At Goodwill stores, hidden freebies
Customers at Goodwill stores in Southern California today might notice a difference in the normally inexpensive merchandise.
At 55 retail locations in San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Los Angeles County, about 10,000 items will be free.
About 200 specially marked items hidden in each thrift store will be given away from the time doors open at 8 a.m. until they close at 9 p.m.
It’s part of Goodwill’s “Thanks for Giving” sale, “our way of giving back a little bit, but also giving customers a reason to stop by and to make things interesting,” said Peter Duda, vice president of retail operations for the nonprofit Goodwill Southern California.
In most stores, 50% of the freebies will be in apparel sections, and the rest will be scattered throughout other departments, like collectibles and small electronics.
However, Duda said, customers shouldn’t hold out hope that big-ticket items like a $200 sofa will suddenly be gratis.
“It’s primarily a mix, a variety,” he said. “Employees weren’t instructed to do anything like mark only the worst items, but just blindly go through and mix it up.”
Goodwill Southern California occasionally runs a similar event at store openings, but this will be only the second year it’s tried the gimmick on Black Friday.
The organization tries to limit major sales and giveaways to emphasize that Goodwill stores have bargains every day, Duda said.
But last year, lines 30 to 50 people long stretched outside stores before the Black Friday event began, said Director of Stores Donna Snell.
“We’ll see what happens -- but it’s worked for us, and customers seem happy with it,” Duda said of the Black Friday giveaway.
“We’d always acquiesced to our competitors in the past, but when we tried it, it was a good day.”
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