Mahoning Valley Goodwill reopens after $100,000 in renovations
After being closed for about a month for renovations, Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries reopened one of the Mahoning Valley’s busiest locations for drop-off donations and shopping.
Heather Yeager, director of retail operations, and Joe Catullo, marketing and relationship coordinator, recently welcomed guests to the new-and-improved Goodwill in Boardman.
The store reopened Feb. 5, with a special appearance from YAGI, Goodwill’s new mascot.
“We added all new flooring, all new shelving, fresh paint. We removed some fitting rooms to open the store up to allow us to place more product on the floor,” Yeager said. “It’s much more shopper-friendly now for our customers. We added a new processing area by expanding our back room, and it’s made everything a lot easier for our employees.”
According to Yeager, the entire renovation project cost $100,000 and included new signage to welcome guests.
“This is our busiest location for donations, for customers, and the new processing area will make things a lot easier for our employees to get the donations priced and brought to the floor for our customers,” Yeager said. “We just needed to improve the store for our customers’ experience.”
Yeager said he plans to be there long term, so he wanted to make it a better shopping experience for not only donors, but also for shoppers.
The Boardman community has shopped at this Goodwill since 2007.
“We couldn’t have done this without the support of our customers and donors,” said Shelley Murray, Goodwill CEO. “Their patience throughout January and early February has meant the world to us, and we are excited to welcome them back to a better shopping experience.”
Across the country, there are thirty thousand people with disabilities who found a job at Goodwill.
“We help employees with barriers to employment. We have people that work at our plant - they sort through clothes,” Yeager said. “They hang clothes and tag clothes. We have a laundry department.”
“We have employees with barriers in several of our stores,” he added.
Visit Goodwill from 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon - 5 p.m. on Sunday at 285 Boardman-Canfield Road in the Boardman Plaza.
