- Goodwill has opened a new boutique store on the Upper West Side of New York City.
- The new location is targeted at millennials, and all the clothing and accessories sold there are hand-picked by stylists from donations made to stores across the metro area.
- We recently visited the store to see what it’s like to shop there.
Millennials are more bargain-hungry than ever, and Goodwill stores want to capitalize on it.
This week, the thrift-store chain launched a concept store in New York called “Curated by Goodwill NYNJ.”
Located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the new boutique store is designed to appeal to millennials with a curated assortment of fashion-conscious clothing, accessories, and homeware.
“We designed Curated as a distinct shopping experience to introduce shoppers concerned with the waste and pollution that fast fashion causes, to a stylish, affordable alternative,” Katy Gaul-Stigge, the CEO of Goodwill NYNJ, said in a statement to the press this month.
Stylists hand-pick the clothing and accessories from donations made to stores around the New York metro area, a spokesperson told Business Insider.
The resale and thrift-store market has thrived in recent years. These stores align perfectly with millennials' shopping preferences for bargains and environmentally conscious practices.
But millennials aren't only shopping at thrift stores - they're also leading to a boom in donations.
"We are definitely getting overrun with furniture and about 20% more donations of everything than in previous years," Michael Frohm, the chief operating officer of a Goodwill thrift store in Greater Washington, told The New York Timesin August 2017.
As many young people are waiting longer to buy their first home, they may not have the space to inherit their parents' furniture.
"We value a mobile lifestyle," Erin Hendrickson, a minimalist expert who runs the blog Minimalist RD, told Business Insider in February. "We aren't living in 2,500-square-foot homes, so don't have space."
We recently paid a visit to Goodwill's new millennial-focused store. Here's what it was like to shop there:
The new store is located on the Upper West Side. The nearest traditional Goodwill store is a 10-minute walk away.
It feels significantly smaller than some of the other Goodwill stores in New York, and it's instantly obvious that the assortment here has been curated with a specific shopper in mind: the fashionable millennial.
Still, there was a variety of customers shopping the store when we visited.
Womenswear is front and center.
The layout is easy to shop ...
... as mismatched items are grouped together by color.
It feels a lot like a trendy thrift store that you might find in the East Village, only more affordable.
All the clothing and accessories here are selected specifically for this location.
This means that it doesn't feel like a dumping ground for unwanted products.
We came across lots of well-known brands such as Puma, Vans, and Nike.
At the back of the store was a small homeware section. The focus was on smaller, decorative pieces of decor that would be suitable for urban living.
We have a group of students to thank for this new location. The idea came about after Goodwill asked business fashion students to come up with a new concept to adapt to changing shopping habits. The students were awarded $10,000 for their idea.
Goodwill's business model has been popular among younger shoppers as it perfectly fits in with millennials' beliefs about sustainability and environmentally conscious living.
As fashion becomes faster, trends go out of style more quickly, and fashion becomes more disposable.
Some shoppers are becoming more conscious about the impact of shopping at fast-fashion stores, which has driven a trend of millennials shopping in and donating more to thrift stores.
This tendency has led to an increase in both shopping and donating at these stores.
