Goodwill Closing

[Occasionally]

All of these types of thrift stores are scams.

They try to give a public image of charity and such, but they are no different than any other store out there trying to make a buck. The key difference is that other businesses focus on new products, which have immediate normal costs to purchase. Thrift stores get lots of their stuff free from the public, or they do purchase super cheap stuff (I'll be the first to admit that if you need cheap Halloween gear like make up and wigs Value Village is great!). They resell it at low prices. The sales price is low, but the cost of goods are pretty much zero.

These places will give a message like..... "we earn money so we can offer people jobs" and things like that. So what? So does every other business out there from McDonald's to Microsoft.

Also, for some reason these types of businesses also pay out their top management TONS of money. You'd think a business trying to give an impression of thrift would scale their executives to the lower end of the scale for sake of principal and trying to save money for good purposes, but they are no different than any other business. Pay out the front liners minimum wage, pa the glass office guys millions.

Another thing that is weird is that they don't pick up furniture. I moved years back and had a bunch of used couches, bookshelves and such I wanted to get rid of as I wanted to buy new stuff when I moved in. All in good condition.

They said no. If I want to donate it I'd have to drop it off myself. LOL. Yeah, I'm going to have a moving truck stop off at a Goodwill to drop off some furniture and then drive to the new place. I have $2,000 worth of matching stuff I originally bought they could probably sell for $500 and they declined. So be it. I ended up giving most of it away to buddies. Only a few boring looking bookcases nobody wanted so I took them apart and threw it out.

I guess they prefer sifting through garbage bags full of used clothes.

 

[Occasionally]

I don't get how something like this happens.

According to the article, their expenses exceed their revenues by 5 percent. WTF, that's an easy fix to me. Also according to the article, there is someone on staff making 250 k per year. I'm going to guess that that someone is Keiko Nakamura. 250k a year to run a not for profit is excessive in my humble opinion.

One thing is for sure, Keiko got her ass fired from the City of Toronto (hard to do) and now drove an 80 year old company into the ground. I think her resume is going to look like shit and she may have to adjust her outlook a bit as to her remuneration with her next job. (Do you want fries with that)

Putting a government worker to run a non-government business is recipe for disaster.

That's why most private companies don't touch government workers. But some reason Goodwill did. Lesson learned.

 

[Occasionally]

Well well well.

Elect Wynne, and elect Trudeau and his sunny ways, a company like Goodwill goes under. Like, what gives?

Goodwill only has two expenses, rent and to pay salary. They don't pay for their inventory because that's donated.

Gee, how do you run a company like that into the ground, and after 80 years! Lets see, 2016 subtract 80 is 1936 - like my gawd, that was still the Great Depression.

Who owns Goodwill? Are they listed on the TSE?

According to articles, Goodwill also gets $4 million worth of government funding. Doing some rough math....

Assuming a full time retail employee makes $30,000 (articles say the avg Goodwill employee makes $14/hr), $4 million pays for the equivalent of 133 full time retail workers. With 16 locations, that's like employing 8 full time clerks per store per year on government dime.

 

[peteeey]

Forecast for today is the coldest day of winter, along with snow squalls. Are you blaming Wynne and Trudeau for that, too?

Well well well.

Elect Wynne, and elect Trudeau and his sunny ways, a company like Goodwill goes under. Like, what gives?

Goodwill only has two expenses, rent and to pay salary. They don't pay for their inventory because that's donated.

Gee, how do you run a company like that into the ground, and after 80 years! Lets see, 2016 subtract 80 is 1936 - like my gawd, that was still the Great Depression.

Who owns Goodwill? Are they listed on the TSE?

 

[FAST]

And those famous last words,..."union says,..."

FAST

 

[IM469]

Forecast for today is the coldest day of winter, along with snow squalls. Are you blaming Wynne and Trudeau for that, too?

Well they are elected and it is snowing and cold - obvious bang on reasoning. I forgot my coffee thermos too ... obviously yet another Wynne / Trudeau based fiasco.

 

[KBear]

obviously yet another Wynne / Trudeau based fiasco.

What about Tory. The three amigos.

From the former head of TCHC, seems the only answer is for the stake holders to come forward with support, ie. tax payer funded bailout. Goodwill has no money to pay severance. Thought board members could be held liable for severance pay.

 

[Polaris]

Forecast for today is the coldest day of winter, along with snow squalls. Are you blaming Wynne and Trudeau for that, too?

Exactly my point.

Wynne and Trudeau are not to blame for Goodwill's bankruptcy.

However, the other side of the coin, is something leftist will never understand.

Wynne and Trudeau, are basically powerless to prevent more Goodwill types of bankruptcy from happening elsewhere. Especially right now.

Would really like to hear a reason, any reason for Trudeau's son to say sunny are coming back.

This is the strange part. We are all looking at the same numbers.

Yet the homemaker cum premier and drama teacher cum Prime Minister, both who have no business experience, thinks sunny days are here. The numbers are telling us we're going the other way you know.

But, that is the government line, sunny days.

Goodwill bankrupt! Sunny days! <--- this is not even sarcastic, this is actually what the government believes.

:Eek:

 

[SkyRider]

Here's the thing. Goodwill who gets their merchandise for free is bankrupt but Dollarama who pays for their merchandise is doing great.

