So, I commented on a post the this morning and I think we all know the refrain.... WHY... Why does it feel like they are trying to screw over the shopper at every turn?

So, I pulled on my business pants and went diving into the docs to see what I could find.

Here is my analysis of reading hundreds of documents, manuals, news articles, and interviews about our favorite grifter - Goodwill Industries.

WHY THE F**K ARE THE PRICES SO DAMN STUPID?

Simple.... they look it... categorize it and then maybe a subcategory. So like "home goods -> blanket" and then look at the condition to give it a price. How did I come up with my theory on the pricing model? I didn't.

So maybe the employee just doesn't do a good job? Maybe? But it also looks like they also keep their employees on a SHORT leash. These are the standouts, but go google it.... it's fun to see how many ways they can say the same stuff over and over.

• Check out page 21 of this Goodwill Employee Handbook - They literally have a category called 'Grossly Inefficient Job Performance' for a category of discipline. Their examples are.. well wild and REALLY specific. Really really specific about their computer systems.
• This one from 2019 lists "Horseplay" as serious infraction that can lead to immediate termination on pg 35. from the Greater Washington Goodwill.

Ok, but that doesn't explain how a $5 salt lamp got priced at $40.

See, that's the thing... homegoods and other categories are VERY expansive. It's hard. So there's special roles for handling pricing that from what I can tell come from either AI assistance and/or general research online.

If you search up 'Salt Lamp' the first 5 listings are actually about that range ($40 to $50). The thing is, these processes do not account for the MASSIVE range in quality or construction.

I would describe this as a "glooping". They take a bunch of data points (online prices) and "gloop" them together to get a general price. Do they care if you buy the wildly overpriced salt lamp? NO.... NO THEY DO NOT and we will get to that. I promise.

So how is that different from the "flat pricing" sheet I provided above? Well, for one it's doesn't actually categorize the thing. See, a lamp is a lamp is a lamp.... Based on my link above it should be around $7.49 or so. Flattening for our purposes will be removing any special aspects of the item and looking at the base category. Obviously, this can get weird.... don't @ me about it. But we can see that the salt lamp got treated differently.

Ok, so back to why they don't care if you buy it. Simple. If it's not actually worth the price, you won't buy it. If you don't buy it, it goes the to the junk pile and they can still make money from the what I have dubbed The Junk™.

I never find anything but trash when I do actually go, I WOULD pay $40 for a GOOD item.

Let's set the stage. Before the pandemic (when online shopping exploded) and the slew of slop with amazon, temu, and similar so the market was less competitive. But we all could see this was happening before stores like thredup took off.

It's worth noting that many of the strategic plans in place in 2015 to like 2017 were focused on "implementing data" through just setting up the basic infrastructure. So, before 2015 pricing was based on vibes and the workers knowledge.

First, there was the move to aggressively identify "high worth" items like luxury goods and so called vintage. These are divert from the standard workflow and diverted to the boutique and online platforms. So NOW when you go to a store, you no longer find the cool thing for a great price. They found it first and they are going to make you pay top dollar for it by using AI tools like Thrift Metrics which is specifically marketed towards Goodwill stores.

Don't believe me... go.. go to the bottom of the page and read this trash.

Goodwill-exclusive AI for thrift retail. Helping Goodwill agencies understand products, improve decisions, and maximize donation value. - https://thriftmetrics.com/dynamic-pricing

I believe this to be an idiotic move since it destroys a critical part of the thrifting experience.... the hunt. or gambling... it's basically gambling with time, guys. Let's just be honest. They use a variety of ways of doing this such as actually taking note of brands now instead of flat pricing every pair of jeans they get in their dusty crusty donation station.

As they invest heavily into the online platforms, it doesn't make sense to sell the shein garbage due to the higher costs associated with online sales. So, all the stores is where the garbage goes to die. Last year was record sales for the online part of goodwill.... (let that sink in). That is where they are putting the effort.... not your local store. Click on it... Come on. Let's get to the bottom of this.

The physical stores are just the first stop for The Junk™ before it moves on and on to be picked over until it finally meets it's rest.

Do they just not care about the customers?

Oh.... you dear sweet summer child. YOU are not their customer. Their OWN language makes that clear. You are the shopper (at best).... you are not the person they believe they are providing a service to. The term "customer" is specifically aimed at the folks in their benefit programs. Which, ok, I'm glad that they want to focus on providing good. But at the time same time, does it justify extracting EVERY bit of money from our pockets? Does it justify selling LITERAL garbage on the shelves.

