Goodwill

I shop at Goodwill all the time. I was very glad they had a variety of maternity clothes. I had such a hard time finding anything at regular retail stores. I recently purchased a cute batman costume for my son and was surprised when I received a $ 5 coupon. The associates are always very friendly.

I love to hit the thrift shops and Goodwill is no exception. I was there today and first off the music was so loud I thought I was in a nightclub. Because I found a cute Christmas Angel and a couple of interesting plates I gave it 2 stars.
If I had not made a purchase I would have dropped it down to one. Here is the reason why as it has been the same each time I have visited this particular Goodwill store. The bathroom is and always is filthy. The floors look like they have never been washed in the stalls. TP all over the floors and it always STINKS. With the amount of canned fragrance being pumped into the air within the store perhaps a little in the bathroom wouldn’t hurt.

I am no sociologist, but I think one of the best ways to get the pulse of a new community when you just move in is to pay a visit to the local thrift stores. I have another theory about the contents of people’s kitchen «junk drawer» but I will deal with that on my blog. I noticed this place the other day when I was stopping by Mariano’s so I decided today would be the day to check it out.
It’s is actually fairly small compared to other thrift stores in large metros I have visited, but it was relatively well organized. I get the impression the employees here are just that, actual employees. I have visited other thrift stores in the past where the people working were ex-​cons or others doing community service from a tangle with the law. Having people ring me up that are not zonked out of their head from sniffing glue on their lunch break is always beneficial to a positive shopping experience.
Like any thrift store, there is often gold to be found, you just have to wade through copious amounts of trash in order to find it. The furniture they had on showcase, for example, looked like it had just been plucked out of a refugee camp in some war torn part of Africa. The junkyard would of been a better place for a good 80% of it. Luckily, patience and persistence paid off as I did manage to find a few great items.
The first was a really nice Kenneth Cole messenger bag (see photo). It was buried under lots of circa 1985 pieces of luggage, but it was a nice score. I have actually been needing one recently too. I am getting a little old to be hauling around a Call of Duty messenger bag to the office. The other two items were both slacks, and both from Hugo Boss and still had the tags on them! (Sorry, no pic, I am not modeling them for you). They were also buried in the stacks amidst items that looked like they were from the wardrobe department of a 1970’s porn movie. If you have the patience, you can find some great items here, or maybe I just got lucky on my particular visit.
The grand total for my little voyage? 17 bucks. I would call that a successful thrift store outing.

I like this location, generally out of my way but you can get some decent stuff because of its proximity to Schaumburg (this is Hoffman Estates). Otherwise it’s like any Goodwill! Never any complaints about the staff so far!

Very polite people help you take your donations out of the car in a covered car park area.

Went there shortly after the Hoffman Estates location opened. It was packed with merchandise to choose from. I selected a modern floor lamp still in the box for what I thought was a good price. Took it home, put it together and it looked great. BUT then I decided to look online for retail price and reviews and found that Target was selling it, however reviews and reports of sparks and fires were found online. How could this lamp not have been recalled? I did find another model by same company that had been recalled. Took it apart, printed out reviews including 2 reporting sparks and back to the store it went. Although polite about my return they would not give me a refund, only store credit which is their standard policy.

Standard Goodwill fare with very good prices. The staff was very helpful and the selection varied. Plus, there were lots of clothes for kids.
I think one improvement would have been to have had a section for winter wear given the temperature and weather currently.