A new Goodwill store in Belle Vernon will celebrate its grand opening on Wednesday, September 28, 2022. The new store is located on 460 Tri-County Lane, just minutes from its previous location on 140 Findley Road. Goodwill representatives and community leaders will take part in a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The grand opening will be Halloween themed! Staff will be dressed up in costume to help inspire costume ideas for shoppers and a DJ will be playing “spooky” music. There will also be refreshments, freebies, raffles and the first 100 shoppers in the door will receive a free reusable bag.
“Belle Vernon has long been an excellent Goodwill store location,” said Andrew Marano, Vice President Donated Goods Retail with Goodwill. “This is why we are so excited to move to this new spot. We know Belle Vernon shoppers will enjoy this new location even more!”
The new Belle Vernon location follows the new prototype for Goodwill stores opening in the Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania service territory within the last decade. The store space was designed specifically for Goodwill’s unique operations. Production and donation areas are arranged for maximum efficiency and wide-open shopping spaces. The entire store is 19,000 square feet, including 8,500 square feet of sales floor. The store will employ 20 people.
Belle Vernon will also be one of the first Goodwill stores in the Southwestern PA region to go “bagless.” To help reduce plastic waste, this Goodwill store will not offer plastic bags at checkout. Shoppers are encouraged to bring their own reusable bags or grab a free box to use. Goodwill will offer reusable fabric bags for sale for just $1.00. Goodwill plans to go plastic bagless in all of their area stores by early 2023. This should reduce the waste of over 33,000 plastic bags in just one year.
Donations to Goodwill are sold in local Goodwill stores to provide funding for Goodwill’s job training and education programs. Donating to Goodwill is also good for the environment and donations to Goodwill help keep millions pounds of material out of landfills every year.
Goodwill’s former Belle Vernon location will remain open through September 27. Shoppers are welcome to take advantage of tremendous values, including significant discounts on donated items that will increase until the former store closes. In preparation for the move, donations are now being accepted only at the new Belle Vernon location.
For an entire listing of all 34 Goodwill SWPA stores, visit https://www.goodwillswpa.org/goodwill-stores.