Browse Digitally, Shop Locally

Everyone has his or her own perception of Goodwill. Many of the regular shoppers enjoy the treasure-hunting aspect that comes from the layout, organization, and overall atmosphere of Goodwill stores. But there are also many people who avoid Goodwill stores because of the cluttered atmosphere, the smell, or as one shopper put it, “I really just don’t have the time or the patience to go through the aisles of Goodwill.” During research, no one claimed that the deterrent for shopping at Goodwill is the merchandise, but it is solely a negative perception of Goodwill stores themselves. It seems that if there were a way these people could shop at Goodwill without physically going into the store, they might be pleased with the merchandise they find for sale. When one shopper was asked what she would like to change about Goodwill, she replied, “If I could be here by myself.” She laughed and dismissed the idea as impossible, but with our proposal her vision could become reality.

Proposal

With the concerns of these people specifically in mind, our group proposes an online Goodwill store called GoGoodwill.com. With the growing number of people shopping online, GoGoodwill.com could be a way to reach a demographic that does not typically shop in the stores. The goals are to increase revenue, educate more people about the Goodwill mission, and place their presence in the already established online community.

Goodwill already uses the Internet to sell books through other sites such as eBay and Amazon without telling customers they are buying from Goodwill. Suzhana Burmeister, the Director of Marketing at Goodwill Industries of Central Texas, said this is to avoid “negative feedback” that a competitor could leave, plus sites like Amazon and eBay are already established websites that people use regularly. She also said that the books sold online typically sell for four times as much as they do in the Goodwill stores. The amount of revenue that could be made through other types of products could be greatly beneficial to Goodwill. During our research, we found that many Goodwill store managers have already seen the opportunity of selling goods online. They have taken the initiative to increase profits for their store by selling Goodwill merchandise on the Internet under personal accounts.

How GoGoodwill.com Will Work

The items to be put online will come in through the normal sorting process: employees sort donated items at each store daily. It will be up to the sorter’s discretion to choose which items will be put online. The minimum value of each item is ten dollars in hopes that the items will be of better quality and more unique, such as specialty shoes, furniture, and collectible items. Ideally, the sorter would have an eye for items that could sell for more money like classic records or vintage clothing. Some decisions, like what kinds of items would sell best or how many items per week should go online, would ultimately be up to the store managers. The chosen items will be photographed, receive a tag with the item number and the date received, and put in a storage section in the back of the store. Many of the stores already have areas that can be utilized for this storage need. The photographs of the items will then be uploaded to the server and organized by the site’s software. There will be an online supervisor assigned to the Central Texas region to monitor the website and make sure everything runs smoothly.

Once a customer purchases an item at GoGoodwill.com using an online payment method such as Pay Pal, the item will be taken off the website and the respective store will be alerted that the item has been sold. The employee will find the item, mark it as “Sold” with the date purchased and the customer’s name, and move it to the “Sold” section that is also in the back of the store. In research interviews for this project, Goodwill staff emphasized that there is not a lot of room for stagnant merchandise, therefore the policy would be that the customer must pick up their item within 48 hours or their credit card will be charged three dollars per day. After five days the item will be put back on sale in the store and the buyer will not receive a refund.

The advantage of having customers pick up items in-store instead of being shipped is that people are physically brought in and possibly introduced to a Goodwill store for the first time. One shopper said that his initial expectation of Goodwill was, “It was not as nice. But you can get really good deals here.” Another shopper said that if he could tell someone one thing about Goodwill, it would be that it is, “a lot nicer than you might imagine.” We hope that by getting the online shoppers into the store, any of the negative ideas held by those who have never shopped at Goodwill will be alleviated and they will come back again.

One perceived concern with online retailing of Goodwill merchandise is that customers will not be able to see the items before purchasing them. This is an issue any online retailer runs into whether the products are new or used. For this reason, online purchases could be returned following the standard Goodwill thirty-day return policy.



Employee Guide

An “Employee Guide to Managing a Goodwill Online Store” will be sent to every location as a PDF file for reference at any time. The guide will have all of the information an employee might need for operating the online store, such as instructions on how to activate an online store, take quality pictures, upload photos to the internet, store the items, and what to do after an item is sold.


Computer in store for browsing GoGoodwill.com

To inform customers who are already shopping at Goodwill about GoGoodwill.com, and for those who wish to shop online while in-store, there will be a computer in each Goodwill location that is strictly dedicated to accessing GoGoodwill.com. Since the online merchandise will not be on the floor until the next week, the customers can browse the current week’s selection while also seeing what is available in the retail store around them. If a customer wishes to buy an item online, he or she will have the convenience to purchase it over the Internet and take it home immediately.

The time and cost of implementing GoGoodwill.com would be minimal since it can be easily integrated into the existing Goodwill system. The only expenses would be software for the website, web fees, and initial marketing. Staffing costs would be offset by increased revenue from goods. It would be up to each store individually to decide if extra staff is necessary to efficiently run the program.

