Goodwill Opens In Bentonville

Adeline Patterson, 2, kicks back in a shopping cart Thursday as her mother, Aubrey, searches for clothes for their six-member family during the grand opening of the Goodwill Store and Donation Center in Bentonville.
Adeline Patterson, 2, kicks back in a shopping cart Thursday as her mother, Aubrey, searches for clothes for their six-member family during the grand opening of the Goodwill Store and Donation Center in Bentonville.

— Goodwill Industries of Arkansas continued its expansion in Northwest Arkansas with the opening of a Goodwill store and donation center Thursday in Bentonville.

“We have opened locations in Springdale, Fayetteville, and now this one here in Bentonville,” said Brian Itzkowitz, president of Goodwill Industries of Arkansas.

The Bentonville store at 1400 S. Walton Blvd. will be a retail and donation center, making it unique from Fayetteville and Springdale locations.

“Our Springdale center includes a job training center, and that’s a very important part of what we do in training for jobs and job searches and then finding those jobs,” Itzkowitz said. “Then our Fayetteville location is a donation center. Here in Bentonville, this will be a retail and donation center.

“When you walk in here it shouldn’t feel like a thrift store,” Itzkowitz said. “It should feel like your regular retail store, and that’s what we provide here at Goodwill.”

Ed Clifford, president of the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Bob McCaslin and John Hicks, community relations specialist for Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., attended the grand opening. Clifford said he believes Goodwill should be a beneficial addition to the community.

“It’s a win-win-win all around, really,” Clifford said. “It takes up more space in the shopping center. It creates more jobs and more business.

Goodwill Industries of Arkansas first began its local expansion with the opening of the Springdale location on Dec. 3. The Fayetteville location opened on Dec. 11.

The three new stores have added 65 jobs to the local economy, but possibly more could be added in the future.

“Right now we’re at 65 and that’s our approximation,” said Ginny Wiedower, marketing and communications director for Goodwill Industries. “We don’t see it going below that number and if anything, it could even go up in the future.”

Wiedower said the recent expansion into Northwest Arkansas isn’t so much a result of the recent economy or fluctuation in local poverty, but more due to Goodwill’s overall vision in recent years.

“When Brian took over as president two years ago, he saw a real need to tap into Northwest Arkansas,” Wiedower. “There’s so much growth there and with that growth is a need for the services that Goodwill provides.”

Plans to expand even further in Northwest Arkansas exist, although nothing specific has been determined. Wiedower said Goodwill hopes to add one more retail store and one more donation center, with the retail store possibly in Fayetteville.

“We’re happy to be here,” Itzkowitz said. “It’s kind of strange that the day after Wal-Mart has their big announcement about cutting jobs, we’re here the next day to create jobs. And that’s what we do at Goodwill.”

At this point, Goodwill’s impact in Northwest Arkansas is yet to be determined, Wiedower said.

“We just opened these stores so it’s kind of too soon to see if there’s an impact on the economy,” Wiedower said. “But I do know that our job center in Springdale has been really busy. We were able to see 50 people there last month and of those 50, we got some really solid job placements for eight of them. I think that’s very positive.”

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