Working at Goodwill Industries of the Valleys

The staff were all very friendly.

Not much inclusion at all, and management could have been better.

Co workers

Always pile up with trash bags work area barely moveable , can't shop at your own store , negative vibes, and expects to much for the pay

There is no benefits

The customers, coworkers, some managers, and the clothes.

some of the managers sometimes.

the clothes and talking to customers.

Helping customers

Long hours and heavy lifting

Continue education health care

You got a different challenge every day

You only need a 15 or 20 minute break to eat

Time off to take care of my parents

The flexibility in hours and how management understood we had lives outside of work

Management did not support the team or rarely did they let the customers run the store

N/a

I love netting new people and seeing regular frequent shoppers just getting to talk and interact with them

Just the usual we were always short staffed and underpaid

The love and acceptance from everyone

You get to choose you're hours and are treated nicely

Not having enough employees

Employee discount

We get a 20% discount, but we can only shop at stores we don't work at, or on days we don't work.

The bedsheets are A-OK! If it's clean and well taken care of, we'll find a use for it. There's only a few things I wish we couldn't accept, here's a small list: 1. Console and tube TV's. Only 5% of the TVs we get are ever sold, we scrap and recycle most of them, even if they work. The ones we DO sell are between .99 cents and 3.99 (not including newer flatscreens). Honestly, it's not worth the time to haul around so many gigantic TV's, and it's a pain to deal with them. 2. Holiday decorations AFTER said holiday. Christmas trees are the worst, we get SO many after christmas that we literally don't sell them, we recycle ALL of them. NOBODY buys a Christmas tree after Christmas. They're big, heavy, messy and take up a ton of room. 3. flip-flops I hate flipflops, mainly because the minute YOU wear them, your foot imprint is permanently pressed into it. Unless they're brand new, we throw them out because no one wants to wear shoes that have someone else's footprint on it, yuck! Those are the biggest things IMO, but don't fret and fit too much. You won't get bad karma from any wrong doing, and I'm positive that you'll be helping some folks quiet a bit by donating!

Previous GW employee myself. I'll try to answer your questions the best I can, but the first thing you should know is that not every Goodwill across the United States works together or shares the same policies. I worked at a GW in Wisconsin and it was a fantastic place to work. Apparently, GW's in Minnesota, just one state over, are awful. Anyway: Goodwill might be non-profit, but you shouldn't be surprised that they're trying to make as much money as possible. They have thousands of employees across each region who need to get paid. They offer free job training to a variety of folks who can't otherwise get a job. They've got bills to pay just like any other company. So you need to get over the pricing structure of some of the items. If a store KNOWS they can make an additional $25 for an item online, they're going to do it. Otherwise it's just a missed opportunity and lost money. Nobody buys winter jackets in the summer. Just like ANY OTHER store would do, GW marks up winter items in the winter because they can, and people will pay more. Plenty of vinyl gets thrown out if it's moldly, too obscure (I'm talking a 60's polka record, not a 00's indie band), or isn't worth anything online and doesn't get sold in the store. What else are they going to do with it? Regarding "supporting the local community...again, this totally depends on the region. Where I worked in Wisconsin, the money literally did go back into the community. We had developmentally disabled folks working for us and getting paid an honest wage. Not many other companies will do that. We offered PAID job training to people who recently got out of jail and couldn't get a job anywhere else. We donated items to the local Humane Society. Supporting the community doesn't always mean writing checks to other local non-profits. It can mean a variety of different things and I'm sure that the Goodwill stores in your area do something, one way or another. Not trying to be a *** with my post here, I just know that there are some significant misunderstandings about Goodwill for people who haven't worked there.

1) Very much yes! We have regulars who come in every morning, we also have a shuttle that goes to a retirement home near by and brings the retirees every few days. (They're my favorite, we get an ungodly amount of cookies from the little old ladies, which in turn means they get waited on hand and foot :D ) No, it's not weird. If you come in enough, eventually people will recognize you and that's about it. The cashier may chat a bit and if you ask nicely, he/she may give out a few tips 2)Most of the games WE get we sell on the floor. They either go in the front on the display cases, or in the back in the media. Depending on the game, some sell quickly and some don't. Employees at my store don't really look for old games. But Wii games sell like hotcakes. 3)Pricing is along the lines of 'best judgment' of whoever is processing that day. We do have a pricing list, but it's more of a suggest of a price. Unless we think it's rare/valuable we don't look it up. When I price, I price old games at 1.99, if they don't sell they get put on sale for .99 cents. 4)Right as they open or sometimes when they close. We usually put stuff out at the end of the day and before we open. Also, that's when the regulars come through and buy stuff. At the end of the day, when customers are thinning, that's when we put out furniture and sometimes restock the selves. If we get a lot of donations, we'll put out a few shopping carts of new stuff just at night. I hope that helps, and happy hunting!

idiosync is correct. Employees cannot purchase anything from their own store on the day they work. They can purchase stuff on the days off, and can buy things from other stores. But we don't get first pick. It doesn't mean we can't call someone else and have them buy it, buuuuut no one does that.