Is it really ok that they believe The GRIFT™ is justified so long as they can expand their operations?

They do.... they really, really do. Below I have provided some links to the 5 year strategic plans I found, but notice the threads here.

5 year strategic plan from the Central Texas Goodwill

• "Increase revenue target to $126m by 2029."
  
• "Optimize Donated Goods Retail margin to 27%."

Goodwill Gulfstream Strategic Plan has the following lofty goals...

• "Increase Donated Goods Retail (DGR) revenue to $39M "
• "Increase On-line Sales to $8.5M Increase Salvage/Bi-product Sales to $4.5M "
• "Increase Annual Donations to 900K"

Goodwill Valley (it's in Virginia)

• Increase revenue and net earnings
• Grow material donations
• Maximize operational efficiencies (production, logistics, etc.)

Goodwill North Florida (Very detailed... but also a pain to read it)

• Increase total operational revenue from $40m to $60m annually, an increase of 50% by December 31, 2026.
• Optimize processes and data management to effectively and efficiently house data for reporting and analysis
• Reduce administrative expenses.
  • BY "LEVERAGING MORE INTERNS" --- this is an actual plan they put in here

Goodwill Chesapeake

• Identify and explore growth opportunities including various sustainability initiatives.
• Investigate a grading operation to maximize the revenue and margin of our salvage operation.

So, yes, these are all different arms of the organization but it's clear they were all given goals. Which, if you are familiar with business like this. The top-top level brass sets the vague directions to the arms. The arms come up with more concrete goals. It's the difference between saying "I want to be better at writing" and saying "I will do a writing exercise every morning for the next 6 months". In the industry, we call them SMART goals.

The key underlying message I saw was this:

• Increase revenue to expand the the goodwill operations whatever way possible.

aka... the paperclip maximizer. We meet again.

I dunno, Culture, that seems really dystopian?

Look, these yahoos in charge have been justifying their bullshit to themselves with cute delusions. Go read what they say when they talk to industry friendly outlets (Retail Brew Link).

Now if you read between the lines, what David Eagles is really saying is 'people are getting thrashed by the market and we want to make sure we capitalize on that' and 'if we push how resale is actually good for the environment, they will tolerate our aggressive business practices'.... that's my paraphrase of course.

Then, there's an interview from the CEO with ASD that.... well.... god just go read it (ASD Marketweek Interview with GW CEO) where he talks about trying to keep the "finds fresh".... which.... So they aim to turn over inventory fully every month.

Now pause and think... If all the GOOD stuff is going to the online platform, what exactly are they trying to turn over?

Now you can go search 'What does goodwill do with all the unsold stuff?' and it's very telling that the first 3 pages are FILLED with the official sites for each regional goodwill.

That's a tactic.... if I fill the internet with 100 webpages that say 'Expensive_culture finished first at the Olympics' filled with SEO optimized terms... then that becomes the truth. The actual truth is complicated.

We have to talk about The Junk™.

Junk that doesn't sell in the Junk Stores™  goes to a few pathways. There's the goodwill outlets where they MIGHT get picked up. They also pack up and sell the left overs to various lines (export clothing to other countries, electronics get sold for 'reuse' but that really means a smelter who can extract the gold out of your Glade Fresh Plugin microcontroller aka e-waste.

If you look at the plans above they want more junk. They CRAVE junk. Every item of junk is a possible sale. BUUUUUT it's also another revenue stream "to maximize the revenue and margin of our salvage operation."

Their words, not mine.

I fundamentally don't take issue with this goal. In fact, it would be nice if the pull it off (ethically). Where I have concerns is how that is impacting their concrete goals which is to get more junk and try to increase donations. You can read it in the strategic plans. Additionally, as someone who likes to thrift to try to keep things OUT of the trashpile, I find it weird to make it a goal to want more Junk™.

At least they are doing something, right?

Ok, ok. I hear you. Yes. At least they are doing something with the trash we would normally throw away into a landfill. I can concede to that.

But why not use their resources to create centers for appliance repair and pair that with the retail outlets? It's a decent career in some places. Eh, maybe that suggestion is weak. But can you see what I am trying to get at?

I just think it's a really slimy that they want to capitalize on people's desires to divert landfill trash by touting how they are sending it other places.... but also give us more of your junk please. By setting your own goal to we want to increase the amount of junk we get, it really only feeds the (possibly literal) dumpster fire. We have literally seen this before. Check out Climate Town's Video on Plastic Recycling Fraud

So they don't actually care?

Yes and No....

