Goodwill Store: Waterville

I enjoyed the shopping experience at the Waterville, Maine Goodwill at least once a week, if not more. I have always found the store to be clean, well organized, well stocked with seasonally appropriate merchandise. While the prices on products and merchandise have increased over the past year, I do understand the cost of supporting their local programs within the community and with children’s camps have gone up considerably. And if something is priced beyond, my financial means, I obviously don’t buy it and don’t leave negative feedback About it. Pam, the store manager along with Brandi, Ryan, Kiesha , and Carrie and they are team members all of which I apologize I don’t know all by name, but do include Julie, Scottie, Brooke, Carlo, Deb and numerous others who always greet me, always thank me for supporting their program, are very engaging and very hard-working folks within the community. I appreciate the efforts of the Goodwill in Waterville, Maine.

I used to really like going to this particular Goodwill, but after today I don't think I'll be returning. On top of the ever rising prices and dwindling selection, I had an atrocious interaction with a manager whose name I unfortunately don't remember (she has glass and short, grey hair). I wanted to use a gift card that I received a while back after returning some goods, and it wasn't ringing through at the register. No big deal, the cashier was super nice and helpful, but the manager that they called treated me like I was a criminal. She looked at me as though I stole the gift card, and then accused me of having an attitude with her while I was answering her questions, even going so far as to scoff and laugh at me. I'm autistic, so often times even when I'm not mad I can accidentally come across as irritated, and she didn't even let me explain this before cutting me off with further accusations. I left what I was going to purchase and the gift card behind and walked out because I was getting overwhelmed. Absolutely horrible de-escalation skills on her part, she shouldn't be in a management position whatsoever. If you're going to shop there, try not to interact with her - the rest of the staff are great though!

I'm going to list both the good and bad things I've seen at this store. . The good things: . Goodwill has a very large selection of clothing, the store is very clean, and overall the employees are very nice. They also have deals every day which vary depending on the day. . The bad things . Unfortunately I have to give this store a 3 out of 5 for multiple reasons. Being someone who attempts to learn about cool items you can find used at goodwill I am constantly looking at books, electronics, board games, and toys to add to my personal collections. My problem is: every time I'm here, local resellers pick this place clean every time I'm here. So the only thing that's left usually is the items that goodwill has marked way too high that the resellers left because they couldn't make a quick buck. Which brings me to my next thing: pricing. Many items that should be marked up to prevent resellers are priced too low, and many items that can't easily be resold and should be low for the average customer are marked way too high. Unfortunately I've seen and heard of resellers posting what they just bought from goodwill on Facebook or Craigslist in order to make a quick buck. In my opinion, those are dollars that should be in goodwills hands, not the local resellers. My other complaint is that it's rather challenging to find big and tall shirts, jackets, and sweatshirts. Some things are priced so high that it's actually cheaper to buy them new at the original store they came from. Overall I wish more research was done on items before they're put out for sale. That way it puts more money in goodwills hands, saves money for the average customer, and less money in the local resellers hands. . Now with that being said, your store still does a lot of good for this community: so thank you.