Goodwill Arkansas Builds Momentum: New Stores, Higher Revenue and Growing Services

Brian Marsh, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Arkansas, discusses Goodwill’s free adult high school. At right, Goodwill’s newest store in west Little Rock is under construction and scheduled to open next month. [Karen E. Segrave]

A pair of photos decorating a hallway of Goodwill Industries of Arkansas’ headquarters shows Yessica Guerrero after obtaining a high school diploma through the organization’s Excel Center and another after she obtained her pharmacy tech certification through another Goodwill program.

As a result, she was able to gain employment as a pharmacy tech in Arkansas.

Goodwill President and CEO Brian Marsh said her achievements demonstrate the vision of Goodwill’s operations.

The programming offered to Guerrero and hundreds like her is made possible by donated goods — books, clothing and TVs — that Goodwill turned into $84 million in revenue last year.

The nonprofit’s revenue has risen from $34.9 million in 2017 to more than $68 million in each of the last three years. The rise follows a national increase in consumer interest in thrift goods, according to Marsh, and has allowed the organization to grow its store footprint as well as its programs and services.

On Dec. 18, Goodwill will open its first store that it built from the ground up. The nonprofit normally adapts pre-existing buildings to fit its needs, but with no suitable buildings available in west Little Rock, the organization decided to build a 22,000-SF store near Chenal Parkway and Kirk Road.

Goodwill also expects to break ground on another store in northwest Arkansas in January in the fast-growing city of Centerton. In October, Goodwill also purchased a shopping center in Fayetteville for $9.3 million. The nonprofit already operated a store at the site, but by purchasing the 5.8-acre site with 52,620 SF of retail space, Goodwill assured it would be able to remain in that location.

Sorting Through

Goodwill’s system for turning donated items into revenue — and ultimately, into programs and services like job training — is a streamlined process that starts with employees greeting donors within 15 seconds of arrival at a store or donation site. Employees separate the items, determining what can go on a store shelf or an e-commerce site and what should go in the trash.

The items hit the shelf at the store where they were donated and are given four weeks to sell. The items that don’t sell are sent to a large room resembling a warehouse at the Goodwill headquarters on Interstate 30 in Little Rock. During this salvage process, employees separate out items that can still be sold and place them into large blue containers, commonly called “the bins.” Consumers, many of whom are resellers themselves, sort through items that are sold by the pound.

The items that don’t sell are separated again and some items, like computers, are returned to manufacturers. Other items, like clothing, are packaged together with a baler and sold to a third party that recycles or reuses them.

Building Stores

To meet the growing demand for thrift items, Goodwill is growing its store count and fixing up its stores, including renovating the bathrooms in all of its 33 stores to accommodate both customers and employees.

Marsh jokes that Goodwill typically operates like a hermit crab, acquiring pre-existing buildings and adapting them for its needs. But Marsh said there weren’t any suitable buildings available in west Little Rock, so the organization is building its first store.

Goodwill worked with its longtime building partner, CBM Construction Co. of Little Rock, on design and construction. CBM Vice President Matt Gray said the site work at the location on a steep hill required the removal of 500 truckloads of rocks.

Goodwill bought the land for $3.89 million and incurred construction costs of $7.27 million for the store. In addition to the shopping area, the building will also include a two-lane drive-through donation area and a mission services center where Goodwill can conduct some of its job training and other programming.

For its Centerton location, the organization purchased 2.55 acres late last year with plans to break ground in January and open by the end of 2026.

Thrift Competition

Goodwill faces competition from for-profit thrift companies that accept donated items and resell them. Savers Value Village Inc., commonly known as Savers, reportedly received $755 million in investments from private equity firms in 2019 and went public in 2023. The company operates 176 stores in the U.S., including one in Fort Smith.

Another private company, American Textile Recycling Service, offers collection bins for donated goods and partners with nonprofit organizations, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas.

Marsh said the public may not realize a difference between Goodwill, which uses all of its donations to support programs and services, and for-profit thrift companies that might dedicate only a portion of their revenue to charities.

Marsh said Goodwill would support a “truth in donation” law like one that was enacted in Tennessee 10 years ago. That law requires for-profit thrift companies to display on their bins language noting that the donations support a for-profit business and are not tax deductible. The bins also must inform the public that only a portion of the donation goes to charity.

All Goodwills across the country operate with donated goods, but they all provide different services based on an assessment of the needs in the individual communities. As a result, Goodwill organizations offer something a little different and the public may not know exactly what those programs are, Marsh said. In Arkansas, Goodwill’s programs target education, training and employment.

“Everybody knows who Goodwill is but few know what Goodwill does,” he said.