Items will stay online for seven days in order to have a rotating selection and for the items to keep flowing throughout the Goodwill system. The images on the site will display each item’s expiration date, or the day they will be taken off the Internet and moved from storage in the back of the store onto the floor. The website will also explain which store location they can be found in, and that there will be a whole new set of items to shop for the next week. After they are taken off the website, the items will follow through the regular item routine. Merchandise stays in the retail store for three weeks, and then is shipped to a Blue Hanger Outlet Store where it is are available for purchase for just a few hours before sold in bulk or thrown away. The advantage of online merchandise is that it gets one extra week in the system at the very beginning of the sales process.


GoGoodwill.com: The Website


Austin page of GoGoodwill.com

The website itself is designed to be clean and orderly-a relief to those who find Goodwill retail stores to be too cluttered to efficiently shop in, such as one individual who told us, “I generally don’t have time to go through all the crap.” Online shoppers will be able to browse by store and category, with thumbnail images and prices shown for each item. Categories include things like art, toys, games, music, computers, furniture, kitchenware, etc. A shopper will also be able to subscribe to an RSS feed, which allows him to get e-mail updates on certain categories of their choosing. For example, if a shopper collected Nike shoes, he could subscribe to get notifications any time Nike shoes are entered into the GoGoodwill.com system. This is a valuable feature for collectors or anyone who is looking for a specific genre of items. Once a customer decides on the items he or she wishes to buy, he simply clicks on the “Add to Shopping Bag” icon and continues through the steps of payment. There will also be a link to the Goodwill Industries of Central Texas’ main page to encourage customers to learn more about Goodwill.

Suzhana Burmeister informed us that Goodwill continually struggles with educating the public abut their mission. Their mission statement is important because it is the sole reason behind Goodwill’s existence. When shoppers were asked if they would use the Goodwill services more after they were told the mission, almost everyone said yes. We felt that it was important to make every online shopper aware of what Goodwill does, therefore the mission statement is shown at the top of each page and after checkout so it is the last thing a customer reads when he or she leaves the site.



Last page of GoGoodwill.com

Marketing Strategies

Advertising is a large part of what will make GoGoodwill.com a success. In the past, marketing for a Computer Works website has not been successful. Computer Works is the program through which Goodwill sells and recycles computer parts and whole systems. The website meant to sell parts online has proved inefficient due to a lack of funding and manpower to run the program. Our strategy for marketing GoGoodwill.com is an attempt to avoid these mistakes by beginning with free advertising in the stores. Hanging posters on the walls and printing the website’s URL on every checkout bag are two ways that already loyal shoppers can find out about GoGoodwill.com.


Austinist blog entry

Other types of free advertising, such as word of mouth, online banners, and blog entries, can provide awareness to more people in the community. For example, “The Austinist” is a local blog that users can advertise their business, news, or events while providing more information than a standard ad. Posting on city-specific blogs also helps promote the locality of Goodwill; that goods and revenue circulate within the community.


Possible newspaper ad


Possible billboard ad

If those strategies do not bring enough people to GoGoodwill.com, traditional marketing strategies such as billboards, print ads, and radio and television commercials could be utilized. The ads will use the slogan “Browse Digitally, Shop Locally” to remind users that they can conveniently shop at home for stores near them.

Mission: GoGoodwill.com

GoGoodwill.com is a cost-effective way for Goodwill to reach the already established community of online shoppers. The hope is that it will increase revenue while educating the community on Goodwill’s mission of helping put people to work. It is not meant to start something completely new-it is meant to add on to the existing Goodwill system. GoGoodwill.com is a way to advance the initial purpose of the retail stores: to generate revenue to provide job-related services for people with barriers to employment. Online shopping supports and enhances Goodwill’s mission through the addition of technology and the Internet.

After six weeks of analyzing various aspects of the inner and outer workings of Goodwill, recognizing different problems, and formulating various solutions, my group and I have offered Goodwheels as our final proposal.

Our analysis of Goodwill came from through two avenues: first was an investigation of the circulation of goods throughout the Goodwill system, and second was a series of interviews conducted at various Goodwill stores around Austin. The investigation in regards to the circulation of goods throughout the Goodwill system started at points of distribution, or PODs. More generally, these are the channels through which goods are donated. Once the goods are donated, they are sorted into what can be sold and what can be salvaged. Anything else is either trashed or recycled. Goods that can be sold then head to the floor for a period of three weeks. After the three week time period, any items still not sold are transferred to the Blue Hanger outlet. If the items still do not sell at Blue Hanger, they are divided into two general groups: hard-line goods (shoes, electronics, etc.) and soft-line goods (textiles). Hard-line goods are placed in large cardboard containers called gaylords and soft-line goods are compressed into bales which are generally sold by the ton at pennies per pound. Again, anything that cannot be sold for whatever reason is recycled if possible, or trashed.

