Goodwill NYNJ Store & Donation Center — Local services in Town of Brunswick

I grew up thrifting out of Cleveland, pretty much multiple weekly trips to thrift shops including Goodwill over the last decade. Moved to Troy in 2020 and have been visiting this particular Goodwill NYNJ almost every weekend. From what I can tell, the staff here works hard. There are a few notable staff like the woman that always cordially thanks you for shopping and the young woman who pretty much always working the register or running around trying to help out. In addition, there is the elderly woman who is often sitting in her car smoking 15-30 mins before they close, not necessarily helping out. In the roughly 100 visits to this location, I have seen her letting the rest of the staff deal with the difficulties of the closing 30 mins only ~5-10 times but nonetheless it was hard not to notice. The staff is largely positive, but a mixed bag. Do not let the disgruntled 1-star reviewers let you think this is the worst location or that no-one here cares, some of them try very hard to make shopping there a positive experience. In terms of shopping for clothing, organizing by colors is a controversial choice. Not my favorite but I have come to like the way the men's clothing section is arranged by color. This may be more difficult for the women's clothing as there is a greater number and variety of clothes to sort through, but be aware this is the sorting system they use. The color tags that are discounted on Saturdays (the day I most-often visit) are often useless. It may be that my style never overlaps with the discount, or possibly there is another reason I have NEVER found something that coincides with said discount, but I am always a bit turned off at the idea of having to study which tags will be discounted throughout the week and formulating my schedule around Goodwill. Anyways, broad strokes are that this system is unintuitive, and not very fruitful for Saturday shoppers. Shopping for home goods/paintings - Trying to find artwork or home items at goodwill can depend a lot on your motivation. If you thrift these items to turn a profit, you will have to stick it out and visit every day to see what is new. This location isn't really a goldmine of untapped potential, often times they seem to have mixed bag of appropriately prices and questionably overpriced items. Though despite this, I have found many interesting books, home items, and pieces of artwork. Usually this location will have pretty much any home item you may need IF you're willing to wait it out. The longest it has taken me to find a very particular home-goods item (small cast iron skillet) was a matter of 5ish months. What was really great was that it cost only ~$6. This same principle applies to men's shoes. Just a waiting game until you find something you enjoy. Finally the Goodwill card - I have seen more fruitful reward systems elsewhere, but I once saved up enough points to get $6 (i think?) off of a purchase, and it seems to be the only time from memory in which I was pleasantly surprised with a discount. Scan that bad boy every time and maybe you will save a couple bucks, don't be too hopeful though.

Overall, this review is truly that of a 3-star review. I rate it 4-stars primarily because of the Goodwill mission, but also because of the hardworking staff.

Possible improvements: Maybe make it a priority for a single staff member to help out with the door when people are donating Drop your prices - just a bit, I have seen the same items of clothing and home goods on the shelf for a long time now. Move the merchandise better and you'll bring in more business. I find it hard to believe you really need to charge $20 for the same aux speaker setup my parents had hooked up to the old Windows98 dial up computer. Color tag system - ???? I don't need homework, why are your color tags always not the clothes I pick out. Please switch it up, I cant be the only one who...

Troy store has Terrible management rude and unprofessional (cashiers usually very nice tho)& Prices way too high actually outrageous!!!! It’s donations, sell it as thrift prices I can go to the store and buy half the stuff new for the price marked or way better They say if it’s a brand name the price is higher. That’s unacceptable. It’s used donations wake up!!! Then They use another lame excuse that people probably resell is why they raised prices. That is none Of their business what someone does with something after they buy it is how I feel. If they do more power to them maybe they can use the $. I will never support this store again! They lost their way of their mission. It’s very disappointing. Every time I go in this particular store I have an issue I go to have an I wind time and leave with a headache One of my worst was I went in one day with a brand new outfit on my purse happens to be matching which was a coach backpack. I was stopped at the door entering and told they need to hold my bag. I look around the store and 5 other people had backpacks on and they were shopping. It was disgusting and then because I reminded her it was wrong what they were doing, the manager went around the store embarrassing everyone to bring their bags up too. No signs nothing indicating this new rule. I have shopped there regularly for...

Can’t say I’m a fan. I donate a car load of (nice, good condition) stuff every time a move, and in three other states when I pulled up to a goodwill donation center the donation staff came outside and helped me unload the car and hauled it inside. Here I got there and had to walk inside the donation center myself, and ask a worker who was sorting where I’m supposed to put stuff. she then showed me how to sort everything out for goodwill, and went back to sorting. I saw 4 other employees milling about, not paying me any attention. No one even helped hold the door while I made 8 trips inside to dump everything, even though my hands were full and opening and holding a door was difficult. Had I not wanted to get this stuff out of my car I would have just turned around and found elsewhere to put it. The woman sorting gave me hell about the books I was donating, and demanded multiple times I attest that they weren’t dictionaries. They weren’t. They were a mix of non-fiction history books and fiction books, good condition and new and popular titles. They will make money off this stuff, especially since you walk inside and find they’re asking $8 for a $5 shower curtain. This place is whack. Won’t ever donate here again. I’d sooner dump everything off at one of those scam donation bins in parking...