Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993                   TAG: 9305180306
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

UPDATED GOODWILL STORES GO BIG IN ROANOKE VALLEY

Fifteen minutes before the grand opening earlier this month, about 200 people were waiting in line to come inside and snatch up buys like a new pair of running shoes for $20, prom dresses that had never been worn for $25 each and used-but-clean jeans for $2.

U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, agreed to make his speech inside the store early to accommodate the first wave of what turned out to be nearly 2,000 customers walking through the doors May 7 before the store closed at nightfall.

Goodlatte congratulated Goodwill workers for opening the new store at Williamson and Peters Creek roads and for getting the Salem store named Goodwill's best retail operation in 1993 - the first time in 10 years that a Virginia store has won the national award.

The scene was inconceivable when Beaver was hired as Goodwill's regional retail manager three years ago.

The formula was the same then: transforming donated goods and retail sales into jobs for people with disabilities.

But she said the Salem store was a financial and public relations nightmare. The store was in a deteriorating neighborhood with a soaring crime rate and attracted little business.

The store was competing with thrifts run by the Salvation Army, Disabled American Veterans, Rescue Mission and area churches.

In 1990, Goodwill of Southwest Virginia merged with Tinker Mountain Inc., an organization formed in 1974 by parents who wanted to create jobs for their mentally handicapped children.

The new management decided to move the Goodwill to Main Street in Salem across from one of the area's newest shopping centers. They expanded operating hours and designed the store to match the look of discount department stores, with window displays, bright lighting, changing rooms and well-organized clothing racks.

The average number of daily customers shot up from 75 to 180 on weekdays and 300 on weekends. With the improved visibility of the store, average weekly clothing donations increased from 20 to more than 50.

In 1990, sales at the regional Goodwill stores in Salem, Martinsville, Galax and Pulaski were $450,590. In 1992, the Salem store alone had sales of $460,000. The projected revenue for this year at the five stores, including the new one in Roanoke, is close to $1 million.

The retailing strategy is new in Virginia, but has been going on nationally for about seven years, said Jeanne Hamrick, public relations manager for Goodwill of America.

Sales at the 1,354 Goodwill stores in the United States and Canada have been increasing about 8 percent a year since they began moving stores to attract a wider range of shoppers, rejecting substandard clothing and redesigning interiors, Hamrick said.

"The quality is so good now that we consider our competition to be discount retailers," she said.

The success of the Salem store allowed Goodwill to open the second store in the Roanoke Valley and expand its sheltered and supported employment programs, which get about 85 percent of the retail sales revenue.

Before the merger and retail store changes, Tinker Industries was on the brink of collapse, said Clinton Morse, president of Goodwill Industries Tinker Mountain.

"Our sole revenue at Tinker Mountain was contract work for various industries," Morse said. "As competition for this type of work increased because of the tightening economy, particularly from temporary employment agencies, we saw our profit margins diminishing."

However, the recession may be aiding the sales growth at Goodwill stores, Beaver said, with more people donating and buying used clothing.

"People are more aware of the thrifts today than they were years ago," said Beaver, who managed a department store before coming to Goodwill. "Everybody is cost-conscious. It used to be just for the lower-class people. With the economy the way it is, people from the middle and upper class are also out looking for a bargain."