Mindi

See that red tape line on the floor? You better not cross it before they tell you “GO!” or you’ll not only get yelled at, you’ll make about 100 people instantly dislike you. My first experience at the Goodwill bins… this operation is so much crazier than I was expecting. This sweet woman spotted me sticking out like a sore thumb. “You a first timer?” She proceeded to give me the rundown: “The college kid resellers are aggressive. See those bins along that wall? Be careful if you go there. They’ll snatch things right out of your hands.” “Every 30-45 minutes they swap out the bins. You have to stay behind the tape line.” “Don’t bring your cart on the floor. Go to the register and get a piece of paper to tape your name on the cart and leave it along the wall.” I have never seen anything like it. And of course, I snuck by the warehouse doors to peek inside what’s happening behind the scenes. Massive pallet racking FULL of clothes bales. I’m talking hundreds of thousands of pieces. Conveyer belt sorting systems with everything you can imagine. Pallets of bicycles. Filthy vacuums. And rolling bins. A bazillion rolling bins full of who knows what, but apparently some treasure. Before you get triggered by “people making money off donations that are ‘supposed’ to support people who are impoverished,” I invite you to go see an operation like this. The amount of excess materialism is astounding, and this is a microscopic fraction of it. Resellers duking it out over labels and prized goods all day everyday at places like this are playing an extremely important role in a circular economy that is making a difference in the appalling about of waste we have created as a society. You won’t find me doing this to source inventory, but of course I snagged a small stack of books because who would I be if I didn’t 😜 And I have a lot of respect for the number of young adults I saw hustling their way through this chaos, leaving with garbage bags full of items that are putting food on their tables. Wild.

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