Goodwill - A Store for the Thrifty and Creative

Stereotypes affect people every day. Some people do not go to certain places because of the reputation of the location. For our listening post, my group went to the Goodwill. When we arrived there, already there were signs true to the stereotype that Goodwill has been given. Most of the cars in the parking lot were older ones, many dirty or beat up. It seemed that the only nice cars that approached the building were the ones dropping things off at the side enterance where the donation box is located.

Photo by: Megan Holt

Inside the store, we observed the people. Mostly older people populated the store. The few kids that were there belonged to a younger hispanic mother shopping for clothes for them while they ran around and played with the toys in the back of the store. She looked sad, worn out, maybe even tired. Because Goodwill has a reputation for being a store where people of low income shop, it was obvious why it does not get much media attention outside of asking for donations. People in the store were common civilians. Most seemed to be aimlessly wandering around the store. While listening to many of their conversations, people were either shopping for clothes that they could alter and wear or make adaptations to in order to make it work for an intended purpose.

Photo by: Megan Holt

Even though the reputation for Goodwill seems to sit true, I gained admiration for the people there. What the media fails to see in these people are the facts that they are creative, thrifty and do not need to spend a lot of money to dress nicely and appear "business like". People do not need labels to be respected. Instead of focusing on the negative connotations of Goodwill, the media should highlight the creativeness of the atmosphere. The old expression, "what is one man's trash is another man's treasure" holds truth. As we walked to the back of the store, I overheard an older man who was examining a glass candalabra and brainstorming outloud how he could adapt it to make his wife a homemade anniversary present. Clearly, the media could write stories on how people created unique, one-of-a-kind crafts just from Goodwill supplies and little money.

Instead of relating crime and sympathy to those of the low income crowd, the media should relate positive beats to these people. Again, they could focus on how much money they save on clothes compared to the man living "high and mighty". Maybe talk about how the average "Joe" down the street turned his small out of house business making jewelry from broken broaches bought at the Goodwill store into a multi-million dollar internet business.

One of the biggest flaws of the media is that we get stuck in a rut when certain classes of people obtain stereotypes and we continue to cover the same types of stories for that community. If government housing is covered by the media most of the time they are stories about crimes or drugs. They forget that everyone has potential and they are just as average as the next guy. Maybe the media could focus more on the positives rather than the negatives.

Photo By: Megan Holt