Thankfully the famous summer fog lifted mid morning to give us an unexpectedly beautiful day in SF. First thing I headed to a meeting I had scheduled with Linda Shih, director of Sales and Marketing at Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo & Marin (SF Goodwill).
To help build up a picture - Goodwill Industries actually represents 165 separate networks across the US, each is completely separate to the next. They do however share the same common goal, offering customised job training, employment placement and other services to people who have disabilities, lack education or job experience, or face employment challenges.
SF Goodwill, although small compared to many others, is a $36 million operation, with 21 retail stores in the SF area providing 80% of it's overall funding. 750 employees work across the organisation as a whole, and over 250 of these from their central offices, warehouse and flagship stores I visited today on Mission St in downtown SF.
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| One of two large central warehouses which prepare and distribute stock as required by each store. |
SF Goodwill also open their warehouse doors daily to customers (normally re-sellers) who pick through the large blue bins filled with out of date stock, before it ends up in bails ready to be purchased by third party recyclers.
At around $2 an item there are some bargains to be had here. Buy the Bag at Housing Works springs to mind (see previous blog post!), this is similar to the operation they used to run from their warehouse before moving to the 'Buy the Bag' store model.
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| This large vintage enamel bath/pot thing was for sale in the same area for $10 (£6)! |
The Stores
Having visited a fair few Goodwill stores during the trip, (none in the SF area until today) I was looking forward to seeing if they could break away from the 'stack it high, sell it cheap' model I'd seen so far into something a little more boutique'y.
I was not disappointed, SF Goodwill definitely have the best merchandised Goodwill stores I've seen yet. Even the standard ones have a confident sense of style, the design of the stores feels modern and fresh and solid branding throughout ties them together. It's also worth noting most of their thrift stores are around 2,000 sq ft making them much more similar to UK charity shops, something that I think makes them more manageable to stock and VM.
Flagship store, 1570 Mission St.
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| Good to see social media references for shoppers at store level |
Fillmore Store, 1669 Fillmore Street.
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| Loved these large glass candle holders, a steal at $16 (£10) |
Sunset Store, 2400 Irving St.
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| Fantastic windows allows natural light to flood this store. As well as the usual suspects it was filled with drums, guitars and amps! |
One big CSR/recycling/training package...
One of the CSR projects to tell you about is SF Goodwill's 'Goodwill Recompute' scheme. It offers businesses and individuals the opportunity to donate their old computers/used electronic devices etc. The Recompute workshop technicians then refurbish the old machines/devices or build new ones from harvested parts. The computer scheme saved the carbon equivalent of 500 cars last year alone.
The scheme ensures unusable parts are fully recycled and on the job training is offered to new technicians, oh AND refurbished machines are sold at Goodwill stores so low income families can purchase up to date computer equipment at knock down prices. A total win-win!
That has to be it for now, it's getting very late. I have to say a BIG thank you to Linda for her time today, this trip wouldn't be possible without the kind help of all the organisations I have visited over the past 4.5 weeks. They have been outstanding.
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| Had to squeeze in a little picture of that fabulous bridge taken as the fog began to clear |
Still a few vintage and thrift stores to visit in SF tomorrow. The Haight is 'the' place for vintage thrifting according to the locals so I can't leave without visiting...expect a post tomorrow...
