do your digging.
Have a Plan: While it might be a free-for-all when you get there, at least going in with a plan will help you a little. There are basically 5 main sections: clothing, books, furniture, shoes, and miscellaneous. If you know what section you’re most interested in, you can avoid all the other areas. Or you can map out the store and create a trail prioritizing the departments you want to hit first.
Have you ever shopped at a Goodwill Outlet store? Any tips I missed? Share your Goodwill Outlet experiences. I can’t wait to hear ’em.
~Mavis
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