A 50 Pound Bargain

What we came home with....

Everyone has their weakness.  Maybe yours is chocolate  or shoe shopping or Facebook. 

Mine is bargain hunting, and recently Hubby and I hit the bargain jackpot.  Our city boasts a “Goodwill Outlet Store”, which we visited for the first time on Monday (we both had the day off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the boys were in daycare).  To say we were a little bit leery would be an understatement, but we’ll try anything once – so off we went.

Don’t be put off by the idea of an outlet for second hand items.  We don’t know what criteria they used to determine what goes to this outlet versus what goes to the traditional stores, but we know that we are definitely going back again!  The quality was surprisingly good.  The store was clean.  The employees friendly and helpful. 

The set up is much different than any other store you will ever visit.  Rows of long tables (which are really more tubs than tables) stretch across a warehouse of a room.  Each of the tables is full of stuff.  Everything is mixed together willy-nilly.  Toys, books, movies, dishes, holiday decorations etc all jumbled together.  You have to dig for the good stuff.

And dig, we did.  By the time we were ready to check out, we each had a cart full.

Instead of being priced by the item, shoppers are charged by weight.  There are price breakpoints, so the more you buy the less your per pound price is.  The first time we went to the check-out, the (very nice) cashier suggested that we might go back and get a little more as we’d end up saving several dollars by collecting enough to reach the next break point (our loot was just shy of 50 pounds at that point!)

We did indeed go back to the tables and found enough to put us over that 50 pound mark.  Don’t quote me on this, but I think we ended up paying 59 cents per pound (before tax).

Are you curious about what we found?  Well, here’s a partial list of our take for the day:

Roaster pan

Pyrex bread pan

Projector Lullaby toy

Thomas the Train Wooden Railway pieces: 2 engines, 2 cars, & 18 pieces of track

Fire truck (with lights, sounds, extending ladder and hose that really shoots water)

Toy Fireman bullhorn (siren noises)

Toy Fire extinguisher

Toy Ambulance (w/ lights and sounds)

Fire truck floor puzzle

John Deere tractor floor puzzle

Six children’s books

Two purses

Melissa & Doug cardboard blocks 

Fisher Price Monkey toy

Child’s Pumpkin Halloween costume

Christmas ornamental train (lights up – still in original box – never opened)

Christmas tree ornament

Vintage Peanuts Christmas wrapping paper in original package

Bag of embroidery floss in many different colors, all in original paper bands – never opened

"Santa Collector" sign

Baby Bib

Baby keys

Three photo albums

Buzz Lightyear

brown pitcher (pottery – simply lovely)

Bugs themed magnetic book with magnets

Brain Quest: America set

Rubber Brontosaurus

Winter hat for Hubby

So, what are we going to do with all this stuff?  Well, we have two little boy birthdays coming this summer, and some of the better stuff is going to be held till then.  Other items are going to serve as Potty Training and other Good Behavior reward items.  Others may end up on eBay.  Some of the items are for us, and we will use them soon (Pyrex bread pan -I'm talking to you).  Even if a lot of these items end up in the garage sale we're planning to have this Spring, we'll more than get our money back.

If you live near one of these outlets, I'd highly recommend checking it out.  If your experience is like ours at all, you will not be sorry!

Note: The puzzles had all their pieces.  Everything that needed batteries, had them and all worked!  Every item was in good to excellent condition, many items brand new.