The Goodwill Store

Honestly this place has gone wayyyyy down hill. I have been going here everyday for years and the new employees are awful. The bald manager is a good guy, but the lady supervisior should be fired! The worst customer service I have ever had today! This is the last straw I will NEVER give goodwill my business again! Rude does not even begin to explain this lady! I feel very unwanted everytime I enter the store which is everyday, and its not right! I see them being all nice to every customer but when I come up to counter its a different story. but long story short you lost a loyal customer today not that they care one bit! If ever in the situation I would suggest savers on lincoln st atleast they treat you like a human when you shop there!(and the only reason you got one star is because I cant give you zero).-one very unhappy customer

If you have some patience, you will find some great items. Organized well, however it’s by style of clothing not by size, but overall a really great place to find super cheap clothing and other things. Also the books are all $ 1, so great to find brand new books for so cheap! Highly recommend

I find everything here. Super friendly employees! Make sure to give yourself time to look around for everything you could want.

careful not to park in the Julios Liquor lot, they do tow, its posted beware.
The place has too few parking spaces but is overall clean inside and easy to find things. This makes for easy shopping. It’s a «how you hit it» place, maybe its the long winter without end but their inventory seems lower on furniture than I’d have guessed.

I’ve shopped here several times. The stock is usually fresh, which is great. Sunday and Monday (?), a certain color tag will be half off… which helps. Every item needs a spot & defect check prior to purchase, as I’ve had it happen when I feel I got a great deal only to find out when I get home that due to a small hole, tear, or stain it wasn’t such a good deal after all. All in all, I its a great place to shop!

I love all things recycled, refurbished, and repurposed, so it’s no surprise that I like the Goodwill chain of stores. If you don’t mind doing some digging, you can find some great deals here. Their prices are more reasonable than what you’ll find at some of the other resale places these days, especially for housewares. Furniture selection is hit or miss, but they always seem to have lots of good shoes.
Unfortunately they don’t sort by size, which makes their jeans section almost useless. But if you’re feeling like its a «red short-​sleeve shirt» kind of day, I suppose their system could save you a lot of time.
The store is pretty clean and they have more than one dressing room. I just wish they also had a restroom! I have to take away a star for that; otherwise I would give them a 4.

I will preface this review by stating that I know all things goodwill. If we leave home, there is Bound to be a goodwill stop. From soho down to Brighton, I’ve seen them all. This well traveled kid sure knows a mean goodwill.
It’s my wife’s fault. She makes me stop.
So, here’s the shakedown of Worcester goodwill. My grading rubric is becoming the Unilocal norm.
Smell-​A-​. Reasonably neutral. Not a hint of the standard mothball smell. Doesn’t smell like octogenarians, either.
Lighting-​A. I was able to identify those not-​so-​mysterious yellowish stains on the inside if some of the men’s pants. Pass. Good lighting equals less vomit when I get home and realize what I’ve bought. Are you listening, Hyannis?
Musak: B. pop radio station. A few decent hits to sing out loud while embarrassing the wife to hurry up, notably Kenny Loggins «I’m all right».
Organization of clothes: C+. Drives me nuts when pants are arranged by color. Gee, only 77 pairs of tan khakis left to find the magical ³⁴⁄₃₀. Needle in a haystack. Oh goodie, let’s move onto 58 pairs of blue to search. Listen up, Wooster, or whatever it is… arrange all pants by waist size. Narrow them dogs down, and let me see my options. Yes, the minions must do more work, but that’s how it needs to happen. Shirts, etc. seemed logical.
Brand namishness: A-​. Lots of good names here… Ralph, tommy, and mr. Bean all made plentiful appearances. College towns seem to bring n the best names!
Employees: B. yup. Working. Not complaining about working.
Other notes: scored 50 cents in a pair of pants. Changing rooms seemed like the security cam might see more than normally secure areas of the body. Clean, overall. Funny sign at the drop-​off door: «no dumping after hours. $ 500 fine» in other words, if it is during hours, it is valuable… but after hours, 10 used seersucker suits and dads used LA gear sneakers are rubbish, punishable by fines. To funny. Would love to see what prompted that sign. Musta been bad. 50 used George Michael concert shirts bad,
So yes, friends, this one is pretty stout in the world of goodwill. A pillar of savings, cloaked in unusual normalcy. Denizens of Wooster, dine heartily on the textile buffet that awaits. It’s bizarre. It’s interesting. It’s cheap. It’s goodwill.

You can’t go wrong at Goodwill. They recently have been getting a ton of new furniture in! And, from what I hear at the store they put out over 20 racks of clothing a day to keep the inventory fresh and interesting. Definitely my number one choice for thrift shopping in the Worcester county area.

Do not bother going here for furniture or small housewares, there are hardly any. The clothes selection is pretty decent though and well organized. I agree with other reviewers that it would be awesome for them to sort by size instead of color, but I imagine that would be more effort for staff.

