Receiving many press kudos for their exponential retail store growth and increased donations by the public, the media outlets fail to investigate the greed and price gouging that has increased over the past 3 years.
If any of the reporters were to actually shop at one of the retail stores, they would be in complete shock and awe of some of the outrageous pricing that the store managers come up with. These are donated items! Many items are missing parts or items they claim to have "tested" prior to putting on the shelves. If the item seems suspicious as to whether it works or not, they like to put an "As-is" tag on it. You take your chances and get an in store credit on the faulty item you just paid "near-retail" for.
Sometimes I feel the staff truly is "retarded", and I'm not referring to the truly disabled staff they claim to hire. I have been shopping at goodwill stores for over five years now at over 6 locations in the region, and I have yet to encounter an employee with a noticeable physical or mental disability.
The retarded decision process I'm referring to are in regards to the way they think they can get away with pricing a Dollar Tree item for $8, when the Dollar Tree tag for $1 is still on the item. Obsolete memory DIMMs will sell for as much as $70 at one store, where the same item will sell for $8. Urine soaked furniture selling for over $100, counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags selling for $70, broken items being sold for full retail or higher, recalled toys from china containing lead being sold on the shelves and accessible to kids playing in the aisles... The list goes on.
Any media bragging about Goodwill's success makes me sick to my stomach. If they want a real good investigative story, they should look into what I've claimed. Who is Goodwill really helping? Upper management and board members? Damn right! Selling items on Ebay for maximum profit? I'm sorry..."Maximum non-profit"! These items were donated!!! I once saw a braille typwriter up for sale on the Tacoma store's Ebay site (yeah they've got those too!) selling for over $200. Ridiculous!
There is nothing I'm aware of that makes their practices illegal. But it sure is unethical. The greed is out of controland growing each month I visit their stores. I encourage everyone to seek out more privately owned charitable organizations to donate your goods to. It's nice to know that your items won't be sold for more than you could get rid of them for at a garage sale or classified ad.
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