Reporter staff
Auburn Goodwill sports a new look and more convenience for customers to find treasures.
The retail thrift store and donation center, a community fixture for many years at 1519 Auburn Way S., reopened Thursday with a new design, part of the regional company’s push to improve the customer shopping experience. The 18,257-square-foot Auburn outlet is one of three Goodwill retail stores – Tacoma and Federal Way are the others – that opened this week with new signage, floor layouts and other shopper-friendly features.
Other Goodwill stores will follow. The company’s new design will expand to stores throughout 15 counties in southwest Washington and the Olympic Peninsula over the next four years.
“It’s been awhile since we’ve changed our look. It’s a whole different feel. It’s been long overdue in the (Auburn) community,” said Terry Hayes, CEO of Goodwill. “We wanted to have a store that’s more appealing to our customers, making it easier for them to find bargains and look at the merchandise that’s so unique. We felt that would be helpful to them and helpful to us in the process.”
Goodwill’s new layout features more organization and visible non-stacked merchandise. An electronic testing station, bilingual easy-to-read signage, an airy lit atmosphere, and central, spacious fitting rooms complement the effort. Converting cashier locations from multi-line supermarket-style checkout to a single serpentine line ensures customers don’t end up in the slow lane and entices shoppers with additional merchandise.
While people are in line, the store can better inform them about Goodwill’s free job training programs and services for the unemployed, the company said.
And store pricing will not go up to accommodate store design, the company said.
Feedback from customers helped usher the store redesign.
“Goodwill is so different in some ways from a typical retail store because a lot of what we have is just one of,” Hayes said. “You have to go out and find that treasure, and our job is to make sure it’s laid out in a way for customers to find them in our store.”
A community resource
The new modern design will also appeal to a younger demographic and increase sales, the company said. Increased sales mean more store revenue to fund Goodwill’s four job training campuses and two satellite training offices in the region.
True to its mission, Goodwill store revenue funds free job training and job placement in a variety of career fields. In the past year, 9,841 unemployed residents were provided job training and other education in a variety of career fields and 3,046 were placed with area jobs with the help of its 1,332 business partners.
Goodwill’s business model of turning donations into thrift store operations to fund the mission of putting the unemployed back to work also keeps household goods out of area landfills.
“It’s all to benefit people who deserve a chance,” Hayes said.
Auburn’s store hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, visit goodwill.org.
