Grand Opening: Goodwill opens headquarters in Salinas

Bargain-hunters wasted no time digging for second chances at the brand new Goodwill outlet in Salinas.

“It’s a pleasure of mine to be able to take an old thing, take some time, and make it a beautiful thing” said shopper Teresa Lopez.

Friends call Teresa Lopez the Goodwill queen, and here is why: “I do a lot of shopping around. All the way from Santa Cruz, up here though Salinas, to San Jose, Gilroy and Hollister,” Lopez said.

The outlet and Goodwill headquarter relocated to Salinas Monday after it officially closed the Santa Cruz location last week.

And it’s also bringing 100-plus jobs to the area.

Now Lopez can save some of that gas money and put it toward her hobby

“I got a really nice shelf for my garage to store more things for 10 bucks,” Lopez said.

And to move stock quickly, this store is selling everything except furniture by weight, at $1.79 a pound, and 99 cents for 10 pounds or more.

And whenever a large bin is emptied, another one with fresh goods goes out.

Goodwill said this major move is to make its headquarter more accessible to all three counties it serves – Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Luis Obispo.

“Every year, we move about 25 million pounds of donations throughout the three counties, so logistically it makes sense for us. It also helps our salvage operations being closer to Highway 101,” said James Burke, vice president of operations at Goodwill Central Coast.

The opening also drew some thrift-seekers all the way from Santa Cruz.

“I used to live right up the street from the old one. So I will be spending extra time and money on gas and travel time, but I think it will be worth it,” said Mignonne Fish.

Whatever this store doesn’t sell will get recycled, be sold locally or overseas to minimize the amount of waste that goes into landfills.

The store is located at 1566 Moffett St.

Here are the hours of operation:
Monday-Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.