News

October 29, 2009

Edwardsville Goodwill to open

Other thrift shop operators say there’s room for another store in the down economy.

EDWARDSVILLE – Goodwill Industries of Northeastern Pennsylvania will open a new store in Edwardsville this morning, increasing local competition in the growing thrift-goods market.

But the additional option for shoppers isn’t expected to slow sales at such stores in the down economy, and might actually expand the market further, according to officials at Goodwill’s two nearby competitors.

“Our stores have been doing well with this economy, (which is) typical for periods of downturn. People who would normally be discount shoppers are now thrift-store shoppers,” said Jerry Balara, the general supervisor at the Salvation Army, with stores in Hanover and Wilkes-Barre townships.

“It’s like putting a McDonald’s and a Burger King together … One will support the other, no problem,” he said.

Bill Jones, chief operating officer of Volunteers of America of Pennsylvania, agreed.

“The store is doing real well. The customer counts continue to rise for us each month, and in this economic climate, this has been a good addition to downtown Wilkes-Barre,” he said of his store on South Main Street in the Penn Plaza.

Goodwill’s store in the Gateway Shopping Center is scheduled to open at 10 a.m. The 8,400-square-foot facility will offer usual thrift ware, from clothing and furniture to entertainment options. Parking is plentiful.

“Retail is the way of the future for us, generating valuable revenue to fund our various programs,” Gerry Langan, Goodwill Industries of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s president and chief executive officer, stated in a news release.

The Salvation Army’s Balara agreed the Goodwill location would likely be well run – “Goodwill’s a long-standing and very good organization,” he said – but predicted a certain advantage for his own stores.

“I think there might be some draw to them initially, but again, we have larger stores. We have more goods available, and our customers know, if I have more material for them and higher turnover, this is where they’ll spend most of their time shopping,” he said. “We probably have a little better situation.”

Jones said his store benefits from its downtown location, and that there is plenty of room in the local market.

“From our perspective, it was a risk to open up a store in the economic climate we were in,” he said. “There are so many households that have excess clothing and furniture. … There’s probably enough inventory to probably keep us all filled, and there are plenty of people who could use good second-hand items.”

The stores also differ in their pricing models. Of the more than 60,000 items at the Volunteers of America store, Jones said, 80 percent are $1.99 or less. The only things not included are fashionable clothing in exceptional or new condition, furniture or other higher-end pieces.

Generally, the Goodwill store has a modified menu system, in which most items of a certain type are all the same price.

On the other end of the spectrum, everything in Salvation Army stores is priced separately, Balara said.

“It’s not like a Sears or a Penney’s. If we have six racks of clothing and a thousand pieces of clothing, we’re liable to have a thousand different pieces of clothing” with separate prices, he said.

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