For Many, Goodwill’s As-Is Market Is the Shop of Last Resort

In search of a nice $5 sweater or refurbished television, bargain hunters flow in and out of the Goodwill Thrift shop in Santa Ana at a steady clip. The real prospectors, however, dig through the dregs of donations beneath a sheet-metal roof at the other end of the parking lot.

Shafts of late-afternoon sun flood cold cement floors as a gaggle of women cluster around a staff member who unloads onto a wide counter armful after armful of clothing that will sell for $2.19 a pound. Beside them, a young boy hoists himself onto the edge of another counter and stares wide-eyed at the teeming spread of assorted toys, sporting equipment and electronics, all in various states of disrepair. And in the shadows, a sullen-looking man sifts through a pile of used books, beside a woman tossing shoes around in search of a match.

Welcome to the busy, if slightly soiled, world of Goodwill Industries of Orange County’s “As-Is” emporium -- where the charity makes a last-ditch effort to sell donated goods too ragged or broken for its traditional stores.

“We are really squeezing the juice out of these products,” said Leonel Barragan, the site’s longtime manager, as a customer headed for the parking lot, dragging four used car tires.

A distinctly unglamorous flip-side to consumer culture, this open-air warehouse serves thousands of Orange County residents a year -- most of them poor and unable to afford even the discounted prices of Goodwill’s thrift shops -- as well as wholesalers who bid on large containers of goods, mostly for resale in impoverished countries.

With five of her seven grandkids in tow, Tomasa Osegueda strolled along three trough-like counters overflowing with unsorted, unwashed clothes. A frequent customer for nearly 20 years, Osegueda said the prices make it possible to clothe her large family.

“For me to go shopping at a store, I would first have to save money,” she said after filling large bags with nearly $50 worth of clothes and treating her grandson, David, to a worn basketball.

Osegueda is typical of most of the shoppers Barragan has seen during his three decades as manager of “as is” sales. But need, he said, is hardly the only reason people come.

College kids come in search of retro clothes from the 1950s and 1960s, while others are on the hunt for dolls, golf clubs or model cars. And lonely seniors come to search for some company and a way to pass an hour or two.

Harvey Williams has found at least half of his 300 model train cars on scavenger sessions at the warehouse. “I know junk,” the auto dismantler joked softly as he pushed aside a stuffed animal and old lamp shade to see what lay beneath.

Whatever the draw, individual customers spent about $800,000 last year on “as-is” merchandise, Barragan said.

The real profit for Goodwill, however, comes from the twice-a-day auctions where Barragan presides in Spanish and English over stern-faced dealers vying for large containers of clothes, broken computer monitors and discards of every sort. After throwing out what is worthless -- sometimes half of their take -- bidders then pack the goods precariously into overloaded vehicles, most headed for swap meets and open air markets in Mexico. At a recent session, two purveyors went head to head over a refrigerator-sized bundle that included a coveted SpongeBob SquarePants figure, a model aircraft carrier and a suitcase. The winning bid was $125.

Last year, Goodwill pocketed nearly $4 million from wholesale auctions.

Before anything is offered up for grabs, however, it is evaluated by workers who sort through nearly all the donations made to Goodwill’s Orange County chapter. The best is reserved for sale either at the charity’s chain of thrift stores or on its on-line auction site. The abundant leftovers -- anything broken or particularly worn -- are sent to the as-is floor.

Barragan said no treasures have been unwittingly sold from the as-is bins. In 1999, however, a sketch in a broken frame was being treated as a discard until a worker saw it for what it was -- a Pablo Picasso sketch that later fetched $1,801.

Goodwill officials make no apologies for the strict business mentality with which they approach their as-is sales. While happy to help those in need, they are quick to emphasize their goal is to raise money for the training and education services the charity offers for disabled people.

Except for the occasional complaint about prices, that’s just fine for the as-is customers eager for a pound of clothing or a wooden tennis racket. Some, perhaps, are too eager.

“We can’t fit into our house anymore,” said Agustin Ahaya laughing, as he and his son, Moses, searched for electric racing cars. “We shouldn’t buy too much more.”