I used to shop exclusively at this store, then they opened a SAVERS across from Lincoln Plaza and I went there. Low and behold, they keep their clothing by SIZE – making shopping so much easier and enjoyable. The Morgan Good Will for some reason sorts their clothing by COLOR. OMG! Searching and searching for my size makes it so tiring that I stopped going. Try Savers Instead.

I love bargain shopping and I have noticed a lack of descent thrift stores in my area. This Goodwill is an exception; the store is very clean and organized — the pricing is OK — and they have a descent staff. There are only three dressing rooms so you might have to wait a couple minutes to try on clothes. Great prices on housewares. The only thing that really bugged me is they sort all the clothes by color and sleve length NOT SIZE!!! You have to do some digging.

This Goodwill is awesome. I found four awesome skirts here and so many pretty blouses I wanted to take home. All for 4.99 each. The changing rooms are bright and tidy. The only problem is that a lot of their full length mirrors are somewhat warped, so it’s kinda hard to get a real sense of how you actually look in the clothes you’re trying.
In the end, I bought two skirts and a blouse since I had just dropped a lot of dough on Xmas gifts, but I want to come back if I ever make it back to the Woo!

Why sort by color instead of size??? (Again.) That is all.

Likely due to the sheer size/​amount of inventory, I always seem to find some amazing things here whenever I go. A pair of pants from Shrine (a pricey alt. clothing brand; very well-​made) for 90% less than their original price? Yes please! A vintage plaid cloak? WANT! Brass candlesticks (the exact set that I’d seen in a gift shop for $ 65) for $ 4? Mine! A massive vegetarian cookbook for $ 2? WOO!
I can’t even begin to describe all the awesome things I’ve found here over the years; at least half of my wardrobe came from here, as do many of my housewares.
It’s true that there is a lot of junk here. Most of the housewares are either in bad condition, or are some ugly kitschy thing from the 70’s. The furniture never seems to be all that spectacular (granted there was a red camelback sofa I saw here once that I felt I needed to have; shame it wouldn’t fit in my apartment.) The clothing section seems a bit better than most thrift stores, though there are some pretty laughable items here. I also find a lot of their items to be overpriced… $ 4 for a secondhand ring? $ 3 for something that has a price tag from the dollar tree still stuck to the bottom? Uhh… no thanks…
That aside, LOVE IT!!!

I see this store has received a review for each year since 2007 to present … so I will start off 2010 with some observations considering I was there just a few days ago.
Yes, I also find this type of shopping can be time-​consuming, esp. hunting for a bargain and the right size.
A good way to look at spending time in stores like this, is what does a person have more of — time or $$$. Also, what else might s/​he be doing with this time — in the dead of winter or on a rainy day, this could be productive use of time. On a warm, sunny day, this would be the last place I’d go.
Similar to my longer review I just posted (on 02/​02/​2010) about the Salvation Army store in the same town, I’d still suggest heading to the rack with desired type of clothing or color. This store is arranged much like the other one. But it is a fraction of the size, so it will take far less time to find stuff.
Pros — clothing prices are posted on visible signs above each rack of clothing — for ex. I think all ladies pants are $ 4.99 (and men’s at maybe $ 6.99). Each item has a tiny plastic strip/​tag in varying colors. I have noticed that on Sundays (which I find unsual that it is open on Sun.) they have their 50% off sale on that day, but only on specified color. They also post a calendar by the door showing which tags will be going on sale next.
A couple more pro’s — have seen a few more unique, more consistent condition (clothing only) and more well-​known brand items (sometimes including formal wear) but not throughout the store. For. ex. I found a hand-​painted, embellished long sleeve t-​shirt, strikingly different, for which I paid $ 2 – 3 (on sale). Last year, I found some jeans and jean skirts (all good brands).
Due to its smaller size, easier/​quicker to get through. They have 2 dressing rooms by the front register. And the convenience of Sunday shopping might appeal to some shoppers (though this was a surprise to me).
And another special pro — they offer refunds within 14 days with receipt!
Con’s — they sell shoes, purses and rather large variety of household items in the back end of store. I personally find many of these to be priced too high for the condition they are in.
Non-​issues, but noticable differences — more restrictions are imposed at this place than the other (for ex. you cannot bring in a coffee or bottle of water). The layout is much more open and I find the staff is keeping a closer eye on shoppers. Not that either are issues for me, but this store does have a different feel to it compared to the other one.

I feel Dawn’s pain in that they REALLY need to sort by size! It takes me at least a half an hour to maneuver 4 racks of jeans to maybe find 2 in my size. They follow the grouping by color that the Salvation Army does — that can be a help.
The workers are always very helpful and the store is kept clean which helps. Alot of the kitschy items are great for a laugh (singing fish on a plaque anyone?) or as gifts for the Misters relatives.
I’m recycling, don’t judge. :)
I have managed to find some great items here though. My favorite is a pair of brown leather gloves for 99 cents. Be still my frugal heart.

I always find at least 2 things here. The store is clean and has a good amount of selection, a little more expensive than Salvation Army (but any thrift-​shopper knows that), but if you hit the sales right, it’s a good place to go if you’re nearby.