1,000 Shoppers Visit Goodwill Store in The Village on Its Opening Weekend

About 1,000 customers explored the new Goodwill store in The Village on its opening weekend—with 750 on Saturday alone, the nonprofit said Monday.

“Several individual customers purchased over $600 of merchandise each,” said Sharon Corrigan, the local Goodwill spokeswoman, citing figures from sales director Jacky Brown.

“There was a line outside at the 10 a.m. opening, but after noon we had a pretty steady flow of shoppers with no real issues with the crowd, or the checkout process.”

She said first weekend sales could evoke traditional Thursday-Sunday openings, and “are in the neighborhood of $20,000 for that time frame.  It appears that the new La Mesa store, for its location and size, is right on track.”

Customer feedback for the county’s 17th Goodwill retail outlet is positive, Corrigan said.

“They seemed to be very excited that we are open.  There were some students also that told us they cut a few classes, but thought it was worth it to shop at
Goodwill.”

The closest donation center—at the Spring Street trolley station—opened Nov. 1, and  “has been averaging just under 10 donors a day, and that number did not significantly change over the store opening weekend.”

She said donation centers are usually slow starters, building after time as more and more people notice their presence.  

“We should have a better idea of how this one center is doing vs. the other two in La Mesa in six months or so,” she said.

The newly branded Goodwill Plaza building occupies the iconic Clocktower Building at the northeast corner of Spring Street and La Mesa Boulevard.

Corrigan said Goodwill staff is very happy to be in the neighborhood, and to “have all the wonderful shops and restaurants nearby, and looks forward to developing strong relationships with the community in the years to come.”