Goodwill Industries-Manasota

This is a very busy store. They have some good deals but expect to spend some time in checkout.

great store w/​very helpful staff. Was there over the holidays and they had a bunch of kids/​employees singing gospel songs up front and it was FABULOUS! found a pre-​lit Christmas tree there for $ 8.99 and a big bag of ornaments for $ 4.99! Would go back here in a NY minute!

I always try to hit this place up when visiting the in-​laws. Lots of high-​end: the «boutique» section is very nice and actually overflows to several cases of jewelry and shoes plus additional apparel along the south wall of the store (near the shoe section). Prices for boutique items are higher, but still fair. The rest of the store is also always super clean and well-​organized. They organize items by type like most Goodwills, but also sub-​categorize by size AND color, which totally blows my mind and saves me the time of going through entire racks! Housewares and furniture are generally just ok but there are often some kitschy gems. Protip: go to the Manasota Goodwill website before visiting — there’s generally a coupon (e.g., $ 5 off $ 25).

Go inside and check out the goodwill boutique. Name brads in good condition and at a decent price.

I dig this place. always seem to find something here. Only thing wrong is so do alot of people and you have to be here at the right time and visit often to get anything. Prices a bit high but not terrible.

I’m pretty impressed by this Goodwill location. The retail area is quite large and there’s an impressive volume of merchandise on the sales floor. I spent quite a bit of time wandering through the different «departments» and found all sorts of things – wall art, furniture, books, movies, records, bikes, lawn care equipment, housewares, shoes, purses, golf clubs, table and bed linens, pet supplies and of course clothing.
I visited today (Saturday), about mid-​day and was pretty overwhelmed by the number of customers in the store. Luckily, the parking lot is plenty large enough to comfortably accommodate the Saturday shopping crowds. I was warmly greeted by a number of staff members (even outside the store), which was nice.
What really impressed me was the fact that every area of the store was well organized and extremely tidy, even with loads of customers wandering through and tossing things about. I saw quite a few staff members tidying up the aisles all across the store. Not only were they actively tidying throughout the day, but it was clear that management had really put some thought into things at this location. For example, the shoes were all lined up by size, with the sizes clearly marked on tags inside each pair. I’ve never purchased shoes at Goodwill, but if all locations took the time to mark sizes this way, perhaps maybe one day I would! Also, all of the kitchen towels and table linens were hanging neatly on individual hangers, making it a breeze to see them without making a mess. I noticed that many of the cups, dishes, and other housewares were sorted not only by type, but also by color. How lovely!
I found a bin of kitchen tools that was practically begging to be searched. As I dug through the container I came across a wonderful gelato scoop embossed with the words «made in Italy». How perfect! A close examination of the price tag revealed the date Aug 1, 2013. I can only guess that the date may indicate when the item was processed. I found this item at the bottom corner of the large bin, and the date was only 2 days prior to my visit. I examined more tags and found quite a few recent dates. Of course I’m guessing at this point, but this leads me to believe that if so many items have been placed on the sales floor so recently, merchandise must move fast here. The way I see it, this means there will be plenty of new items to see the next time I’m here!
I observed that the register lines got quite long and moved slow at times, but otherwise found no issues. Overall, today’s Goodwill excursion was successful!