Goodwill; My Job as a Pricer

 Continuing with my experience working in a Goodwill Store in 1970 as my two year Conscientious Objector service:

    Working at the Goodwill was a fascinating job.  I liked the people I worked with, and the job itself was interesting, because as a pricer, I never knew what kind of items would be put in front of me to price.  Most of it was just ordinary common household items, but often, really unusual and antique objects came in.

    In the morning, I worked with Dennson.  Together, we would wheel the little pedestal/desk around as we priced each piece of furniture, and the bigger electrical items such as stoves, televisions, and fridges. To get me trained up, he would determine what the price should be, and I would fill out the tag, recording the price on the inventory sheet and then to tape the price tag to the item before moving on to the next. 

                Each of the 7 stores had an assigned area, demarcated on the floor with yellow paint, and after the article was priced, we had to decide what store to send it too, and I then to moved the thing to that store’s area, so that later in the afternoon, the truckers could pick it up and load it onto a truck to deliver to that store.  I got lots of exercise man-handling, sofas, box spring and mattress sets, and stoves.

    After pricing the furniture our next job was to price the smaller electrical items.  A shelved cart was wheeled out, full of electric mixers, toasters, radios, lamps of all descriptions, hair dryers, electric shavers, hot plates, waffle irons, etc.  I’m sure you get the picture.   Again we would price each piece, determine which store to send it to, put it into a wheeled box, and I would push the box over to the appropriate store area marked on the floor.  

    I didn’t have any experience pricing items, but I soon learned sort of a basic price for things, and if the item in front of me was of higher quality, or in better shape, it got a higher price.  And if it had some noticeable damage or if it was was of lower quality or brand, it got a lower than the norm price.  

    One day a oldish primitively-made wardrobe was sitting on the pricing floor.  It was not very well constructed, and looked crude, and pretty basic, so I priced it accordingly.  I think I priced it about $35.  Later, wiry old, Hezzie Axsom, who was the head of the Furniture Repair Shop, came walking toward me, waving wardrobe’s  price tag in the air.

    “You’ll have to put a higher price on this wardrobe,”  he said, then walked me over to it and directed my attention to it’s back.  He pointed out the two thick, broad planks, it was made of.  “These planks are clear walnut wood, you can’t even buy pieces of walnut this wide anymore,” he pointed out.  Hezzie thought a more appropriate price would be $75, so I wrote out a new price tag, and sent it out with its new status.  I did wonder if any of the Goodwill shoppers would have noticed or cared about the walnut planks on the back.

    Note:  The photo is not of the wardrobe I have written about.  The wood of the one I saw didn’t have all of the fancy grain and was much cruder in its design, finish, and construction.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca