What’s the Difference Between a Goodwill Store and a Thrift Store?
Goodwill is a thrift store and nonprofit organization that uses its funds to support local shelters, food banks and other efforts devoted to supporting the community. Thrift stores, buy-outright shops and consignment shops are all considered to be types of resale shops, and each of them has different business formats and motives.
Goodwill is a thrift store organization, and like all thrift stores accepts personal donations on consignment. There are some for-profit resale stores classified as thrift stores, but true thrift stores utilize funds for charities and nonprofit organizations. Instead of receiving compensation for contributions, donors are able to consider their donations tax-deductible as long as the donation is made to a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Compared to buy-outright shops and consignment shops, the prices at thrift stores are usually the lowest.
Consignment and buy-outright shops can be for-profit organizations. Unlike consignment shops, buy-outright shops allow customers to receive money for any goods they bring in. The quality of goods at buy-outright stores is often better than that of consignment shops and thrift stores, because sellers are usually interested in getting as much money as possible for their goods. The way a consignment shop works is the owner sells goods provided by patrons and offers them a percentage of the sales.
