By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
Donations to Goodwill Industries are down in recent months, a sure sign the economy is in the doldrums.
“When people are not buying as much, donations are not going to be as much,” said Sharon Grubb, district manager for Goodwill’s Northwest North Carolina division.
“We live by donations.”
She and other Goodwill officials are asking people to clean out their closets and make tax-deductible donations to the organization.
On Wednesday afternoon, Grubb stood in the back room of Goodwill’s retail store at 836 W. Jake Alexander Blvd. and motioned toward several huge, empty bins as evidence of the decline in donations.
She said that, typically, those bins are overrunning with donated items. On Wednesday, there were only a few full bins. Many more sat empty.
Grubb said that when the local textile plants began closing several years ago, Goodwill experienced a serious decline in donations. But she said those bad times don’t compare with current conditions.
“It’s probably the driest now it has ever been,” Grubb said.
She said 80 percent of the money generated through donations to Goodwill go toward the agency’s mission of helping the unemployed find jobs. Career Connections is an organization operated by Goodwill through which the unemployed are trained for jobs and given instruction on how to update their resumes.
The remaining 20 percent of the money generated through donations goes toward paying Goodwill’s employees.
Grubb said items donated to Goodwill typically remain in the community. That means items donated in Salisbury are usually offered for sale in the Salisbury store.
Grubb said the only times there are exceptions to that rule are when donations to a specific area run dry. She said that happened recently in Asheville, and donations from Salisbury had to be trucked there.
That’s a last resort, Grubb said, since paying to have the items trucked 100 miles or more cuts markedly into any profits that might be realized.
Grubb said Goodwill employees also aren’t as particular about the items they place on the store’s shelves when donations are down. They’re taught, she said, to sort through the donations and determine which items they can sell.
Fewer donations mean they can’t be as picky about what goes on the store’s shelves.
Shirley Mills is a customer who shops at Goodwill almost every day, and said if there’s a decline in the quality or quantity of items offered for sale, she hasn’t seen it.
“If I see something I want and I’ve got the money, I buy it,” Mills said. “And I buy something almost every day.”
She said the number of shoppers at the Salisbury Goodwill seems to grow as the economy continues to sputter.
“Sometimes, I drive past and it looks like Wal-Mart in there,” Mills said.
Helen Burgess, a longtime employee of Salisbury’s Goodwill, said clothes and furniture are the store’s fastest-selling items.
She agreed that business is booming as unemployment in Rowan County has surpassed 10 percent.
“We’re seeing new faces in here every single day,” Burgess said.
– – –
Goodwill operates three collection sites in Rowan County:
– In Rockwell at 8225 U.S. 52 in front of Graphic Signs. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
– In Salisbury at 815 E. Innes St. in front of Kmart. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
– In Salisbury at the Ketner Center at 123 Mahaley Ave. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
– Goodwill’s retail store and attended donation center is at 836 W. Jake Alexander Blvd., near the Hurley Family YMCA. Hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. on Sunday.