Donated items getting a second, second chance at Goodwill grand opening

Hundred of donated items are getting a new chance for a new home after a long-awaited discount thrift outlet centre finally opened in southeast Calgary.

On Saturday morning, hundreds of thrifters lined up outside the Goodwill Industries new outlet location for the Bins grand opening at the Impact Centre on 57 Avenue.

“This is a truly unique shopping experience. We knew there’d be interest in it, but the numbers are incredible,” said Goodwill president and CEO Dale Monaghan.

Calgary’s Goodwill impact centre is the second location in western Canadian coming six years after the country’s first location opened in Edmonton.

According to Monaghan, everything that is being sold inside the centre, from furniture, to clothing and toys has spent four weeks at one of the many Calgary’s Goodwill retail locations.

“What doesn’t sell comes to here to the pound store and what we do is now sell it by the pound,” said Monaghan.

“It’s a second chance for the generosity of all the donors to find a shopping opportunity for others. And again, we sell it by the pound so the boats come in, they’re in for only a specific short period of time, and then they leave so you have to be quick and jump on an opportunity.”

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Items are sorted by clothing, shoes, toys, movies and music and put into long-blue bins. Those bins are then catered out to the public every 25 minutes. Whatever thrifters take is then weighed and priced at $1.35 per pound.

This is how thrifter Avery Scarlett bought an entire golf club set with bag for less than $40.

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“It’s pretty good,” said Scarlett. “Usually if you want to get a beginner starter set, you’re at least paying two hundred bucks so, I just figure you know, get these while I can.”

Prior to opening its Edmoton Bins location on 168 Street NW, Goodwill says the retail locations were diverting 78 per cent of donated items away from Edmonton landfills. However, over a five-year span, its now increased its diversion rate to 92 per cent.

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As of right now, it says its Calgary stores are diverting 81 per cent of donated goods items from the local landfill. Doug Roxburgh, director of brand integrity says they’re hoping with the implementation of the bins program, they can boost that number to 90 per cent.

“In laymen’s terms we’re talking millions of kilograms. We were at nine million kilograms diverted from local landfills. We instituted the facility in Edmonton, we diverted 19 million kilograms from landfills and that’s annually,” he said.

Goodwill says its close to implementing a recycling program for items that are passed over for a second time at the new facility.