GESMV recycles or finds buyers for about three-fourths of its merchandise, which prevents those items from winding up in a landfill.
At the grand opening of the agency’s new Goodwill Outlet, officials said they are excited about the business, located at 1750 Woodman Drive, because it will give customers one last chance to scoop up merchandise at a low price, allowing items to find a home instead of a resting place.
“A lot of the stuff that is in this facility is items that didn’t sell at other stores,” said Matt Arntz, the nonprofit organization’s director of retail. “This is another chance for everything to sell one last time.”
The outlet store sells everything — clothing, purses, toys, computers, mattresses, televisions — by the pound. The merchandise is put on display for a short period of time and if it doesn’t sell, it is recycled, sold to other sellers or trashed.
Only a portion of the enormous Goodwill Outlet site is devoted to retail sales. GESMV was given a donation of 10 acres of land, including a 108,000-square-foot facility that will serve as a distribution center. The organization then spent $3 million to build a new, 33,200-square-foot facility right in front of the other building.
GESMV’s retail program accepts and processes about 46 million pounds of items each year, said Amy Luttrell, the agency’s president. The outlet store, 10 years in the making, will allow GESMV to grow, create new jobs and provide improved services, Luttrell said.
GESMV employes about 1,000 people at its 25 locations and one outlet store, about half of whom have disabilities. The agency’s mission is to help improve the lives of people with disabilities and special needs by providing jobs, services and other kinds of support that help them achieve independence.
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