It was during our time spent at the Blue Hanger talking to the head of transportation that we were made aware of seven large unused box trucks. Generally these box trucks are used for transporting goods and materials around the city, but more efficient routing cut the number of trucks needed.

The interviews we conducted covered a broad range of topics regarding the public's general perception and awareness of Goodwill. One of the questions that ultimately lead us to an issue of concern was, " Are you familiar with the Goodwill mission statement? " We discovered that while in fact, the majority of people are at least somewhat aware of the Goodwill mission, there was a large subset, young adults and teenagers, who were oblivious. Also, while many people had a general idea of the mission statement, most did not seem to understand that unlike other charity thrift stores such as Salvation Army, Goodwill's efforts and resources remain in the local community.

Through this analysis, we were then able to identify what our goals might be. In a sentence, they were to efficiently utilize Goodwill's resources in order to strengthen community presence and mission awareness. We feel that Goodwheels fulfills these goals.

So, what is Goodwheels? Goodwheels is essentially a mobile Goodwill run out of the converted cargo space of an unused box trucks that could go to a wide range of Austin events. For example, Austin City Limits already attracts thousands of people each year. Goodwheels would be perfect for ACL in that it could drive down to the park area and set up shop for concert goers who otherwise would not have even thought about shopping at Goodwill that day. Fun Fun Fun Fest, another annual music festival in Austin, would also be a perfect candidate for Goodwheels, especially since it reached out to local Austin businesses this year for the first time, allowing them to set up shop at the festival in an effort to strengthen community ties among one another. Other events occurring on a more regular basis could be First Thursdays on South Congress, or even youth sport events like little league games on the weekends.

The redesign of the truck would begin on the exterior. While surveying different Goodwill graphics, we realized that there was not a very consistent visual language. Color schemes, typefaces, layouts, etc. all seemed to change from ad to ad. However, there were some bolder color schemes we found to be visually engaging that we would like to incorporate into our Goodwheels visual language. The sides of the truck would then be painted with a more dynamic and visually engaging pattern and would have only the word "Goodwheels", plus the tag line "delivering opportunity to your community", included in order to cut down on visual clutter. In addition, on the back door entrance to the cargo space, we would maintain the same visual language by including a composition with our pattern and cut down on visual clutter by only having Goodwill's contact info presented in a clear and legible way.

The interior of the truck would house a lighting source, large storage boxes for transportation, a box to collect more donations, a small fitting area with a mirror display, and most importantly, a display rack for the clothes. This display rack would be integrated into the already existing tracking system inside the truck. Currently, the tracking system is used to tie down the large duratainers during transportation. However, by using the metal pieces that hook into the tracking, it would be easy to make a modular clothing rack that could not only be placed on either side of the interior, but also change in size. Also, the color scheme already seen on the exterior of the track would be continued on the interior. In regards to a power source, a generator would probably be best suited for the job. At Fun Fun Fun Fest this year, several businesses used a solar power one, which would be more environmental and cut down on costs.

As far as what might be sold from the Goodwheels truck, we have at this point geared it primarily for clothing that would be selected off the floor at Goodwill stores and rotated according to the event. However, it would also be possible to sell items, such as books and toys, depending on the event. For this, we discussed placing a display shelf on top the clothing rack supports.

Also included in the interior of the truck would be the Donate Your Story wall. Costumers browsing the goods at an event would be encouraged to write on index cards anything they might want to share with others ranging from how Goodwill might have affected that person to stories about the event the Goodwheels truck is present. We feel that this would serve as a median through which people could connect with one another by reading the different comments and stories, thus strengthening both Goodwill's as well as the individuals ties within the community. In addition, we have also discussed the possibility of using this board to showcase stories of people whose lives have already been affected by Goodwill, thereby reflecting to the rest of the community Goodwill's efforts and successes.

In order to advertise the Goodwheel truck's presence at events, we have devised a couple of systems. The first is to circulate door hangers in neighborhoods surrounding the event area. Included on the door hangers would be the times and locations of the upcoming Goodwheel events as well as a note to encourage people to come and donate. The second system would be to circulate cards with the same information around events the Goodwheels truck might already present at. Also, the cards could be placed in businesses around the area of the event prior to its start in an effort to help get the word out before hand.

In conclusion, we feel Goodwheels would be an effective entity in the existing Goodwill system. Its inclusion would mean a huge increase in coverage around the community, inevitably increasing awareness of the Goodwill mission statement, and therefore expanding Goodwill's ability to serve the community.

gogoodwill.com - Why Not the Internet?

