Who'd have imagined that Goodwill would start emerging as a boutique? We're talking online fashion shows, auctions, designer goods, even sale notices in the mail to repeat customers. The CEOs' wives have to do something with those castoffs from last season, and donating them fuels a sense of righteousness that carries them right into their next shopping expedition. The economy may be tanking, but Mrs. Gotrocks is still not going to be seen in the same outfit twice.
Goodwill's transformation is most noticeable in New York, of course, along with Palm Beach and San Francisco and Portland, OR. Proceeds from the stores are still used to train the disabled and disadvantaged.
My all-time favorite Goodwill is in Bartlesville, OK. When I fly there to visit my family I take a single carry-on bag with my laptop, and my purse. Then my sister and I shop the Goodwill for Mom and me. (Mom has a tendency now to stain her clothes and the nursing home laundry sets the stains with hot water.) We get our female bonding thing going, and when we present Mother with her new duds, it might as well be Christmas. Prices are usually in the $4 to $6 range, and there's always a half-price sale going on. I find J. Crew, LL Bean, Ann Taylor...brands that might normally fetch in excess of $40 new. Depending on how much I collect, I pick up either another small carry-on, or a suitcase I can check at the airport, in Goodwill's used luggage department.
Will the boutique movement hit Bartlesville's Goodwill? Considering the poverty level in Oklahoma, I have my doubts. Fine with me. New York and San Francisco can keep their Prada, Armani and Vera Wang.
And if Goodwill gets too chi-chi for me, there's always tianguis.
Photos: vintage sundress and matching hat from Paris, shown in Goodwill Look Book 2008
Mom, now 92, in her flamboyant new outfit from Goodwill. She can hide a lot of stains on the shirt, but the white pants will last, I'm thinking, through maybe one meal.