Days are gone when you could buy a $2 tape deck at the Goodwill.
posted by nate on August 29, 2002
So many people get mad when I tell them I steal from the Goodwill. I reply that I never did until they started charging $100 for a computer monitor (mine was $80 new), $300 for an archaic Mac, $30 for a Pink Floyd record, $25 for a pair of Levis, and $80 for a 15-year-old Onkyo receiver. I used to be able to afford supporting Goodwill, but now seems like a complete fluke when you find something reasonably priced, as if they made a mistake.
The Goodwill's largest source of revenue comes from reselling donated goods in their stores. People drop off their junk that they don't want, which they often couldn't sell for dirtcheap at their garage sale. Instead of throwing your old stuff away to replace it with the newest version from Target, you pass it on to somebody who can't afford (or doesn't believe in) buying it new. Makes sense. It'll make more and more sense as our resources deplete and we are forced to utilize things we've already made.
However, about 5 years ago, the thrift store concept began to shift. Someone realized they could make exceptional profits reselling donated items at much higher costs. Pricers have begun affixing arbitrary prices based on vague recognition of value: I.e. "Hey I've heard of Elvis! This has got to be worth something.. Let's charge $10 for this record!"
Now, Goodwill is filed as a non-profit corporation, and claims to use 86% of their revenue for community efforts, such as generating work for the job-impaired (be it a disability, a non-existent work history, or perhaps the increasingly common corporate downsizing.) Goodwill Industries originated in 1902 when Rev. Edgar J. Helms, a methodist minister, began collecting used items from wealthier neighborhoods and training the unemployed to fix & clean them. He then either gave the items to the workers, or sold them at discounted prices to fund his efforts.
A hundred years later, the pricing schedule employed is quickly distancing Goodwill shopping as a kitschy, ecologically & politically correct hobby of well-off baby boomers.
I've even heard of appraisers being hired to price out items at top value. The problem with this is the workers don't know anything about the item: nobody knows if it works, it's history, or why it's valuable at all. When you buy something from an antique shop, a used electronics shop, or a record store, prices are based on the tested condition of the item and how rare it is. They have knowledge about what they sell. So often Goodwill prices an item at it's top bluebook, when it is in terrible condition, often not working at all. If you have to buy something and take it to a repair shop (or do it yourself), why the hell should you pay full price? It makes no sense..
These trends have become prevalent, even spreading to independent small town shops. Goodwill and Value Village have gone from thriftstore chains to resale department stores, dragging other secondhand ventures with them. Many people would argue they have every right to do this, that the increased profits generated go towards helping the poor and disabled. But that disregards the fact that the original mission of the Goodwill was not only to generate jobs, but to offer the workers (as well as the financially challenged) the donated goods they sorted/cleaned/fixed at affordable prices (or free).
Other holes also appear in Goodwill operation. (The homepage of their website generates immediate distrust with a picture of President Bush alongside his pledge of support.) Their year 2000 financial disclosure shows 11.4 million in government grants, up from 946,000 in 1999. They also list 8 million in membership dues, but for some reason omit the cash contribution of their 1,940 stores (which, however, is listed in a separate section of their site as $1.02 billion). Combined with these peculiarities, as I look at these numbers, I get a strong intuition that they're make-believe figures, a product of what do you call it? Creative accounting?
The Goodwill just seems to have changed, like it's been realized for it's great profit-making potential and fallen into the greasy hands of Big Money.
I mean, why the increases in government funding? Why the drastic increase in pricing?
It doesn't help my suspicions that the average employee makes a pittance: Goodwill reports 1.96 billion in revenue for last year and 85 million spent on worker salaries. After 5 years of employment, incomes still drift below the minimum wage. Workers are shacked in warehouses, cleaning and sorting donated items all day. Sure these people are offered jobs, but what kind of life is this? And then the items are sold at ridiculous prices with the intent to fund the rehabilitation of these very people?
I had a hell of a time finding the income of any Goodwill CEO, past or present. Non-profit CEO's do tend to be less greedy than the typical American CEO, who makes on average 475 times the blue collar worker of their corporation. I did find that in 1999 then Goodwill CEO David M. Cooney made $209,153: not bad. This, however, seemed to be about the time that the Goodwill began changing so drastically. It was at this time that George W. Kessinger took over as CEO of Goodwill Industries International, in 2001, after 24 years as Orange County Goodwill president. No matter how I searched, I was unable to track down what Mr. Kessinger pulls in.
And finally, don't get me wrong: I love the Goodwill. I think it's great that it exists. I realize they offer many services for helping the down and out. I'm just frustrated by the obvious greed they have suddenly begun to display. In their website FAQ, they answer the question "If I shop at a Goodwill store, will I be depriving disadvantaged people of stuff they need?" with "No.. By becoming gainfully employed, these individuals gain resources to buy the things they need. " Oh, the irony. Somebody, somewhere must be making out on this faulty logic: Goodwill workers can't afford to shop Goodwill.
It's just sad to watch one more aspect of living (somewhat)-out-of-the-consumer-loop, low-income and low-impact, slowly becoming a service to the well-off. I'm sure it's simply a wheezing bowel movement in the grand cycle of economic displacement. These over-the-top Goodwill prices are just a tiny step of the march towards an ever widening divide between rich & poor. It's happening everywhere, and soon the building frustration of the hungry poor watching America's immense wealth chocking the billionaire's coffers will be too much..
We'll have a new revolution where people die, buildings fall, power is shifted to the idealists, and we'll slowly begin to repeat ourselves.
With that in mind, I'm going to stuff this $15 clock in my bag.
