By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch Goodwill is launching its latest approach to thrift-store marketing and sales in Graham. A ribbon-cutting ceremony June 16 will formally reveal a new "small-boxGÇ¥ retail format for Goodwill thrift stores. The 6,596 square feet store at 224th Street East and Meridian is the first of what could be as many as five such outlets in smaller communities in southwest and central Washington and the Olympic Peninsula over the next year, according to Goodwill officials. Small-box stores will be larger than a Goodwill "blueGÇ¥ boutique but smaller than the organization's 36 full-size stores in Pierce County and 14 other counties throughout Washington. Shoppers at the Graham store will find women's clothing, purses, shoes and accessories, plus junior's, children's and select men's apparel. Other merchandise will include housewares, small appliances, linens, home decor, art, furniture and toys. Officials said a new interior design that includes signs and an "airy, lit atmosphereGÇ¥ is an effort to make "one-of-a-kind and unique donations easier to shop for." Merchandise will be more organized and visible. Other features will include an electronics testing station and a fitting room. True to Goodwill's role in job placement and education, the store has a job-training kiosk with information on free Goodwill Tacoma programs and career fields. Revenue from merchandise sales "will help fund our four job-training centers within our 15-county region,GÇ¥ said Goodwill spokesman George White. The Graham store's nine part-time and full-time workers will have a local economic impact of $220,000 in wages, taxes and benefits, officials said. They also noted a combined community and environmental impact: Goodwill's business model of turning the public's donations into thrift-store sales to fund employment programs also keeps unwanted household goods from ending up at landfills. Tomorrow's ribbon-cutting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Goodwill's Olympics and Rainier region, which includes the new Graham store, expects to help 10,000 people develop job skills and find employment this year. Of those, officials said, an estimated 3,000 will be offered jobs in office, culinary, construction, barista, catering, retail, custodial, warehouse, transportation and logistics positions through partnerships with 1,300 companies statewide.
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