Goodwill hunting

A vintage find from Goodwill.

There’s nothing better sometimes than a good deal. As a major shopaholic, I understand fully the need to acquire, but I’m no fool. The best price does matter and has to matter; otherwise you don’t get to go shop as much.

Because of this, I’m a fan of Goodwill stores. The various Goodwill organizations always been a great cause to support; they even helped me find a job one time, but they used to run very dingy, nasty thrift stores with that strange smell that anyone who’s been can recognize. In the past few years however, Goodwill has spruced up. Most of the new stores are clean, bright, and carry things people could actually use, rather than the old broken castoffs from a generation ago.

The Roanoke area is home to a Goodwill organization that operates a network of retail stores throughout Southwest Virginia. When a number of drugstore spaces came on the market after the consolidation of several local chains, Goodwill began a major expansion push into a number of 5,000 to 10,000 square foot spaces in strip malls. Some of those locations became so popular they had to move to bigger spaces, like the Hollins store I visited today, which moved form an old Eckerd store to a bigger former Food Lion next door.


The new Hollins Goodwill, complete with fairy tale-motif exterior design.

The relocated Hollins Goodwill store opened today, and due to both enduring popularity and extensive newspaper advertising, it was packed. Although many of the sections of the store were well-picked by the time I arrived in the afternoon, the music section was still kitchen clean, well at least as clean as a typical new Goodwill.

I didn’t come close to the record-setting purchases of the other day, but I did pick up a few LPs from the recent past, along with a couple of 45s, all for the low price of $2.00 total:

Eddie Murphy - Eddie Murphy
Kenny Rogers – Eyes That See In the Dark
The Harmonizing Four – God Will Take Care of You
Barbra Streisand/Barry Gibb – Guilty
The Oak Ridge Boys – Elvira/A Woman Like You
Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton – Islands in the Stream/ I Will Always Love You

Impressed? Like I say, nothing like a good deal. Especially for a good cause.