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Goodwill opens St. Albert thrift shop

Non-profit spreads the good through being a good employer, keeping useful items out of the landfill, and changing the world for the better with every little thing it does.

The city’s thrift shop landscape is about to open up in grand fashion on Monday morning with non-profit Goodwill Industries’ newest retail location.

The store, coming to the former Rona location that has been vacant for the last year, will feature 17,000+ sq. ft. of sales floor area filled with approximately 125,000 individual items and staffed by a contingent of more than 60 new employees.

True to its philosophy of building capacities and building relationships, CEO and president Dale Monaghan said that this store – the biggest in Canada and one of the largest across North America, making it practically a flagship location – is going to do as much for the city as the city and its residents are going to help it with its triple mandate of being responsible to people, planet and performance.

“We're excited about St. Albert for many reasons. Big key critical ... the relationship with the brand of St. Albert. Goodwill stands for environmental stewardship, sustainability, exciting community development, and creating opportunity for people that sometimes don't have opportunity, all through a very professional organization,” he began.

“I believe that lines up with St. Albert's vision for a great living community.”

Goodwill is known as a champion of people with disabilities, and a champion of the environment. It strives for a diverse, inclusive workplace that operates at zero waste – “unheard of in thrift retail,” Monaghan says – thanks to its Impact Centre in west end Edmonton. There, employees gain the skills to refurbish loved but broken and blemished furniture, even turning old hotel towels into individual cloths, and put everything back into saleable, usable condition. At the same time, it maximizes the lifespan so that production demands less of the world.

“We're a social enterprise: we're a nonprofit where profits are geared towards again creating capacity and opportunity and people," Monaghan continued, noting that each store is independent so everything that is created as an opportunity stays in the city.

Elsewhere, unsellable plastic items are machine-ground into snowflake-sized pellets and shipped to a company in southern Alberta to be turned into park benches.

“We recycle things you wouldn't imagine, and we do things that you wouldn't even believe."

It’s all part of Goodwill’s mission of sending good will with every little thing it does. The century-old organization primarily operates so that nearly 90 per cent of funds raised from purchases at Goodwill go back into programs to help those with disabilities find and gain meaningful employment. It was a 2019 Canadian Nonprofit Employer of Choice (NEOC) Award winner. Monaghan says that ranks it alongside Costco in Canada when it comes to employee satisfaction.

"We believe that our team members are our greatest assets," Monaghan averred.

To drive that point home, store manager Tina Hauck took the Gazette behind the scenes. There, off of the lunchroom, Goodwill has established a quiet private room for prayer and for relaxation, complete with a zero gravity chair, just to make sure the store's employees are well taken care of physically and spiritually.

"It all comes down to sharing the good," she said.

In 2019, it also won an Emerald Award for furthering its social cause while demonstrating a significant commitment to the environment through its actions. It recycles stuffed animals for insulation in Saudi Arabia. It recycles shoe rubber by sending it to cannabis farms in Medicine Hat because it helps worms to grow and make bigger castings for the plants. It even recycles cigarette butts, selling it to a company in Ontario that turns it into hardening agents for plastic pallets. For things it can't resell, such as ceramics and glass products, it sends to a women's co-op in Central America, which still helps further its social mandate.

"Instead of landfill because we can't recycle it or we couldn't sell it, we're creating employment in other parts of the world for vulnerable people too. That's part of the zero waste: find a place for it no matter what," Monaghan continued.

Crowds are expected when the store at 730 St. Albert Tr. (right next to the north Save On Foods) opens at 10 a.m. on April 5. Goodwill will also accept donations on site, as well as at its longstanding Donation Centre in Tudor Glen Mall on the south end of St. Albert.

Hauck said she and her staff would be ready for good weather and a good lineup. She said supporting a non-profit is supporting the community.

"The thing I think for me that is so important is that people understand where to donate and why. We are a non-profit. That's the biggest thing: knowing what happens with your stuff."


Scott Hayes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

About the Author: Scott Hayes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Ecology and Environment Reporter at the Fitzhugh Newspaper since July 2022 under Local Journalism Initiative funding provided by News Media Canada.
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