Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Discussion of fashion elements and looks that are traditionally considered somewhat "femme" but are presented in a masculine context. This is NOT about transvestism or crossdressing.
whorton
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Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by whorton »

Cruised into the local Goodwill yesterday, and was going to spend some time finding out what was new in the store. (apparently everything changes over a cycle based on the color coded tags they put on them.

I started with jeans, and to my horror, I noticed they had done away with the rack sizing tags, which gave you an idea at least where your size was. . . Humm, strange I thought.

Went over to the skirts and on the way, noticed there were no tags to be found in sight. Checked in skirts. . They now arrange everything by COLOR. . there is no size arrangement anymore You can go in and look for a blue shirt or blouse, or a red blouse, or even a green one, but you have to spend all afternoon searching in the color section for whatever size you wear. If you are like me, a size 18, it can take a little longer.

After about 15 minutes, I left and went to another nearby store. Same thing! Everything arranged by color Nothing by size. Its a free for all. I asked the lady at the cashier stand about it, and she said it came down from corporate about a week ago and they had no choice.

So, I attempted to call the local office, yesterday and today. Both times the phone rang and rang, only to receive a message that, "The Goodwill operator is not available right now, if you would like to leave your name and number, please do so at the tone." CLICK. . .

It seems a totally stupid idea. There is not even any arrangement of size from larger to smaller, everything is just thrown in togather. I guess they think it will make people stay in their store longer. All they have done is waste customers times, and lost what customers they have in the process. Interesting to note, there were far fewer people in the either store than usual.

So much for that affordable venue.
Grok
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by Grok »

If the garment doesn't fit, I don't care what the color is, I'm not going to buy.
Gordon
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by Gordon »

Send them a "nasty-gram" via email at contactus@goodwill.org
I just did.
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r.m.anderson
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by r.m.anderson »

It is the same thing browsing around on Ebay.
Put in a search for say a skirt and voila up comes xxx,xxx skirts.
Fine tune it down to girls juniors misses womens plus sizes and
maybe you think you have arrived but no they throw a glitch in
the search field until you go a few pages further to get to the
physical size number or letter. Also thrown in the mix if looking
for a SKORT - did you mean SKIRT and a miss-direct.
You just can't be specific enough to pin it down to a size 14
red mini-skirt made by XYZ trade name then they show all the
sizes other than that what you were searching for ! Gimme a BREAK !

With what the Goodwill Thrift stores and what others are doing they
may as well just back the truck that takes rags to an overseas
charity for distribution to other needy folks on the other side of globe
or maybe they are just using the clothing as fodder in a land fill.

Or just maybe these outfits are reducing the help to avoid paying
some folks a chance at a livable wage while feathering the bed of the
CEO's - Goodwill for instance - at least with the Salvation Army their
CEO is not dragging down a annual multi-million dollar salary.
Some Charity !
"YES SKIRTING MATTERS"!
"Kilt-On" -or- as the case may be "Skirt-On" !
WHY ?
Isn't wearing a kilt enough?
Well a skirt will do in a pinch!
Make mine short and don't you dare think of pinching there !
whorton
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by whorton »

As the cashier told me it "came down from corporate," I suspect some new idiot came on board with an associate degree in retail marketing, and thought such a change over would make the stores look more inviting and more up to date. What the failed to realize is that, it is now a total nightmare for someone looking for something in their particular or their child's size. I suspect when they see sales drop 20 to 50% someone will correct the problem at a humongous cost of labor and effort.

I have tried to call them twice yesterday, and once this morning with the same result. "The operator is busy, please leave a message" I wonder if that is indicative of their already receiving calls about the change. One has to wonder how foolish and arrogant someone has to be to make such a mistake. Needless to say, I'll not grace their stores until they fix it!
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by crfriend »

whorton wrote:One has to wonder how foolish and arrogant someone has to be to make such a mistake.
Foolish is one thing, but one needs to differentiate between insolence and arrogance. At least the arrogant types are more often right than not; the insolent ones can only "talk the talk". In the above case, the outcome was most definitely an abject failure.

I have no sympathy for the perpetrator. (But that's the arrogant part of me speaking.)
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by Taj »

whorton wrote:I suspect some new idiot came on board with an associate degree in retail marketing, and thought such a change over would make the stores look more inviting and more up to date.
I agree that the new practice at Goodwill seems ridiculous. However, I can't let the stab at the degree level reference go unchallenged. I have an associate degree (Phi Theta Kappa, as well) that has well qualified me for the technician position I hold. Too many young people are passing up the trades partly due to status and negative opinion about those of us who get their hands dirty for a living. I work in a business that has as many PhDs as a university. There is some academic arrogance and there are those who recognise that intelligence and degree don't always go hand in hand. We need more people training in the trades through associate's programs as big business destroys unions and apprenticeships. I know you meant to verbally slap an idiot, but please, not at the expense of a very useful educational path.
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by Wonderful Electric »

Retail is obsolete. I recommend swap.com and thredUP. Online thrift store shopping.
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by moonshadow »

I heard they cut the tags off to keep people from buying them for cheap and "returning" them to their original department store for full face value.

I have purchased a few like that but I didn't realize they were doing all garments that way...
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whorton
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by whorton »

An interesting update. . .

