I grew up believing Goodwill Industries was one of the best companies on the planet. Or at least in this country. They took our gently used castoffs, hired people who really needed a job, hard to hire because of being underrated and unappreciated, and sold us things at reduced prices. If we shopped there we helped employ their people, and could feel good about doing a good thing for those less fortunate than we were. When my Mom needed a walker for a few months, they loaned her one, and didn't say a word when it was returned a month late.
Recently I hears somebody talking about how the company wasn't doing such a good thing any more. Less hiring the handicapped, more profit oriented. I never pursued it, and have no clue if it's true or not. I reflected on how much we donated to them in the early years after moving down to Arizona, deciding even in the worst case I didn't regret supporting them, as opposed to holding garage sales trying to sell what I was giving away instead. One fairly short drive and two minutes to drop off as opposed to days of preparation and a day or two of sitting hoping to find people who wanted our stuff. Why change?
I did find thrift shops less than a mile from home, and for only that reason changed my donation habits, as well as thrift shopping habits. But cleaning out a house requires more than filling the back of the car, so there were also garage sales, spaced out over a few months. Donations were made after each of them, the even more lazy kind of putting things out at the curb with a "FREE" sign and watching them disappear. But that still didn't get rid of enough stuff.
Now we're loading a PODS, into our second day. Packing is still ongoing, and the more we pack the less we're motivated to keep, even though younger family members are doing the heavy work. Steve and I look at each other, and decide something really wasn't necessary to keep. Curbside it goes.
But there was a lot of stuff still that nobody wanted, so once again the car was loaded up and and I drove across town. We were running out of time and the local thrift shops weren't taking in donations this particular day. Goodwill it was then. But we were also running low on boxes. Much of what I was taking, like a lamp or glass plates, needed a box for in the car to prevent breakage. I determined to ask for the boxes back, even offered to take extras if they had some, as opposed to their having to send boxes to the dumpster and deal with people scrounging after hours, often leaving huge messes behind.
I was second in line when I pulled into Goodwill early this morning. As I came up to the door I got out and explained my need to have my boxes back. He didn't care. Pulling the next wheeled bin out from inside, he took each box, dumped it unceremoniously into the bin and handed me the box. I tried to pull individual items out and set them in with a bit of care, but he wasn't having any of that. Reach, dump, hand back an empty box. Repeat.The final box had the fragile lamp in it. I looked at the mess and just told him he could keep this box. Since the stack in the bin reached the top, he set that box across the top of everything. For the moment at least, the lamp survived.
I drove away wondering how much of what was under the lamp had survived. He obviously didn't care a bit. Since I got there just after they opened, it couldn't have been a long tiring day for him, or any other excuse I could think of for that treatment. It brought to mind the complaint I'd heard but ignored about how the company had changed. To be fair, this was one person in one part of their day. But my experience did nothing to encourage me to donate to them again.
I may rethink that next time I have to move. Or maybe somebody else will be packing up all my things then because I'll no longer be around to care and nothing will matter about where extra stuff goes or how it's treated. If we land where I hope to up north, a whole different system of thrift stores is in about every other town anyway, with the nearest Goodwill, unless major changes have happened, over 40 miles away. But just every once in a while, I'll be wondering just what they're up to these days and how much of anybody's good will they are earning.
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