Goodwill

Don’t expect to find something, on sale tag day, that you were waiting for. This goodwill, and perhaps other locations, re-​tag some items, with a new color, when they get close to the sale color day. She, it may be the prerogative of goodwill to do so, but it’s kind of deceitful.

I miss the Goodwill I lived by in Az. There was a ‘Quality Clothing’ rack but any designer what not or purse shoe etc was no higher than 25.00. Awesome, my friend. Blouses and jeans were ALL together. AND cheeeep. The eBay clothing vultures had to pick through everything just like everyone else. Some Goodwill locations are nice enough to hold back the really nice stock until the middle of the cheapy cheap day. (That’s when all of the eBay vultures have already split with half of the store) too bad our Port Orchard location is not as smart, kind, thoughtful and full of GOODWILL.

This store is really well organized, especially for a busy 2^nd hand store. It is typically pretty easy to find what you’re looking for, and they always seem to have new, different stuff and plenty of it.
However, their prices are RIDICULOUS!!! I found a pair of Rocket Dog sneakers up front in their «designer» section that were marked $ 49.99! Sure, they were Rocket Dogs, but they were also really beat up, the bottoms of one shoe had a huge crack in it, the toes were extremely scuffed and both were threadbare in places… I spoke to the manager and asked her if she would come down off the price a little bit. She offered me a whopping $ 5 discount, and when I showed her the huge crack in the bottom of the one shoe and pointed out the scuffs and overall severe wear and tear, her response was to take the pair of shoes and put them behind the counter. I find clothing on the shelves in this store all the time that has stains, broken zippers, missing buttons, and other such issues and often these things are marked between $ 7 and $ 20…which I think is absurd for 2^nd hand clothing anyway, but it’s really REALLY ridiculous for 2^nd hand clothing which no one could be bothered to examine to see if it required a special cleaning to remove stains or to see if any repairs were needed.
I worked in a similar retail environment when I was younger and I was one of the people responsible for sorting clothing donations. We ALWAYS checked for stains, tears, broken zippers, missing drawstrings, missing buttons, etc, and we sorted clothing into piles of those items which were deemed repairable and worth the effort that would go into repairing them and a pile of items that were ripped/​stained/​screwed up and basically FUBAR. The FUBAR items were NOT put on the shelves marked full price and even if they had been, our «full price» was one that was reasonable for 2^nd hand clothes!
The Port Orchard Goodwill seems to have itself confused with a consignment shop or a boutique that sells gently used items which one could reasonable expect to find still for sale new in a shopping mall or one of the better department stores. It is neither of these things, it is a Goodwill.
It is possible to find decent prices on used clothes and shoes and their linens section is usually pretty decent, but the prices are getting pretty ridiculous there too. I never buy anything from this store without doing a little haggling with the manager on duty, their prices are just too high.
I would reccommend the Silverdale Goodwill store to anyone in Kitsap County who likes shopping 2^nd hand stores, their prices are much, MUCH more reasonable and their selection of clothing, furniture, linens, kitchen ware and electronics is a lot better as well. Port Orchard used to have the most awesome used book section but they have been letting that slide as well, although that’s the one area they have not raised their prices laughably high in.

This Goodwill, I feel is very well organized. There didn’t seem to be a lot of larger furniture but a lot of the furniture is at the front of the store instead of the back where is normally is. I guess that’s good because then you can or have a store associate carry it straight out to your car instead of pulling it around the back or whatever.
The only thing I didn’t like is that the aisle are too tight. I mean, there are a lot of items on the racks but the racks are too close together so if someone comes down the aisle with a cart then you’re screwed and have to play that game of chicken to see who’s going to back out first. Slowly creeping closer and closer down the aisle until one of you decides to back on out. I went on a weekend and it was a price explosion. True that many of the GW’s in the area have higher prices. I think pricing the more known name brands can be extreme at times since I can just go to a regular store and get it for that price, but even the branded apparel with higher prices wasn’t too bad. The green tag sale really helped me make up my mind as well as to whether I «really» needed some things. I would say go when there are tag sales because you may be more apt to buy something. I will also say, the GW’s in the area really don’t skip on the tag sales. Normally you go to places like Value Village or whatever and there are like 1 or 2 items with the tag of the day on the rack. This GW was loaded with items with the right color tag. I got 15 dress shirts for a little over $ 9. Yeah… I know!!! Overwhelmed with emotions. All I’m saying is that the gems are not hidden. Good quality items & it doesn’t smell all dank and musty.
I almost shat myself when I saw VHS for 49 cent. **DECEASED***
If I’m in the area, I’ll definitely go back. Good quantity of cashiers as well, so the line isn’t snaking around the corner for 1 cashier.

With regard to the drop off donation location in the back, it’s great. Seriously, if you have closets full of clothes you don’t wear anymore take them to a goodwill they won’t go to waste and you can free up space.

Port Orchard Goodwill has a pretty large selection of fashionable-​enough clothing. We’ve scored big, with some amazing deals.
Unfortunately, since they raised their prices across the board some time back, we often walk out empty-​handed. «Mom jeans» start at around $ 8, so if you want to actually look good, you’ll have to opt for the pricey, «Fashion Focus» option. :/​We pretty much only stick to the half-​off tags now, unless it’s something we really need.
Most of the staff seem somewhat bothered.

A great place for a favorite find. If you like books, music, clothes and clutter, this is your store. I don’t know what Claire M. is on about, it smells like a thrift store. We have donated many fine household items to them and have also purchased some wonderful finds. It’s a company that creates employment and doesn’t discriminate against anyone. It’s located in Port Orchard’s underutilized mini-​mall.

This is the closest Goodwill to me, and I am surprised by the first reviewer’s comments. True, they don’t wash the merchandise before putting them out for sale — it’s supposed to be donated to them clean. I always take them home and wash them after purchase anyway (who doesn’t?) Beyond that, I was confused.
I’ve never seen broken glass/​ceramic items there, and anything in those aisles that’s $ 5.99 is either large, new, or some designer I’ve never heard of. Vases are like $.69 to $ 4 on average. Glass jars/​containers $ 2-​$ 5 depending. I can’t speak for the ceramics — I am not a fan of useless ceramic figurines anyway. And I don’t bother with the used fabric furniture, here or anywhere.
I’m sensitive to smell. Like, instant headache from certain perfumes, gag at the smell of coffee burning, annoyingly sensitive to smell. Aside from the occasional stinky shopper, this place smells just fine. What stinks is St. Vincent de Paul’s, down on Bay Street (gag). I don’t know what the employees could do about sweaty customers, anyway — force them to rinse off in the parking lot before entry?
This location is far smaller than Silverdale, but the employees have always been friendly enough to me, they stock all day long, the racks are usually not overstuffed (big pet-​peeve of mine), and they have a large variety of trendy clothing in my family’s sizes. I like Thursdays best because that’s when certain items go 50% for the week.
It’s a Goodwill, not an estate sale. As Goodwills tend to go, this one is A-​OK.