BTW: I've donated stuff to Goodwill and other charities such as Value Village, Salvation Army, etc. and sometimes walked inside just for a looksee. It seems almost all the staff are visible minorities. Maybe it's their first or second job in Canada?

 

[peteeey]

And what would Harper or any other Conservative do? How much power would they have that these dreaded "leftists" don't have? The only difference is that a Liberal would have a genuine feeling of regret that this affected the Goodwill employees.

Exactly my point.

Wynne and Trudeau are not to blame for Goodwill's bankruptcy.

However, the other side of the coin, is something leftist will never understand.

Wynne and Trudeau, are basically powerless to prevent more Goodwill types of bankruptcy from happening elsewhere. Especially right now.

Would really like to hear a reason, any reason for Trudeau's son to say sunny are coming back.

This is the strange part. We are all looking at the same numbers.

Yet the homemaker cum premier and drama teacher cum Prime Minister, both who have no business experience, thinks sunny days are here. The numbers are telling us we're going the other way you know.

But, that is the government line, sunny days.

Goodwill bankrupt! Sunny days! <--- this is not even sarcastic, this is actually what the government believes.

:Eek:

 

[MattRoxx]

Goodwill was mismanaged; there's nothing any government can do about that.

Here's the thing. Goodwill who gets their merchandise for free is bankrupt but Dollarama who pays for their merchandise is doing great.

BTW: I've donated stuff to Goodwill and other charities such as Value Village, Salvation Army, etc. and sometimes walked inside just for a looksee. It seems almost all the staff are visible minorities. Maybe it's their first or second job in Canada?

Yes Dollarama has cheap stuff. A few weeks ago their stores were filled with low cost Christmas decorations, and this is an interesting tale of where those goods come from.
http://www.theguardian.com/artandde...a-that-makes-the-worlds-christmas-decorations

 

[FAST]

Does anybody here know what Goodwill stores were closed had in common, verses the ones that were not closed,...???

FAST

 

[GameBoy27]

Here's the thing. Goodwill who gets their merchandise for free is bankrupt but Dollarama who pays for their merchandise is doing great.

Dollarama sells new products. Virtually everything at Goodwill is used junk. That said, I've picked up the odd useful item there.

BTW: I've donated stuff to Goodwill and other charities such as Value Village, Salvation Army, etc. and sometimes walked inside just for a looksee. It seems almost all the staff are visible minorities. Maybe it's their first or second job in Canada?

No surprise there as that goes for Dollarama, Value Village, Tim Hortons or just about any other minimum wage job.

Does anybody here know what Goodwill stores were closed had in common, verses the ones that were not closed,...???

FAST

I'm guessing the ones that are still open are managed by personal friend's of Keiko Nakamura.

 

[FAST]

I'm guessing the ones that are still open are managed by personal friend's of Keiko Nakamura.

Nope, what they have in common is,...the ones closed are unionized, the ones left open, not.

FAST

 

[GameBoy27]

Nope, what they have in common is,...the ones closed are unionized, the ones left open, not.

FAST

Interesting. I wonder what the wage difference was between unionized and non-unionized employees.

 

[FAST]

Interesting. I wonder what the wage difference was between unionized and non-unionized employees.

Don't know,...but its not only wages and fringes, but "work rules" that unions black mail companies into.

FAST

 

[Bud Plug]

Many retailers had a severely disappointing 4th quarter for 2015. Most retailers rely heavily on 4th quarter sales to "make or break" their entire year.

Get ready for a number of other retailers to announce similar closings shortly.

 

[KBear]

Nope, what they have in common is,...the ones closed are unionized, the ones left open, not.

FAST

Though the same CEO managed all the closed goodwill locations, or all her locations are also unionized? Are other Goodwill locations in the GTA still open? Interesting if they specifically closed unionized location. Can laid off employees can go after GoodWill Canada for severance, or are all the locations or a groups of locations independent?

Update on the GoodWill site: http://www.goodwill.on.ca/

"Goodwill has received an outpouring of calls from various stakeholders, including the mayor’s office, provincial government ministries, other community organizations and the public who want to help with the situation we are facing."

The shortfall is only a million dollars, guessing the government/taxpayer will step in with funds.

 

[John Henry]

Well I was watching the news last night on CHCH and they had the Goodwill people from Hamilton on . The Goodwill in Hamilton area are not affiliated with the Toronto Goodwill and guess what , they are doing fine . As a matter of fact the Goodwill in Hamilton is doing so well that it is expanding . No cash problems or anything like that .

So why is it that the Toronto Chapter has a cash crunch problem ??? It's not that hard to figure out . Someone is skimming from the top . Having the CEO making $220,000 a year salary doesn't help either . Wonder what the other board directors are making .

Remember when a big shot from the Salvation Army was caught stealing toys and selling them on the side . Same kind of thing could be happing here . Before any tax money is given to the Goodwill of Toronto the books should be looked at to see exactly what is going on there .

 

[GameBoy27]

Remember when a big shot from the Salvation Army was caught stealing toys and selling them on the side . Same kind of thing could be happening here . Before any tax money is given to the Goodwill of Toronto the books should be looked at to see exactly what is going on there .

Anyone know what happened in that case? I remember hearing something about it wasn't as simple as once thought. The person(s) selling the items were instructed to do so as they had more inventory than they could possibly sell through their outlets. Now if they kept the cash it's obviously theft but it was my understanding that they were simply following orders.