Goodwill is a great place to shop. It provides a market for reusable goods to be purchased thereby diverting tons of once-used items from ending up in landfills. It gives those with lower incomes an alternative to pricey malls. It provides the savvy shopper moments of triumph upon finding an overlooked bargain. For Goodwill Industries, it gives them a chance to accomplish their mission of providing job services for those with barriers to employment. For these reasons, a large number of people do shop at Goodwill retail stores. Still, a large amount of people for a number of other reasons, do not. We believe that creating an online interface where shoppers can engage with Goodwill outside of their physical locations has a great potential of bringing more of these people into the Goodwill process. Our proposal is to create a website called gogoodwill.com, provide the logistics of its operations, and provide a budget-conscious advertising and marketing strategy that Goodwill could easily incorporate into its existing infrastructure.

In our interviews, we found that the majority of people engage with the Goodwill process in some way, even if it is just to donate items at drop off points. What we wanted to find out were the reasons why people didn’t want to visit and purchase items from the retail stores. One of the interviewees described a feeling of uncleanliness and claustrophobia. Others talked about their lack of patience and time, with one interviewee responding, “I generally don’t have time to go through all the crap.” With the exception of a small minority who absolutely refused to buy pre-owned goods, most people were not averse to buying used items.

Our proposal targets this problem by aiming to attract more customers through a user-friendly online interface that is simple, convenient, and that would also act as an alternative to physical Goodwill stores in their current manifestations. This website also address two other problems Goodwill has – the first one being a general ignorance about the programs Goodwill fosters and the second problem being a limited online presence which fails to capitalize on the benefits and potential of internet commerce that Goodwill is aware of. Currently, Goodwill recognizes that books they sell online retrieve four times the revenue as books they sell in stores, yet little else is offered online. This website would provide another opportunity to educate people who normally don’t come into contact with actual Goodwill locations about their programs, and it will also help to organize Goodwill’s largely incidental online commercial presence.

The website is more similar to Craigslist than ebay, where the buyer can browse through items online then pick up the item, thereby keeping the process within the community. Unlike Craigslist however, where people can be unreliable, meeting places and schedules have to coordinated, and messages are sometimes left unreplied, after the purchase of an item online, one can go straight to the store that the item is located at and pick it up the same day. By having people come to actual stores to pick up their purchase, online shoppers are exposed to physical stores and those with negative attitudes towards these stores can be assimilated into the process. Also, the potential for higher revenue through further shopping at the stores is increased.

Items that appear on gogoodwill.com follow a similar trajectory to items in the physical store. When goods are donated, a sorter at the store decides whether the donation goes on the shelf, goes in the auction, which is primarily for premium items, or is unsuitable for sale. This sorter would separate items that could potentially benefit from higher online revenues (with a minimum price of ten dollars), take a picture of the item and upload it to the software, then store it in a separate back room storage space. When a customer decides to buy an item online, the item is automatically taken off the website and the store is notified in order for the item to be tagged as sold. The customer has 48 hours to pick up the item, otherwise they are charged a three dollars a day penalty for up to five days. If the item is not picked up, the customer is charged for the purchase and the item is put onto the store shelf to follow the normal cycle of a Goodwill donation. For those who do not own computers, a computer donated by Goodwill’s own Computer Works program will be set up at each store for customers to browse through the online catalog. In terms of initial setup, the cost and labor would be relatively minimal. After setting up the software, Goodwill would employ an online supervisor to look after the site, but the rest of the labor would be divided up at the stores. Stores already employ a sorter to go through donated items and storage space already exists at the retail locations. If the job of taking pictures and uploading them becomes too difficult for present personnel, stores could choose to hire an employee in charge of these responsibilities – a welcome hire that be a result of increased commerce and revenue. Managers would also be sent an easy to follow PDF of instructions for setting up their online presence.

Currently, a number of store managers are pulling items from store shelves and taking pictures of them to upload on eBay because they feel Goodwill can fetch a higher price for them online. As for bookselling on the web, Goodwill often sells titles on Amazon through pseudonyms in order to avoid negative customer feedback. A Goodwill shopping website would eliminate these clandestine enterprises and help organize and legitimize all the current internet commerce activity under the umbrella of the Goodwill name.


The website's Austin page

The website gogoodwill.com was designed to contrast the cluttered, claustrophobic feel of a retail Goodwill store by employing a cleaner, more minimal aesthetic that wouldn’t overwhelm the customer. A shopper can browse through all the items available around town, or choose particular categories that interest them, such as computers, art, or furniture. At the city home page, Goodwill can also educate its users about its mission statement and other programs like its computer recycling initiative or donation events through the header space at the top of the site. Along with items for sale online, customers can browse through items available for auction at each store around town. The website also offers RSS subscription capabilities that allow for instant updates for subscribers on new items available by category or keyword search. If the website were to become successful, there would be the potential for other cities and communities to set up their own browse and shop stores, and these stores would be networked in one, orderly site.