I called and spoke with management at the Oklahoma city office. Apparently, they have at least one person dedicated exclusively to answering the phone and addressing complaints. Needless to say, the response has been significant, and as of the moment, most all are unhappy about the change. However, I asked the person if there was some particular format they were trying to achieve or what their "vision" was. To say he was guilty of prevarication, would be an understatement. I could not get the fellow to say anything except broad generalizations about how they were shifting to a new format and in 45 days, Goodwill felt that everyone would have a more "enhanced" shopping experience. .

Really? I thought this was Good will, not Neiman-Marcus.

One can only prognosticate about their intent. I stopped at a store in Tulsa back in April which was a "New Concept" store more geared towards helping people to return to the workforce. The only difference was that the clothing was arraigned more in line with a contemporary retail store. I noticed the prices were about 70% HIGHER and the selection more in line with what you would expect for a mall store geared to 20 somethings. The only thing I could say about the store was it was clean (it was a new store, opened less than a year ago). They still had the problem of too many clothes crammed into too little rack space.

I guess time will tell, but I am not optimistic.

Regarding Moons comment about tags, I have noticed some clothing which had the tag(s) cut out and some with them intact. I have found the tags to be a good indicator of the state of the clothing item, which is handy. Not to mention, finding the right size. (cutting the size tag out is nothing but spite in my humble opinion.)

I guess we shall see. . .
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moonshadow
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by moonshadow »

whorton wrote:One can only prognosticate about their intent. I stopped at a store in Tulsa back in April which was a "New Concept" store more geared towards helping people to return to the workforce. The only difference was that the clothing was arraigned more in line with a contemporary retail store. I noticed the prices were about 70% HIGHER and the selection more in line with what you would expect for a mall store geared to 20 somethings.
Well that's not good. I noticed when I was at the GoodWill in Seymour Indiana last summer the prices were just a bit higher than what I was used to paying. Whereas I'm more accustomed to paying about $3 for a skirt, the Indiana store was running around $7. Still cheap for a skirt, but more than double the Virginia prices.

Thankfully there are still smaller mom and pop thrift stores around, however they tend to not have as large of a selection, and while cheaper (can run as lows as 25 cents per garment), are ran by virtually all types of people. It's a crap shoot whether you'll be among friendly people or not regarding men wearing skirts. As it stands, locally owned thrift stores tend to be operated by the stereotypical "good ole boys and girls". There is a small thrift store in Damascus Virginia that I bought from, and they gave me no issues. I was even shopping with a skirt on. The older woman who took my order did so cheerfully. It is a Christian based thrift store operated by a local church where the proceeds go to feeding the needy. I think the stores name is: "It's a God thing to do" or something like that...

Pros: Friendly people, really reasonable prices (less than a dollar per garment), for a good cause
Cons: Very small skirt selection. (about 4 foot of a rack total)

There is another church based thrift shop in Abingdon, but I found their selection to be quite limited. Their prices are more in line with what GoodWill charges, approximately $3-$4.

And of course, being church based... both are closed on Sundays...
whorton wrote: They still had the problem of too many clothes crammed into too little rack space.

And with 70% higher prices, that problem is likely to get worse!
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Sinned
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by Sinned »

We don't have anything like this here. Well, people tend to vote with their feet and a significant fall in turnover tends to cut short tenures and concentrate the few disconnected brain cells of the corporate suits who often have very little common sense or feel for the market. Intelligence and learning mean nothing sometimes. Time will tell ....
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whorton
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by whorton »

So, quick update from my July 30 post. I ventured back into Goodwill. Two stores in fact. Here is what has changed.

-All the rack sizing tags are gone. Everything in intermixed but by color.

That's it.

Great, they have clothing separated by color now. But you have to search through the entire section of say blouses or skirts and HOPE to find your size. You now spend about 50% of your time pulling items that are the wrong size and putting them back.

Prices are the same. So in spite of their promise to have a wonderful "new shopping experience" You spend at least twice as much time looking for any given thing. I would have prefered them to have left the rack sizeing tags in place so you knew roughly where to look.

-Stupid bastards.
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by Stevie D »

whorton wrote:But you have to search through the entire section of say blouses or skirts and HOPE to find your size. You now spend about 50% of your time pulling items that are the wrong size and putting them back.

Prices are the same. So in spite of their promise to have a wonderful "new shopping experience" You spend at least twice as much time looking for any given thing.
Perhaps it's a marketing ploy so that you will look through more items and hence possibly find something extra to buy, which you weren't originally looking for. :shock:
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whorton
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Re: Perhaps the wrong venue, but problem at GOODWILL

Post by whorton »

ADDENDUM TO LAST

Just spoke with their corporate office in Oklahoma city. I actually got to speak with a woman who listened to my complaints. Basically, their response is they "wanted to get more product out to the consumer." I explained to her that in many areas, the items were so tightly packed, the could not get anymore product out as currently you can't even see the items size tag without pulling it out of the densely packed rack.

The receptionist, I spoke with said they were getting 6 or 7 calls a week. The number of people in the store is about the same however. She also told me off the record, that not much was going to change as it came down from the national level. . .

I guess their "consumers" time is meaningless to them. I also told them I was witholding my cash donation this year. (between 50 and $75.

Given that their President and CEO are well paid, and their workers minimum at best (apparently not treated very well either) I don't think they need my money, or time. Hate to see them off the list, but apparently their CEO does not know you destroy a business just like you build it, one customer at a time.

See: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-hra ... 76905.html
Last edited by whorton on Mon Oct 23, 2017 8:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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