Crowds flock to northwest valley’s first thrift store

Priscilla Rozek was on the hunt for affordable clothes, and on Friday, she knew exactly where to go.

Rozek was trolling the aisles inside the new Goodwill of Southern Nevada thrift store, at 6765 N. Durango Drive.

"This is a great spot for Goodwill because there isn't anything else in this area for people shopping for low-priced things," said Rozek, a retiree who lives about two miles away from the store. "People have really been looking forward to having something like this in our neighborhood for a long time."

The store is northwest Las Vegas' first thrift store, and the pent-up demand was obvious from the parking lot. Cars spilled over onto nearby vacant lots, and a line of 315 shoppers circled the building before its 9 a.m. grand opening.

Goodwill officials said they expected 3,000 people — equal to the entire staff of the Luxor or Encore Las Vegas — on Friday alone. Total visitation through Sunday would likely reach 5,000. That's compared with a daily Goodwill average of about 200 shoppers, though it's not out of line with other recent openings, said Chris Matlock, vice president of retail and operations.

The store's early success wasn't a big surprise to Goodwill execs. The nonprofit, which uses its thrift stores and sales to provide jobs and training for people who face barriers to employment, opened a northwest donation center on Farm Road in 2009. It was inundated with clothes, housewares, electronics and books from the newer, relatively upscale neighborhoods in the area, Matlock said. And where there are consumers looking to offload stuff they no longer want, there are at least as many others to snap it all up.

But the 12,000-square-foot store, with its 5,000-square-foot drive-through donation center, isn't just a new shopping spot for Centennial Hills. It's also an important employer for the area: About 80 percent of the store's 40 employees are from the surrounding area.

Shift supervisor Bobbie Whedbee is one of those staffers. Whedbee, of northwest Las Vegas, had been out of work for about six months when Goodwill hired her in 2014 at its 7420 S. Rainblow Blvd. store. She transferred to the location at 1390 American Pacific Drive, and wrestled until Friday with a 45-minute commute one way.

"Besides convenience for me, I have a lot of friends who I know will shop here," Whedbee said. "I'm very proud to help open it. It was our baby. When we came in, there was nothing on the shelves. Now everyone is ecstatic at how it looks. We can say, 'We did that.'"

But Whedbee and her colleagues will serve customers from well beyond Centennial Hills.

Renee Jones drove up from Sunset Station in Henderson — after arriving in town for the weekend from Palmdale, Calif.

Jones, who described thrift-store shopping as a personal hobby, said she visits Las Vegas every couple of months and hits up the Goodwill store at Stephanie Street and American Pacific Drive each time she's here. Now, she'll add the Centennial Hills location to her permanent shopping rotation, she said.

"It's nice and it's big. They have a good selection," Jones said as she waited to check out with a $6 dress. "You never know what you're going to find."

The store is Goodwill's 15th local location. The nonprofit has opened at least half a dozen stores in Southern Nevada since 2012, including stores in Pahrump and Summerlin. It's also remodeling what will be its largest area store yet — a 28,000-square-foot space at the Boulevard Mall. The store wil have about 50 employees when it opens later this year.

Goodwill's mission is to help locals find employment regardless of circumstance or disability. It helped 2,361 locals get jobs in 2014, and assisted more than 12,000 with training and job-hunting services.

Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Find @_JRobison on Twitter.