Shop ‘Til You Drop

[By Kerri Nettles]

If you want trendy, quirky, classic or vintage—the aisles at Goodwill are packed with treasures to be discovered. If you’re looking for clothes, books, furniture or housewares—Goodwill is also a treasure trove. While once a secret of avid thrifters, the unique items and affordable prices have gotten the attention of the general public, including those who want to promote sustainable living and support Goodwill’s mission of changing lives through education, training and employment.

You see, all the items sold in the stores fund Goodwill’s programs—The Excel Center® (Arkansas’s only high school for adults), job training programs, career services, job training for Arkansans with disabilities, reentry programs and more.

Many items found in Goodwill stores are brand new, tags still attached. Others are antiques with a rich history that they long to tell.

If Goodwill stores are a treasure trove for shoppers, Goodwill Outlets take it to the next level. Seriously.

Rows and rows of blue bins positioned perfectly across thousands of square feet. Inside those bins—about everything you can imagine: clothes, electronics, household items, books—you name it. They are items that spent a few weeks on store shelves and are looking for a second life. At Goodwill, they want to keep items out of Arkansas’s landfills, so they sell them by weight for pennies on the dollar. Well, with a few exceptions like furniture. You just roll your cart up to the cashier to be weighed, and off you go.

Tom Knight visits the Little Rock Outlet about once a week. “It’s a goldmine for books,” he said.

Many donning protective gloves and extra comfortable shoes, shoppers dive in, awaiting that one-of-a-kind find. The bins are constantly refilled, to make sure there is always something new. On average, 100 bins are filled with textiles every day, 70 filled with household items (wares).

Through Goodwill’s retail stores and two outlet locations, last fiscal year they were able to keep nearly 32 million pounds of items out of Arkansas landfills.

Outlets are open 9 a.m.–8 p.m. Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Sunday.

7400 Scott Hamilton Drive, Little Rock, AR

1301 N. Dixieland, Rogers, AR

For a list of retail locations around the state, visit GoodwillAR.org/store-locations.