Goodwill Outlet Center — Local services in Grandville

Older, heavy set, white male that works at this location could really brush up on his communication/people skills. He walks around screaming at everyone. He is so cringe-worthy that I can't even imagine what could be so wrong in his life that would make him have such a horrible attitude. I'd probably hate my life too if I pushed out bins of junk for people to dig through on a day to day basis, but for real- simmer down on the yelling at everyone around you, It isn't that's serious and perhaps try going home and taking some slow deep breaths. Seriously though..

I legitimately witnessed him scream at a younger couple (probably mid 20's) for having their hands on the side of a bin before he gave them the okay. And when I say scream, I mean scream- like your mama used to do when you were younger and she had called for your butt to come upstairs for the 100th time. Full on adult temper tantrum type scream.

I then watched him move onto a probably three or four year old little boy (who was at his parents legs playing with a toy truck of some sort)...He gave a look of disgust and then walked to the front and picked up the speaker and made an announcement for parents with young children to watch their kids and they are not babysitters and yadda, yadda. The kid was being a perfectly well behaved child. And it was the only child in the building at the time, super awkward for those poor parents. This guy is a complete lunatic. Yikes.

Even if this is a decent place to find some good deals, this guy is so obnoxious that it makes you just want to turn and walk right back out the door. He clearly isn't much of a people/person. Perhaps a position sticking strictly to the back area would be best suited for him...Or I don't know, maybe he can try and dig a better attitude out of one of those bins?

Just...

I bought a book off of eBay, and noticed that it was shipping from the Goodwill outlet in Grandville. It's very close to home, so I thought I would go there to pick it up. I went there and picked up the phone as directed and an employee picked up. I told him that I wanted to pick up a book recently bought online, and he told me that eBay orders sometimes take hours to come through. I asked him if he could at least check if it came through since I was standing here. He laughed and said sure. Looked up the book, found it in their inventory. Only one copy there. He said that the order hadn't gone through yet, so he didn't have an invoice and couldn't release the book. I asked him if I could show him my PayPal and eBay payment confirmations, and he laughed again and said "no it doesn't work like that." Um really? It's a $4 book. Not a book of much monetary value. And they couldn't hand it over with proof of purchase? Whatever. Have fun paying to ship it to me.

Edit: A woman from the outlet did call me and apologize. She said that the person who I spoke with was not well versed on e-commerce, and there were other ways that he could have looked it up if he had known how. She thanked me for contacting, and said that this experience opened their eyes to some cross training that needed to be done. She refunded me the cost of my book. Very sweet lady who went above and beyond. I'm changing my review from...

I was surprised to find that, as a bin store, bins seemed to be limited. MANY people were hanging around for the next roll-out. I was impressed by a young man who emerged (prior to my entering) with a couple of large (bit damaged) snowman blow-molds. He was happy and should have been. I wasn't there for long - just checking it out; found out that they are open from 8AM to 8PM, Monday through Saturday. Also realized that within the Grand Rapids district, MOST (not all) of what comes out in the bins in this Grandville location (years ago, it had an annual doll / toy sale - dedicated volunteers - GREAT stuff) is LEFTOVER merch from all of the district stores, that didn't sell. NOT an incentive for me to crawl over dozens of pickers who are looking for the grail. Doubt I'll be back unless the district makes this worthwhile. When I was there, I had two items in my parked cart. When I went to get said cart, I couldn't help but notice a few, quite territorial young women standing next to it, monitoring retrieval of the cart. I wasn't there long at all. I ended up getting a couple of plush items for a small price. I'm not going to participate in a rush for items that were already on the shelf, in all of the district stores, to make a buck. Good luck to the rest of you who do...