A Trip to the Goodwill Bins

What happens to clothing that doesn't get sold at your local Goodwill thrift store? After a certain time, un-purchased clothing is sent to a Goodwill Outlet store (AKA "the Bins"), where it's sold in bulk to consumers. Clothing that's not deemed fit to sell at a retail thrift store is often sent to the outlets as well. There isn't a Goodwill Outlet store near me, so last month I visited one in Sacramento, California, to see how it all worked and learn more about the experience. (And go shopping, too!)

Here's how it works: The outlet store is a big room full of large blue plastic bins, which is why many people call it "the Bins". Clothing is piled into these large wheeled bins and shoppers can sift through them looking for something to buy. Clothing isn't sorted or organized in any way; it's just all jumbled together so you'll find men's, women's, and kids' clothes all mixed together with other household textiles like sheets, blankets, and towels.

Clothing costs $1.59 per pound, regardless of what you find. (Other items, like books, furniture, and housewares are priced individually). I did find a few really nice pieces of clothing to add to my personal collection and walked out with a big shopping bag full of clothes for only $9.

When you're picking through the bins, you have to be quick. At regular intervals, store employees come out of the back room and whisk away bins full of clothing, even if people are still sorting through them. These bins are replaced by new bins of clothing, and there's usually a big group of people waiting to pounce on the new bins and whatever good stuff they contain. Many of the shoppers there seemed to be resellers who spend the day filling shopping carts with inexpensive clothing to add to their stock.

It was surprising to me that bins were taken away so quickly and that the majority of clothing at the bins still goes unsold. It's great that clothes get another chance to be sold here and stay out of a landfill, but that only seems to be a small portion of them.

So what happens to the clothing that doesn't sell at the outlets? Some unsold clothes here are packed up into big bales and auctioned off to the highest bidder. Some go to bulk resellers, who just buy the bundles with the contents a mystery, others go to companies who shred the clothing for insulation or cut them up for rags, and still others are sent overseas to developing countries and sold there. Still many clothes are just thrown away.

The Goodwill bins definitely help keep used clothing out of our landfills, but it's not a perfect solution to the problem as a large amount of clothing still gets discarded. It was definitely a fun and somewhat frantic experience, and if you're willing to spend the time and effort here, you will be rewarded with some fantastic deals on used clothing.

The Goodwill Outlet store that I visited is located at 6648 Franklin Boulevard, Sacramento CA 95823; telephone: (916) 395-9023.