A sign in the window of the Goodwill at 1704 Second Avenue (between East 88th and East 89th streets) says the store will be closing on February 5, advising customers to instead visit the location at East 61st and First Avenue.
The store is no longer accepting drop-off donations, and while we were there, several customers had to turn around in surprise with donation bags in their hands.
This closing follows the shuttering of the Goodwill on West 72nd Street back in September, at which time, window signage suggested customers go to the about-to-close outpost on Second Avenue.
Advertisement
The closest available thrift store that accepts drop-offs of clothing and other items is Housing Works, which has a location just a block away at 1730 Second Avenue at East 90th Street. The store has a great selection of used furniture, records, books, housewares and clothing. Proceeds go to benefit those affected by homelessness and HIV/Aids.
The second closest thrift location, Unique Boutique, is located at 1674 Third Avenue between 93rd and 94th streets and has a large selection of clothing and household goods. They say they strive for “Quality over Quantity; Classic rather than Trendy; Eclectic rather than Common.”
A third nearby option is Thrift NYC, which opened last year at 305 East 84th Street between First and Second avenues. They don’t have a website, but you can follow them on Instagram to see some of the vintage items they carry.
Were you unable to find out why a store where all merchandise is donated was closing?
Greedy Landlord Syndrome?
Moving elsewhere?
Development of site?
Employees ‘re-directing’ too much worthwhile merchandise (might that be why they never seemed to have anything despite ever-presence of interesting looking donations which mysteriously never seemed to make their way onto the shelves?
Whenever I tried to ask about things I wanted to buy, their managers would always get extremely cagey and pretend that despite having nothing on their shelves, they weren’t ready to sell merchandise yet!
Or maybe their managers didn’t know how to price anything so they put all worthwhile merchandise on eBay? That will kill a thrift SHOP stone dead, I suppose?
Or are they moving elsewhere?
Yeah, they generated a whole lot of bad will by taking in huge amounts of stuff and sending it ALL over to some central processing facility on the West Side (similar to Salvation Army) who sent almost none of it back for re-sale. It would be interesting trying to figure out where it all went.
I once had an interesting discussion with their manager when I went in looking for a baby stroller. He said they are prohibited from taking such items in any more. He said that if any do somehow come in, they have to be thrown away. Seeing one on the floor which had just been donated, I said “how about that one?” When he was forced to confirm that they were throwing it away, I offered both to take it AND to make a money donation.
I wonder why he refused? Can it be that I was interfering with his ‘plans’ for it?
Is losing a Goodwill store any big loss to the community now? The one at 61st Street is almost exclusively clothes.
100% correct. The good stuff likely gets skimmed off the top by the top brass.
I can remember when the East 70s and 80s, mostly on 2nd and 3rd avenues and between them, had a large amount of thrift stores offering a great variety of merchandise. Most are now gone. Due to higher rents or ? ‘
I used to shop at them often even though I don’t lived in the area. There are still some thrift stores on the upper west side and other parts of Manhattan.