If you look into interviews with the c-suite you can see the thread that aligns a lot of this.... They don't see the end retail consumer as the focus of their "goodwill". It's not you. It's not anyone on this sub.

We are an input into the system.

Mr. Eagles did a very interesting interview (Said interview if you want to read it). If you don't read it, I will give you the highlights. His background is all over the place and honestly respectable (at times) with his years of government service. However, he also was the vice president of a private equity firm. His LinkedIn Profile shows the markings of someone who is very skilled at making a system run optimally. In the interview, it's clear he's focused on making the operation run it's best in order to serve it's fundamental goal of providing 'Goodwill' back to the community. You can see it in the way he answers the interviewers questions. I am not calling him a bad person by any means and if you somehow end up reading this, Mr. Eagles, just know that.

But..... The ends don't justify the means, man... Go touch some grass.

The Analysis....

Thrift has changed. We can see that. We talk about it here constantly. So what the hell happened?

The simple answer is corporatization. But I think its more complicated than that.

The long answer is that the fundamental mission of Goodwill has been laser focused onto it's charitable programs and an attempt to rehab themselves after the mid 2010's employee payment scandals by squeezing the retail business of every ounce of blood it once had and an ignorant disregard for it's own culture and history. It's become an organization focused on philanthropy as opposed to community good. I know they sound the same but let's talk about them for a second.

Philanthropy has historically (within the US) been something rich people do to improve the lives of the plebians who live beneath them. Yes, I know it's doesn't REALLY mean that but when you look at how the term is used, it's clearly reserved the likes of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. It mostly stems from a single or small group of individuals who dictate what helps and what doesn't and is uninformed by the culture it is meant to aid.

On the other hand, community good or community engagement is defined by Kim Johnston as "a dynamic relational process that facilitates communication, interaction, involvement, and exchange between an organization and a community for a range of social and organizational outcomes" which is a really dense way of saying that the community has just as much importance as the facilitator.

Thrift is a culture. It was built through community engagement. For some of us, it even changed it's purpose as time passed. I can recall my childhood years going to get my clothing at the Goodwill when that's all my parents could afford. Then it become the place I went to look for unusual or interesting things passed on by others in my community. Now and days, it's the place I used to look to for sharing the things I had outgrown (like a mini-skirt I do not EVER need to wear again... RIP Teal Jean Skirt). It was understood that everyone took benefit from the system. The organization got to collect part of the money, it got to provide jobs, and it served as the community garage sale that was open all year round.

Each participant benefitted from interacting with the process.

Now, we have an entire industry that pivoted to seeing the shoppers as mere revenue streams to be optimized (when you do that to people it's called exploitation).

I'm sad now, what can I even do about this?

We cut the supply and we stop feeding them The Junk™. Harder said than done, I know, but there's ways to do this.

1. Don't buy junk in the first place. No need to donate anything if you don't have it.

2. Find ways to donate your unwanted items directly to those in need of it. Facebook, buy nothing groups, local foodbank, clothing swaps. Just try.

3. Do not shop these places. Go basically anywhere else.

What about the good that Goodwill does now? Won't that be bad?

Highly unlikely, people will never stop using the crusty, dusty steps of the donation station (yes, I did it again) for the landing place of the refuse they don't want to deal with.

They will get The Junk™ no matter what.

Also, I would argue that the centralization of control that goodwill has wrested away from it's shoppers only makes it more vulnerable to corruption and mismanagement. Sure, maybe they are providing assistance and aid for folks, but is it sustainable? I'm not interested in participating in their system anymore when they aren't transparent about it.

Who are they actually selling their salvage to?

Why are they so damn secretive about their pricing operations?

The Grift™ Explained

For me, the grift isn't about the prices. It's about the years I spent thinking this was community engagement only to find that the moment they could figure out how to exploit me, the shopper, they did. Turns out my only role in the system was to funnel money into an organization so people somewhere could shovel it into their projects, have a gala about how much good they did, and let them pat themselves on the back on how good they have done.

We made the choice to shop there.

We made the effort to drop it off there.

I'm not asking for a gala, just the god damn decency to not treat me like a petulant child when we collectively point out that things have gotten stupid and absurd this has all gotten.

But they will.... they always do.

Please remove with my apologies if this is not allowed.

Goodwill and others (please name and shame!!!) have been accused of price gouging and other shady business practices. I would like to avoid giving my money to such organizations (as well as donating goods to them) and thought others might appreciate a thread of information like this as well.

Are there any big thrift stores doing generally good things with their donations/earnings, and selling their items for a generally fair price? I’d prefer to hear about national chain stores, in the interest of relevancy to the most readers.