To market the website, we’ve employed a three-step strategy based around Goodwill’s limited advertising budget. Goodwill Industries of Central Texas had attempted an online store for its Computer Works program in the past, but according to their Marketing Director Suzanha Burmeister, it failed primarily because of three reasons – inadequate software, limited supply, and ineffective marketing. Our first marketing strategy would be to target shoppers who are already inclined to shopping for used items at Goodwill stores by advertising at the Goodwill retail outlets with informative posters, shopping bags, and handouts in hopes that these shoppers would not only continue to visit the stores, but supplement their actual visits with online ones. Our second strategy is to utilize the viral media capabilities of the internet to inform those who spend a large amount of time on the web daily. This includes informing news media and local blogs, such as the Austinist and the Austin Chronicle, about the non-profit website in order to generate news stories about the site. Social networking site like MySpace and Facebook would also be employed to market the site. This viral online campaign would also be supplemented by digital advertising using web commercials and banners. Finally, if a large number of people still have not been exposed to the new website, then traditional methods of advertising would be utilized including newspaper ads, billboards, and radio spots.


In store poster advertisement

When asked about the likelihood of shopping at Goodwill online, one interviewee at Barton Creek Square Mall offered, “I’d be more likely to go to the website if there was a website than I would be to go to the Goodwill store.” With more and more people becoming acclimated to shopping online and spending larger amounts of time on the internet overall, the potential for greater revenue exists for Goodwill if it were to have an online entity. Not only would Goodwill potentially make more revenue by selling items online for higher prices, it would also provide an alternative storefront for those reluctant to visit its retail locations.

MakeGood Program

Goodwill Industries of Central Texas stores receive a constant flow of donated goods everyday that hold much more potential than what customers see on the mere shelves and racks. There are great everyday recycling efforts occurring within Goodwill already; however, there is a lack of in-store attention to recycling initiatives. By implementing the MakeGood program, Goodwill can become the quintessential go-to place to rummage for Do-It-Yourself project materials, while enhancing its image to become the source of sustainable creativity.

Several programs and events specifically created to promote recycling already exist within Goodwill Industries. A highly successful roundup was the annual Weigh Good Donation Drive. This event encouraged the community to recycle their unwanted spring cleaning items, and donate them to Goodwill instead of trashing them and consequently increasing the landfill. Goodwill also works in conjunction with electronic recycling programs, such as RECONNECT and MRM, in addition to operating their own Computer Works Recycling Program at the Headquarters. All these initiatives strive to expand the recycling movement in Texas by offering consumers convenient drop-off locations for free electronics product recycling. The programs all save 250 tons of electronic waste from heading to the landfill each month.

Goodwill has great dedication to recycling within its own system, but that is not reflected in the retail stores themselves. Twenty percent of all donations still end up in the landfill, despite all the recycling efforts. This actually hurts Goodwill, since they have to pay for unsold goods to be taken away to the landfill. All the donated goods are not used to their full potential. To reduce the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill while only using or reusing resources and assets that already exists at Goodwill, the plan is to enhance Goodwill’s image to become the source of sustainable creativity.

The current perception of Goodwill is that it only sells used, cheap, and old donated items. One Goodwill shopper said the items “were a bunch of junkie stuff.” Some people only shop there for seasonal items, mainly for Halloween costumes. With various project ideas, there would be a bigger appeal to frequently return to Goodwill to browse for new materials. Not a popular choice for gift-shopping, Goodwill items could be used to create unique and meaningful gifts instead. Since all items are from donations, no one is bound to get the same thing, and individuality prevails—a highly appealing notion to Austinites. There is currently a substantial wave of recycling euphoria, highly prevalent in the artsy and green Austin area. The Goodwill selection is seen as boring and uninteresting, but with inspirational DIY projects displayed around the store, Goodwill could enhance its image to become a fun and resourceful place to find unique materials. One shopper that UT Design student Nancy Guevara interviewed believes that Goodwill “should be about the shopping experience, helping the community and environment, and having fun.”

There are many people interested in DIY projects, as evidenced by many websites, publications, and events dedicated to the DIY mantra. As the green movement and recycling rises in popularity, there has been a boom in the DIY community, which is evidenced in resources such as, www.instructables.com, www.diylife.com, www.blog.makezine.com, and the annual MakerFaire event. The websites are documentation platforms for the DIY community to share, collaborate, and learn from each other. The MakerFaire event is all about celebrating arts, crafts, engineering, science and DIY projects. The festivities include hands-on workshops, project exhibitions, craft booths, demonstrations and competitions. It is important to see how this DIY subculture fits into the MakeGood interest of Goodwill. Many DIY resources suggest thrift stores, sometimes specifically Goodwill, as the place to look for used goods and materials to use in trash-to-treasure projects.

