Staff Photo by Tim Barber
Dozens of shoppers wait to enter the newly remodeled Goodwill store on South Terrace Friday as officials open the store with a ribbon cutting in East Ridge. All new items are available for the first time in this store.Goodwill Industries opened a new Home Store in East Ridge today, offering only new merchandise.
Chattanooga Goodwill, which is known for selling donated, second-hand goods at its 15 stores in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia, is the first Goodwill in the South to launch the new merchandise store concept.
"It's a new concept for a new year and new era for Goodwill," Chattanooga Goodwill President Dennis Brice told nearly 100 cheering shoppers lined up outside the store for the grand opening this morning.
Delwin Huggins, chief operating officer for Goodwill in Chattanooga, said other Goodwill stores will continue to sell predominantly donated, second-hand merchandise. But he said about 10 percent of the merchandise displayed at other stores will include new items, starting this month.
The move is designed to offer more selection for shoppers and help attract more buyers and sales for Goodwill, which last year offered support to more than 10,000 persons with disabilities and special needs. Goodwill employs many disadvantaged persons in its stores and uses the profits from its stores to support its counseling, assessment and work training programs for physically and mentally challenged persons.
Goodwill has contracts with both the state of Tennessee and the state of Georgia, along with the Veterans Administration, for its training and work programs. But to support most of its operations, the Chattanooga non-profit relies primarily upon donated goods which it resells at its stores in its 23-county service territory.
The new household and clothing items being sold at the Home Store are being purchased by local buyers and Huggins said "because of our low overhead" will usually be sold at 20 to 30 percent below most other retailers.
"I shop at Goodwill all the time because of its bargains and I couldn't be more excited about them adding new merchandise in this store at great prices." shopper Linda Hamilton said today.
Read more in Saturday's Times Free Press