Introducing the DIY mindset to Goodwill stores, the target audiences would be do-it-yourselfers, hip youngsters, and housewives. The younger crowd, supporters of individuality and vintage shopping, is innovative, frugal, and active in the green recycling movement. The housewives are women who browse and shop around Goodwill as a hobby during their spare time. The addition of the project posters could lure in a more diverse crowd who shops at Goodwill in a new and different perspective.

Goodwill can become the inspirational go-to place to find exclusive materials for DIY projects. The aisle display posters can introduce the DIY mindset on-site in stores to customers who never might have considered reusing or remaking used items. The projects offer a great opportunity to reactivate used goods to save them from the landfill. Instead of trashing torn and old books, they can be remade into book handbags or a hollowed book safe. Vases could turn into one-of-a-kind lamps, and old t-shirts can turn into tote bags. Even coffee mugs can be transformed into speakers with a couple materials around the store. Merely browsing around a Goodwill store will spark much imagination for innovation, and the project displays around the store will help instigate a sustainable creativity mindset. The MakeGood program presents a way to utilize the underrepresented and inefficiently used resources that already exists at Goodwill, and puts them to a better use.

The in-store displays at Goodwill will primarily be located at the aisle ends, where the vertical grid metal frames are situated. The 18" × 24" project posters will replace the outfits that arbitrarily hang off the frame rack. On the poster will be an instruction pad with detachable sheets, relevant to the location of the poster. For example, the poster for the book handbag would be located in the jeans and books aisle (conveniently located adjacently in the North Lamar location), while the poster for the vase lamp would be located on a portion of the shelf in a house wares aisle. The poster and instruction pad would both include information about the Goodwill mission statement and an invitation to visit and contribute to the MakeGood website. An actual finished sample of the project would be included with the poster, hanging from the rod, or sitting on a custom shelf with the poster displayed behind it. A separate poster, with minor adjustments, will be displayed at the Blue Hanger Outlet, which contains a different customer base and drastically different visual layout. Instead of the instructions pad in the center, there will be a list of DIY projects, such as a book handbag, record clock, mug speakers, and vase lamp. Because of the absence of aisles and racks, projects cannot be physically displayed in the store. Therefore, a list of project ideas would be equally inspiring and effective.

The MakeGood blog website will include a compilation of all the project instructions and tips, with feature projects on the home page. It incorporates the blogging element that is crucial to DIY sites. It will provide a place for fellow Do-It-Yourselfers to discuss and share project ideas, as well as to promote the new Goodwill image for sustainable creativity. Members can participate in the forum to find creative new applications to use everyday Goodwill items. Makegoodwill.com presents a broad spectrum of various DIY projects, but focuses primarily in the Goodwill interest. It allows many opportunities to advertise and promote Goodwill, as well as further spread the mission statement.

The MakeGood program carries some considerations that need to be taken into account. The main consideration is the visual store layout. The layout of each store is determined by the individual managers, and this causes layout discrepancies. Although every Goodwill retail store contains the basic item categories (Womens, Mens, Childrens, Books, Housewares, Furniture), it is up to the store manager to decide on the location of the poster, and how many goods that would be relocated or removed for this space. In addition, a turnover time would need to be agreed upon, to decide how long each project would remain displayed in the store. With the in-house graphic designers at the Headquarters already busily occupied, skilled volunteers or MakerFaire artists could contribute ideas for the project designs. They would be responsible for pitching new project ideas on a set schedule and creating the actual project samples for the store. Another consideration would be finding a webmaster for the makegoodwill.com website. A volunteer with basic web skills could be in charge of this position, updating blogs and maintaining the site.
Costs for the implementation of the MakeGood program would be very minimal. Conveniently, there is already a printer located at the Goodwill Headquarters, where all the posters and instruction pads could be printed and distributed. The posters were modularly designed, so every time a new project is displayed in-store, only the instruction pad would need to be replaced. The sample projects would not cost Goodwill anything, since all the materials come from the donations within each retail store itself.

Many opportunities for future expansion exist with the MakeGood program, beginning with MakerFaire event participation. With all this creativity surrounding Goodwill, the MakerFaire event would be highly appropriate for the customers’ projects to be displayed at a booth. This would directly reach a large audience of people specifically interested in DIY creations, and could easily gear people towards shopping at Goodwill for unique material finds. Bilingual poster displays are also in consideration, with the addition of Spanish posters. The large display posters would have an English and Spanish one adjacent to each other, while the instruction pads would have English on the front and Spanish on the back. Bilingual signage already exists at Goodwill retail stores, so bilingual poster displays would appeal to more shoppers. Catching up to the DIY online community, video how-to’s for the projects would be uploaded to makegoodwill.com. Actually seeing a project being made step-by-step inspires Do-It-Yourselfers to go out and create their own. Future expansion can also be seen in DIY workshops taking place in each retail store. Goodwill’s existing Do Good volunteer program already includes a wide assortment of positions (interns, display designers, educators, researchers, etc.), so there are clearly plenty of volunteers in the community with the appropriate skills who would be willing to become involved with the MakeGood program. The workshops would be a great opportunity to inspire customers to reuse goods, and also further advertise the poster displays and the DIY recycling movement.

With all of Goodwill’s dedicated recycling efforts and initiatives, the addition of the MakeGood program would further benefit both the environment and Goodwill Industries of Central Texas. Used items are prevented from ending up at the landfill, Goodwill receives revenue to further promote their mission statement, and the green recycling movement spreads within the community. Do-It-Yourselfers can promote Goodwill as the go-to place for great material finds, transforming the Goodwill shopping experience. The MakeGood program will enhance Goodwill’s image to become the source of sustainable creativity.

Blue Hanger Redux

For the last four weeks, the junior class in the design program at the University of Texas has been researching Goodwill Industries of Central Texas to identify areas of improvement in its function and develop solutions to those deficiencies. Based on this research, my group proposes using Goodwill's Blue Hanger Outlets to host events.

During the research phase, our class divided into three teams. One team interviewed customers and employees to understand public and internal perception of Goodwill. Another documented the visual makeup of each store, including signage. My research team studied the Goodwill system — how a donation moves from the point of donation, to the sales floor, to Blue Hanger Outlets and to its final destination.

We talked to Joel King and Kevin McCown, the transportation manager and director, respectively, to get a bird's eye view of how the system functions.

Goodwill's system of processing donated items to maximize their profit is non-linear, but simple. When an item is donated, a manager identifies it as either fit for sale or trash. Some donations are obviously trash and are set aside for transportation to pick up, but most donations, the ones identified as fit for sale, are immediately priced by the manager and put on the sales floor. If an item doesn't sell within three weeks it is taken to transportation headquarters.

Transportation consists of a variety of vehicles, ranging from 12' box trucks to 24' trailers, to accommodate the various loading dock configurations at each Goodwill store. The transportation department picks up trash and unsold donations and brings them to the transportation warehouse where they enter the final phase in the system.


At the transportation warehouse, items are sorted into two rough categories: soft line items, like textiles, and hard line items, like appliances — basically everything made of metal, plastic, or wood. Tables are stacked high with discarded toasters, jeans and training toilets. Offered at a slash-and-burn discount and piled deep, Goodwill's rejects get their last chance for an average consumer's purchase. Unsold hard lines are boxed into four-foot gaylords — cardboard boxes resting on pallets — and sold at auction in bulk. The leftovers are recycled or trashed. Unsold soft lines are bound into 1,000-pound bales and sold by the pound (currently 12 cents per pound). Buyers of these bales send them to border towns to be resorted for sale in other countries. According to King and McCown the clothes from these bales may end up anywhere from Malaysia to Mexico.

After the official interviews and tours, we revisited both Blue Hanger Outlets, this time as customers, to observe the culture and function from the ground level.


Blue Hanger Outlets themselves are large warehouse spaces with bare walls and concrete floors. 4' x 8' wooden tables hold the unsorted masses of soft and hard line items. Nothing is individually priced, and large blue placards with mismatched white vinyl type display prices for broad categories of items. For example, at the time of this writing, any clothing item is $1.25. However, cashiers may use discretion and are allowed to price items higher or lower than their stated value, creating a garage sale atmosphere.

From the time we spent there and from our interview with King, we identified three main types of customers. The first and most prevalent are the families, primarily Latino, who buy clothes and other necessities. The second type is the bulk reseller, who buys and sells specific types of items, like stuffed animals or appliances. The third type are people who buy goods cheaply and then hold garage sales to resell the items at a marginal profit.

At the conflux of over-zealous thrift and Darwinistic capitalism a phenomenon occurs at Blue Hanger Outlets. Every hour or so, a row of picked-over tables are cordoned off, cleared of goods, and refilled with fresh goods. Meanwhile, a crowd gathers a respectable distance away from the workers to scope out new items. After the workers are finished refilling the tables, a manager gives the go-ahead and shoppers hurl themselves at the new array with abandon, which can result in the occasional scuffle. King and McCown said Blue Hanger Outlets average one or two altercations per month.

Overall, we found the Goodwill system highly efficient and progressive, willing to adapt changes in operating structure and implement them quickly. However, our foray into the Blue Hanger Outlet culture and function showed us there was still room for improvement.

Upon completion of the research and observation phase, the three teams were then segregated into four mini-groups, each incorporating at least one team member from the visual team, interview team, and systems team.

Though Blue Hanger Outlets could potentially be a thrifty student fashionista's secret haven, most shoppers are either very young or middle-aged and older. To find out why, we interviewed students at McNeil High School, a mile away from the main Blue Hanger Outlet (McNeil), and college-aged students at UT — a demographic largely absent from Blue Hanger Outlets. Their responses indicated a lack of knowledge of the outlet's existence. This isn't surprising given "the retail stores mission to drive Blue Hanger Outlets out of business," according to King, but we felt they were missing out on an opportunity to bring in new, young customers and use the space in other ways.

We identified three main problems with Blue Hanger Outlets. First, Blue Hanger Outlets lack any cohesive identity, and their connection to Goodwill is unclear or unknown to shoppers. Secondly, they are used solely as bargain-hunting retail spaces and for bulk selling, targeting a narrow demographic and under-utilizing the uniquely mobile and exceptionally large space not available at normal Goodwill retail stores. Finally, 20% of the goods that pass through Blue Hanger Outlets end up in the trash. It is all the more troubling that King expressed regret at this figure, stating that many trashed goods are still useable, but holding onto them any longer than they already do is too costly.

We imagine Blue Hanger Outlets accommodating a variety of large and small-scale events, giving it a new identity, showing the community its tempestuous but necessary relationship with Goodwill retail stores, expanding its consumer base, and ultimately reducing the number of items that end up as trash. The warehouse space can accommodate everything from do-it-yourself workshops and clothing swaps, to a battle of the bands, to dance parties or fashion shows. These events can be held alone or be part of a larger all-day event in the spirit of Swap-O-Rama-Rama (SORR), a clothing swap and do it yourself workshop Goodwill recently partnered with at Maker Faire, an all-day counter culture geek and craft festival. When we told the high school students we interviewed earlier about reusing the Blue Hanger Outlet space to host those types of events, the responses were positive (by teenage standards), ranging from "yeah, definitely" to "yeah."

Events can take place either after normal hours or when the outlet is shut down from its usual retail functions for an all-day event. An all-day event might charge an larger admission fee of anywhere from $5 to $20 to help offset lost revenue. In any case, running two or more of these events concurrently fosters a dynamic, festive interplay between separate events.

Blue Hanger Outlets have completely modifiable floor plans thanks to wheeled tables (at McNeil) and a lack of dividers. Blue Hanger Outlet's tables become band or DJ stages, runways, and DIY workstations. For a SORR-style event, D.I.Y. and sewing stations are set up on tables set back a few feet from the perimeter. They are also the workstations and demonstration areas for volunteer designers and crafters to work on. These designers and crafters can also assist participants with the sewing machines and clothing modifications. Participants are encouraged to modify all the clothing they want using provided sewing machines and tools. Janome, the "world's leading sewing machine manufacturer" currently has an agreement with SORR to provide sewing machines free of charge.

Tables holding clothes to be swapped are arranged with the entrance to the warehouse close by. The clothing to be swapped comes from a combination of Blue Hanger Outlet stock and donations. Additional volunteers help by sorting donations, keeping things tidy and bringing out more clothes from the back as needed. The fashion runway and music stage are tables pushed together with plywood boards on top to make a flat surface. Participants model their own work on the runway. If the fashion show is a contest, it can be judged by audience reaction — whoever gets the loudest cheer is the winner. Prizes could be particularly high-quality donated clothing or Goodwill gift certificates.

Volunteer DJs or bands play either a secondary role as background music for an event like the fashion show or are an event in themselves, like an after-hours dance party or battle of the bands.


Any event held at a Blue Hanger Outlet will require external marketing to draw in new customers, because they currently lack an advertising presence and many potential customers are simply unaware of its existence. So in addition to using traditional advertising like handbills and radio spots, we developed an advertising vehicle consisting of blue hangers to promote Blue Hanger Outlet-specific events. The hangers are printed with a coupon-like incentive to encourage people to bring them in, keeping them out of the trash and recycling them back into the advertising system. They're distributed in a guerilla-style, fly-by-night campaign, standing out against other advertisements like posters. Most importantly, the innate need of such an unusual advertising vehicle to be placed in unorthodox locations helps Goodwill reach a younger audience desensitized to ordinary advertising.

Goodwill benefits from hosting events and advertising Blue Hanger Outlets in three ways. First, these events will make a profit, both directly from charging admission and indirectly from attendees to events returning to shop during normal business hours. Hosting an event at night, when only a handful of staff are needed to accept donations and admission to an event, ensures this. Plywood and fabric for a stage or runway is cheap and reusable and requires little set up time or construction. Advertising events with blue hangers is inexpensive. Secondly, more customers means less stuff ends up in the trash. Blue Hanger Outlets make more money from what gets sold on tables than in bales. Finally, Blue Hanger Outlets get an identity, going from grungy rummage to funky, creative and sustainable. The relationship between Blue Hanger Outlets and Goodwill retail stores become more transparent, which can only serve to strengthen Goodwill's reputation in the community.

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WoW!

Teddy, Mike, Jen Knowles, Kelsey

I think you cute little designers can make yours WAY better!!!